App Manager 📦

A comprehensive CLI tool for managing desktop shortcuts and application installations with icon support, version updates, and an interactive UI.

Features

✨ Create Desktop Shortcuts - Quickly create .desktop shortcut files for any executable or file

📦 Install Applications - Install executables as full applications with:

• Icon support
• Application menu integration
• Version tracking
• Automatic configuration

🔄 Update Applications - Seamlessly update installed applications with:

• Executable replacement
• Automatic backups
• Version management

📋 Manage Applications - List, view details, and uninstall applications

🎨 Beautiful Terminal UI - Interactive prompts with:

• Colored output
• Spinners and progress indicators
• Validation and error handling
• Smart defaults

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js 16+
• Linux with GNOME Desktop Environment (or compatible)
• desktop-file-validate (optional, for validation)

Install globally from npm

npm install -g app-manager

Or run using npx (without installation)

npx @mohamadtsn/app-manager

Or run locally

npm install
npm start

Usage

Interactive Mode (Recommended)

Simply run the command:

app-manager

Then select from the menu:

1. Create Desktop Shortcut - Create a .desktop file on your desktop
2. Install as Application - Install an executable as a managed application
3. Update Installed App - Update an already installed application
4. List Installed Apps - View all managed applications
5. Exit

Features in Detail

Create Desktop Shortcut

• Target any executable, script, or file
• Set custom display name
• Optional icon support
• Run in terminal option
• Pass arguments
• Select desktop category
• Automatic validation

Install Application

• Install executables to ~/.local/share/applications/app-manager/
• Supports installing from archive files (.tar.gz, .zip)
• Copy icons to ~/.local/share/icons/app-manager/
• Store configuration in ~/.config/app-manager/apps.json
• Advanced options: terminal mode, default arguments, categories

Update Application

• Select from installed applications
• Replace executable while preserving configuration
• Automatic backup of previous version
• Version tracking

Manage Applications

• List all installed applications with details
• View installation date, version, paths
• Uninstall applications (removes executable, icon, and config)

Configuration

Application configurations are stored in:

~/.config/app-manager/apps.json

Each app record contains:

{
  "name": "My App",
  "executablePath": "/home/user/.local/share/applications/app-manager/My App/executable",
  "iconPath": "/home/user/.local/share/icons/app-manager/My App.png",
  "categories": "Application;",
  "terminal": false,
  "args": "",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "installDir": "/home/user/.local/share/applications/app-manager/My App",
  "createdAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z",
  "updatedAt": "2024-01-01T00:00:00.000Z"
}

Directories

• Applications: ~/.local/share/applications/app-manager/
• Icons: ~/.local/share/icons/app-manager/
• Config: ~/.config/app-manager/

Development

Setup

npm install

Build

npm run build

Watch Mode

npm run watch

Run Development

npm run dev

Project Structure

src/
├── cli.ts              # Main CLI entry point
├── index.ts            # Library exports
├── types/
│   └── index.ts        # TypeScript interfaces
├── commands/
│   ├── shortcut.ts     # Create shortcut functionality
│   ├── install.ts      # Install app functionality
│   ├── update.ts       # Update app functionality
│   └── list.ts         # List/manage apps functionality
└── utils/
    ├── file.ts         # File operations utilities
    └── config.ts       # Configuration management

Technologies

• TypeScript - Type-safe application development
• Chalk - Terminal color output
• Inquirer - Interactive CLI prompts
• Ora - Elegant terminal spinners

License

MIT

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.