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Creating an AppImage from a Binary Executable

Make a Portable Desktop Application without the need for Installation

To create a binary which can be run on many Linux machines, an AppImage can be generated. An AppImage wraps around the files needed to run the application and when executed, doesn't require modifications to your operating system as it is self-contained.

Download the appimage tool executable file from here.

Make the app image tool executable

chmod +x /path/to/the/appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage

Create an AppDir folder and place all your application files into this folder. In my case, I have to rename my main.bin file to AppRun. See AppDir Specifications.

Create a .desktop file inside the AppDir folder with the following minimum keys. For the filename key, leaving out the image extension is allowed.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=<your_app_name>
Type=Application
Icon=<name of your imagefile>

Run the following to tell the appimage tool to create an appimage executable. The source_folder is AppDir in my case, but this is folder where you have placed your executable application and .desktop file.

appimagetool-x86_64.AppImage <source_folder>