1DISTROBOX-EXPORT(1) User Manual DISTROBOX-EXPORT(1)
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6 distrobox-export
7
9 Application and binary exporting
10 distrobox-export takes care of exporting an app or a binary from the
12 container to the host.
13 The exported app will be easily available in your normal launcher and
15 it will automatically be launched from the container it is exported
16 from.
17
19 distrobox-export
20 --app/-a: name of the application to export
22 --bin/-b: absolute path of the binary to export
23 --delete/-d: delete exported application or binary
24 --export-label/-el: label to add to exported application name.
25 Use "none" to disable.
26 Defaults to (on \$container_name)
27 --export-path/-ep: path where to export the binary
28 --extra-flags/-ef: extra flags to add to the command
29 --sudo/-S: specify if the exported item should be run as sudo
30 --help/-h: show this message
31 --verbose/-v: show more verbosity
32 --version/-V: show version
33 You may want to install graphical applications or CLI tools in your
35 distrobox. Using distrobox-export from inside the container will let
36 you use them from the host itself.
37
39 distrobox-export --app mpv [--extra-flags "flags"] [--delete] [--sudo]
40 distrobox-export --bin /path/to/bin [--export-path ~/.local/bin] [--extra-flags "flags"] [--delete] [--sudo]
41 App export example
43 distrobox-export --app abiword
45 This tool will simply copy the original .desktop files along with need‐
47 ed icons, add the prefix /usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter -n dis‐
48 trobox_name -e ... to the commands to run, and save them in your home
49 to be used directly from the host as a normal app.
50 Binary export example
52 distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/code --extra-flags "--foreground" --export-path $HOME/.local/bin
54 In the case of exporting binaries, you will have to specify where to
56 export it (--export-path) and the tool will create a little wrapper
57 script that will distrobox-enter -e from the host, the desired binary.
58 This can be handy with the use of direnv to have different versions of
59 the same binary based on your env or project.
60 The exported binaries will be exported in the “–export-path” of choice
62 as a wrapper script that acts naturally both on the host and in the
63 container.
64 Additional flags
66 You can specify additional flags to add to the command, for example if
68 you want to export an electron app, you could add the “–foreground”
69 flag to the command:
70 distrobox-export --app atom --extra-flags "--foreground"
72 distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/vim --export-path ~/.local/bin --extra-flags "-p"
73 This works for binaries and apps. Extra flags are only used then the
75 exported app or binary is used from the host, using them inside the
76 container will not include them.
77 Unexport
79 The option “–delete” will un-export an app or binary
81 distrobox-export --app atom --delete
83 distrobox-export --bin /usr/bin/vim --export-path ~/.local/bin --delete
84 Run as root in the container
86 The option “–sudo” will launch the exported item as root inside the
88 distrobox.
89 Exporting apps from rootful containers
91 It is worth noting that, when exporting any item - which includes
93 graphical apps - from rootful containers (created with distrobox create
94 --root), root privileges will be needed every time the item is launched
95 (in order to enter the rootful container), which, by default, is done
96 using sudo (see docs for distrobox-enter on how to customize that).
97 However, for graphical apps in specific, since they launch without a
98 terminal, the usage of sudo might, at first, make it impossible to
99 launch them.
100 To fix this without needing to customize the sudo program, one can de‐
102 fine a global SUDO_ASKPASS environment variable on their machine, which
103 is a PATH to an executable that is run by sudo when no terminal is
104 available (or when it is given the --askpass or -A option), and the
105 output of that executable to stdout is used as the password input. The
106 executable is called as many times is needed for authentication as root
107 to succeed (unless a limit of amount of attempts is reached).
108 To do this, pick a program to ask the user for graphical password in‐
110 put. In this example, we will use zenity --password, which should be
111 present for GNOME users (and can also be installed in other DEs) -
112 there are other options, such as kdialog --password "Message" for KDE
113 users.
114 Write the call to the desired program to a script file, for example to
116 /usr/bin/my-password-prompt (sample contents below):
117 #!/bin/sh
119 zenity --password "Authentication as root is required"
120 (You may save the script under, for example, ~/.local/bin if you want
122 to keep it fully local to your user.)
123 Afterwards, make it executable (e.g. run sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/my-
125 password-prompt). Then, make sure to set SUDO_ASKPASS to "/usr/bin/my-
126 password-prompt" (replace with your script’s path) in a global profile
127 file, so that it is picked up by sudo when running graphical apps (and,
128 therefore, sudo will run the script you created to ask for a password).
129 This is done with the shell line export SU‐
130 DO_ASKPASS="/path/to/script/goes/here". You can do this for your user
131 only by running the command below (replace the script path as needed):
132 echo 'export SUDO_ASKPASS="/usr/bin/my-password-prompt"' >> ~/.profile
134 Which appends the appropriate line to the end of your ~/.profile file,
136 thus making the change local to your user. Alternatively, to set it
137 system-wide (for all users), you may create a file in /etc/profile.d/
138 (or equivalent for your system) with that line.
139 Now just log out and log back in, and graphical apps exported from
141 rootful containers should now be properly asking for root’s password
142 before launching (instead of not opening, if that was the case before).
143 Notes
145 Note you can use –app OR –bin but not together.
147 [IMAGE: app-export (https://user-images.githubusercon‐
149 tent.com/598882/144294795-c7785620-bf68-4d1b-b251-1e1f0a32a08d.png)]
150 NOTE: some electron apps such as vscode and atom need additional flags
152 to work from inside the container, use the --extra-flags option to pro‐
153 vide a series of flags, for example:
154 distrobox-export --app atom --extra-flags "--foreground"
156Distrobox Nov 2023 DISTROBOX-EXPORT(1)