AppStream
- 1 About AppStream
- 2 Upstream Metadata
- 3 Catalog Metadata
- 4 Miscellaneous
- 5 Metadata Quickstart
- 6 Data Validation
- 7 Manual pages
-
appstreamcli
2012-2024Matthias Klumpp
AppStream
26 July,2012
appstreamcli1appstreamcliHandle AppStream metadata formats and query AppStream dataappstreamcliCOMMANDDescription
This manual page documents briefly the appstreamcli command.
appstreamcli is a small helper tool to work with AppStream metadata and
access the AppStream component index from the command-line. The AppStream component
index contains a list of all available software components for your distribution, matched to their
package names.
It is generated using AppStream XML or Debian DEP-11 data, which is provided by your distributor.
For more information about the AppStream project and the other components which are part of it, take a look at
the AppStream pages at Freedesktop.org.
Optionsget IDGet a component from the metadata pool by its identifier.ssearch TERMSearch the AppStream component pool for a given search term.what-provides TYPE TERM
Return components which provide a given item. An item type can be specified using the
TYPE parameter, a value to search for has to be
supplied using the TERM parameter.
Examples:
Get components which handle the "text/xml" mediatype.
appstreamcli what-provides mediatype "text/xml"
Get component which provides the "libfoo.so.2" library.
appstreamcli what-provides lib libfoo.so.2
refreshrefresh-cache
Trigger a database refresh, if necessary.
In case you want to force the database to be rebuilt, supply the --force flag.
This command must be executed with root permission.status
Display various information about the installed metadata and
the metadata cache.
os-info
Show information about the current operating system from the metadata
index.
This requires the operating system to provide a operating-system
component for itself.
dump ID
Dump the complete XML descriptions of components with the given ID that were found in the
metadata pool.
validate FILES
Validate AppStream XML metadata for compliance with the specification.
Both XML metadata types, upstream and distro XML, are handled.
The format type which should be validated is determined automatically.
The --pedantic flag triggers a more pedantic
validation of the file, including minor and style issues in the report.
validate-tree DIRECTORY
Validate AppStream XML metadata found in a file-tree.
This performs a standard validation of all found metadata, but also checks for additional
errors, like the presence of .desktop files and validity of other additional metadata.
check-license LICENSE
Test a license string or license expression for validity and display details about it.
This will check whether the license string is considered to be valid for AppStream, and return
a non-zero exit code if it is not. The command will also display useful information like the
canonical ID of a license, whether it is suitable as license for AppStream metadata,
and whether the license is considered to be for Free and Open Source software or proprietary software.
AppStream will consider any license as Free and Open Source that is marked as suitable by either the
Free Software Foundation (FSF), Open Source Initiative (OSI) or explicit license list
of the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG).
install ID
Install a software component by its ID using the package manager or Flatpak.
This resolves the AppStream component ID to an installation candidate and then
calls either the native package manager or Flatpak (if available) to install
the component.
remove ID
Uninstall a software component by its ID using the package manager or Flatpak.
This will uninstall software matching the selected ID using either the native
package manager or Flatpak (if available).
put FILE
Install a metadata file into the right directory on the current machine.
compare-versionsvercmp VER1 [CMP] VER2
Compare two version numbers. If two version numbers are given as parameters, the versions will be compared and the
comparison result will be printed to stdout.
If a version number, a comparison operator and another version number are passed in as parameter, the result of the comparison
operation will be printed to stdout, and appstreamcli will exit with a non-zero exit status in case the comparison
failed.
The comparison operator can be one of the following:
eq - Equal tone - Not equal tolt - Less thangt - Greater thanle - Less than or equal toge - Greater than or equal tonew-template TYPE FILE
Create a metainfo file template to be used by software projects. The --from-desktop option can be used
to use a .desktop file as template for generating the example file.
The generated files contain example entries which need to be filed in with the actual desired values by the project author.
The first TYPE parameter is the name of an AppStream component type. For a complete list check out
the documentation or the help output
of appstreamcli for this subcommand.
make-desktop-file MI_FILE DESKTOP_FILE
Create a XDG desktop-entry file from a metainfo file.
If the desktop-entry file specified in DESKTOP_FILE already exists, it will get extended with
the new information extracted from the metainfo file. Otherwise a new file will be created.
This command will use the first binary mentioned in a provides tag of the component
for the Exec= field of the new desktop-entry file.
If this is not the desired behavior, the --exec flag can be used
to explicitly define a binary to launch. Other methods of launching the application are currently not supported.
