appman
AppImage and portable application manager for local installations
TLDR
Search and install a package by name
SYNOPSIS
appman [option] [packagename_]
DESCRIPTION
appman is a rootless, portable package manager for AppImages and other portable Linux applications. It is a redistribution of the AM Application Manager that does not require root privileges, installing and managing all applications locally within the user's home directory.
AppMan downloads installation scripts from the AM database and converts them for local use. Applications are stored in a user-chosen directory (e.g. ~/Applications), with executable links placed in ~/.local/bin/ and desktop entries in ~/.local/share/applications/. The database lists over 2500 AppImages and portable programs.
AppMan supports the same commands as AM — simply replace am with appman. It handles installation, updates, removal, sandboxing, rollback, and desktop integration without ever requiring sudo access.
PARAMETERS
-i, install package
Install one or more applications locally in the user home directory-ia, install-appimage package
Install AppImage packages specifically-r, remove package
Remove one or more installed applications-u, update
Update all installed applications and AppMan itself. Use --apps to update only programs-l, list
List all available applications in the database-q, query keyword
Search available applications by keyword-f, files
Show all locally installed applications-a, about package
View the description and source information for an application-d, download package
Download and read the installation script without installing-b, backup package
Create a snapshot of an installed application for rollback-o, overwrite package
Overwrite an existing installation with a fresh copy-e, extra url
Install applications from external GitHub repositories-c, clean
Remove temporary and cached files-s, sync
Update AppMan modules and core script--rollback package
Revert an application to a previous version--sandbox package
Enable Bubblewrap sandboxing for an AppImage via Aisap--disable-sandbox package
Remove sandbox isolation from an AppImage--launcher package
Integrate an application with desktop menus and launchers--relocate
Change the local installation directory for apps-h, help
Show all available options-v, version
Print version information
CAVEATS
AppMan relies on installation scripts from a community-maintained database. These scripts download binaries from third-party sources and are not audited by a central authority — always review scripts with -d before installing. Sandboxing via Aisap requires Bubblewrap to be available on the system. Some applications may not update correctly if upstream changes their release format or download URLs.
HISTORY
AppMan was created by ivan-hc as a companion to the AM Application Manager, first appearing on GitHub around 2022. AM itself was inspired by the AUR model for Arch Linux, aiming to bring a similar community-driven package management experience to AppImages and portable apps across all GNU/Linux distributions. AppMan was introduced to provide the same functionality without requiring root privileges, making it suitable for restricted environments and multi-user systems.