Packager

The appman-packager is a command-line utility that can be used by the developer to manage installation packages. This utility can also be used as a signing and verification tool on an app-store backend server. This tool is meant for use on the developer's desktop machine or packaging server, but not on the target device.

Currently, the application manager supports unsigned packages, packages that are signed by the developer only (development mode), and packages that are signed by a trusted app-store. The appman-packager can create all these variations with the following commands:

Please also see the Package Installation documentation for more in-depth information about package installations.

CommandArgumentsDescription
create-package<package>

<source directory>

Creates a new package named package from the application in source directory. The directory needs to at least contain an info.yaml as well as an icon.png file. The tool will do a sanity-check on the info.yaml file before actually creating the package. All normal files and directories in the source directory will be copied into package. The only meta-data that is copied from the filesystem is the filename, and the user's eXecutable-bit. The following options are supported:

--verbose: Dump the package's meta-data header and footer information to stdout.

--json: Output in JSON format instead of YAML.

--extra-metadata or -m: Add the given YAML snippet on the command line to the packages's extra meta-data (see also PackageManager::taskRequestingInstallationAcknowledge).

--extra-metadata-file or -M: Add the given YAML file to the packages's extra meta-data (see also PackageManager::taskRequestingInstallationAcknowledge)

--extra-signed-metadata or -s: Add the given YAML snippet on the command line to the packages's extraSigned meta-data (see also PackageManager::taskRequestingInstallationAcknowledge)

--extra-signed-metadata-file or -S: Add the given YAML file to the packages's extra meta-data (see also PackageManager::taskRequestingInstallationAcknowledge)

All of the extra-meta-data options are merged together, so all options can be used together and each option can also be given multiple times. The signed fields are added to the package's digest, so that they cannot be changed once the package has been signed. The normal fields can however be changed even after package signing: an example would be an appstore-server adding custom tags.

dev-sign-package<package>

<signed-package>

<certificate>

<password>

Takes the input package, adds a developer signature and writes the output to signed-package. You need to supply a certificate in P12 format together with a password matching the certificate. The following options are supported:

--verbose: Dump the package's meta-data header and footer information to stdout.

--json: Output in JSON format instead of YAML.

dev-verify-package<package>

<ca-certificates...>

Reads the input package and tries to verify the developer signature using the given ca-certificates. The following options are supported:

--verbose: Print details regarding the verification to stdout.

store-sign-package<package>

<signed-package>

<certificate>

<password>

<device-id>

Takes the input package, adds a store signature and writes the output to signed-package. You need to supply a certificate in P12 format together with a password matching the certificate. If you don't leave the device-id empty, the resulting package can only be installed on this specific device. The following options are supported:

--verbose: Dump the package's meta-data header and footer information to stdout.

--json: Output in JSON format instead of YAML.

store-verify-package<package>

<ca-certificates...>

<device-id>

Reads the input package and tries to verify the store signature using the given ca-certificates. The following options are supported:

--json: Output in JSON format instead of YAML.

The appman-packager naturally supports the standard Unix --help command-line option.

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