In order to generate a proper desktop-entry, this command assumes that not only the minimally required tags for an
AppStream component are set, but also that it has an <icon/> tag of type "stock" to describe
the stock icon that should be used as well as a <categories/> tag containing the categories the application should
be placed in.
news-to-metainfo NEWS_FILE MI_FILE [OUT_FILE]
This command converts a NEWS file as used by many open source projects into the XML used by AppStream. Since NEWS files are free text,
a lot of heuristics will be applied to get reasonable results. The converter can also read a YAML version of the AppStream release
description and convert it to XML as well.
If the metainfo file MI_FILE already exists, it will be augmented with the new release entries, otherwise the release entries
will be written without any wrapping component.
If [OUT_FILE] is specified, instead of acting on MI_FILE the changed data will
be written to the particular file. If any of the output filenames is set to "-", the output will instead be written to stdout.
The --format option can be used to enforce reading the input file in a specific format ("text" or "yaml") in case the format autodetection fails.
The --limit option is used to limit the amount of release entries written (the newest entries will always be first).
metainfo-to-news MI_FILE NEWS_FILE
This command reverses the news-to-metainfo command and writes a NEWS file as text or YAML using the XML
contained in a metainfo file. If NEWS_FILE is set to "-", the resulting data
will be written to stdout instead of to a file.
The --format option can be used to explicitly specify the output format ("yaml" or "text"). If it is not set,
appstreamcli will guess which format is most suitable.
convert FILE1 FILE1
Converts AppStream XML metadata into its YAML representation and vice versa.
compose
Composes an AppStream metadata catalog from a directory tree with metainfo files.
This command is only available if the org.freedesktop.appstream.compose
component is installed.
See appstreamcli-compose1
for more information.
--detailsPrint out more information about a found component.--no-colorDon't print colored output.--no-netDo not access the network when validating metadata.
The same effect can be achieved by setting the AS_VALIDATE_NONET environment variable
before running appstreamcli.
--versionDisplay the version number of appstreamcliSee Alsopkcon1.AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Matthias Klumpp matthias@tenstral.net.
appstreamcli compose
2020-2024Matthias Klumpp
AppStream
28 Aug,2020
appstreamcli compose1appstreamcli-composeCompose AppStream metadata catalog from directory treesappstreamcli composeCOMMANDDescription
This manual page documents briefly the appstreamcli compose command.
The appstreamcli compose tool is used to construct AppStream metadata catalogs from directory trees.
The tool will also perform many related metadata generation actions, like resizing icons and
screenshots and merging in data from referenced desktop-entry files as well as translation status
information.
Therefore, the tool provides a fast way to test how the final processed metadata for an application
that is shipped to users may look like.
It also provides a way to easily generate AppStream data for projects which do not need a more complex data
generator like appstream-generator.
In order for the appstreamcli compose command to be available, you may need to install the
optional compose module for appstreamcli first.
For more information about the AppStream project and the other components which are part of it, take a look at
the AppStream pages at Freedesktop.org.
OptionsSOURCE-DIRECTORIES
A list of directories to process needs to be provided as positional parameters.
Data from all directories will be combined into one output namespace.
--origin NAME
Set the AppStream data origin identifier. This can be a value like
"debian-unstable-main" or "flathub".
--result-root DIR
Sets the directory where all generated output that is deployed to a user's
machine is exported to. If this parameter is not set and we only have one
directory to process, we use that directory as default output path.
If both --data-dir and --icons-dir are
set, --result-root is not necessary and no data will be
written to that directory.
--data-dir DIR
Override the directory where the generated AppStream metadata catalog
will be written to. Data will be written directly to this directory, and
no supdirectories will be created (unlike when using --result-root
to set an output location).
--icons-dir DIR
Override the directory where the cached icons are exported to.
--hints-dir DIR
Set a directory where hints reported generated during metadata processing
are saved to. If this parameter is not set, no HTML/YAML hint reports
will be saved.
--media-dir DIR
If set, creates a directory with media content (icons, screenshots, ...) that
can be served via a webserver. The metadata will be extended to include information
about these remote media.
--media-baseurl URL
The URL under which the contents of a directory set via --media-dir
will be served. This value must be set if a media directory is created.
--prefix DIR
Set the default prefix that is used in the processed directories. If
none is set explicitly, /usr is assumed.
--print-report MODE
Print the issue hints report (that gets exported as HTML and YAML
document when --hints-dir was set) to the console
in text form.
Various print modes are supported: on-error only prints a
short report if the run failed (default), short generates
an abridged report that is always printed and full results
in a detailed report to be printed.
--no-partial-urls
If set, all URLs in the generated data will be absolute and media_baseurl will not be used.
This makes changing the media mirror harder without regenerating all data and is generally not recommended,
to increase flexibility.
--icon-policy POLICY-STRING
Override the existing icon policy with a custom one. The icon policy sets how icons of
different sizes should be dealt with. They can be in the icon cache only, be a remote icon in
the media location or be both cached and available in the remote location.
The icon-policy string is comprised of comma-separated %{size}x%{size}@%{scale}=%{state} statements.
The size and scale are that of the respective icon, with the scale being allowed to be
omitted if it is 1. The state can be one of remote, cached or
cached-remote.
By default, a policy of 48x48=cached,48x48@2=cached,64x64=cached,64x64@2=cached,128x128=cached-remote,128x128@2=cached-remote
is selected.
--allow-custom CUSTOM-KEY-NAMES
By default, all custom entries set in MetaInfo input data are removed.
This flag allows one to whitelist custom keys to be propagated to the final catalog output data.
The custom-key names should be provided as a comma-separated list.
--components COMPONENT-IDs
Set a comma-separated list of AppStream component IDs that should be
considered for the generated metadata. All components that exist in
the input data but are not mentioned in this list will be ignored
for the generated output.
--no-colorDon't print colored output.--verboseDisplay extra debugging information--versionDisplay the version number of appstreamcli composeSee Also
appstreamcli1,
appstream-generator1.
AUTHOR
This manual page was written by Matthias Klumpp matthias@tenstral.net.
- 8 AppStream API Reference
- Index
6 Data Validation #
These pages contain various information on AppStream metadata validation.
6.1 Validator Issues #
6.1.1 Introduction #
The AppStream utility appstreamcli validate can validate all kinds of AppSteeam XML metadata.
It will emit a variety of hints with different priority:
Error hints render the data unusable or severely limit its usefulness and make it fail validation. Warnings warn about likely unintended behavior, typing errors or issues which might cause data to not be displayed or improperly read. They fail validation, but may be ignored in some circumstances. Info hints are optional recommendations to make the data better, while pedantic hints are nice-to-have. The latter are not displayed by default unless the tool is in pedantic mode.
This document contains a list of all issues checked for by appstreamcli validate.
6.1.2 Validator Issue Tags #
This is a list of all possible validation issues that appstreamcli can detect.
- type-property-required #
Severity: error
This tag requires a type property.
- invalid-child-tag-name #
Severity: info
Tags of this name are not permitted in this section.
- metainfo-localized-description-tag #
Severity: error
A <description/> tag must not be localized in metainfo files (upstream metadata). Localize the individual paragraphs instead.
- catalog-localized-description-section #
Severity: error
This element (paragraph, list, etc.) of a <description/> tag must not be localized individually in catalog metadata. Localize the whole <description/> tag instead. The AppStream metadata catalog generator (e.g. `appstream-generator`) will already do the right thing when compiling the data.
- description-markup-invalid #
Severity: error
AppStream descriptions support only a limited set of tags to format text: Paragraphs (<p/>) and lists (<ul/>, <ol/>). This description markup contains an invalid XML tag that would not be rendered correctly in applications supporting the metainfo specification.
- description-para-markup-invalid #
Severity: error
This description paragraph contains invalid markup. Currently, only <em/> and <code/> are permitted.
- description-enum-item-invalid #
Severity: error
Enumerations must only have list items (<li/>) as children.
- description-enum-group-translated #
Severity: error
The enumeration must not be translated as a whole. In MetaInfo files, translate individual items (<li/> elements) instead.
- description-first-para-too-short #
Severity: info
The first `description/p` paragraph of this component might be too short (< 80 characters). Please consider starting with a longer paragraph to improve how the description looks like in software centers and to provide more detailed information on this component immediately in the first paragraph.
- description-first-word-not-capitalized #
Severity: info
The description line does not start with a capitalized word, project name or number.
- description-has-plaintext-url #
Severity: warning
The description contains a web URL in plain text. This is not allowed, please use the <url/> tag instead to share links.
- tag-not-translatable #
Severity: error
This tag is not translatable.
- tag-duplicated #
Severity: error
This tag must only appear once in this context. Having multiple tags of this kind is not valid.
- tag-empty #
Severity: warning
The mentioned tag is empty, which is highly likely not intended as it should have content.
- tag-invalid-text-content #
Severity: error
The mentioned tag has text content, even though it must not contain text.
- cid-is-not-rdns #
Severity: error
The component ID is required to follow a reverse domain-name scheme for its name. See the AppStream specification for details.
- cid-desktopapp-is-not-rdns #
Severity: warning
The component ID is not a reverse domain-name. Please update the ID to avoid future issues and be compatible with all AppStream implementations. You may also consider to update the name of the accompanying .desktop file to follow the latest version of the Desktop-Entry specification and use a rDNS name for it as well. In any case, do not forget to mention the new desktop-entry in a <launchable/> tag for this component to keep the application launchable from software centers and the .desktop file data associated with the metainfo data.
- cid-maybe-not-rdns #
Severity: info
The component ID might not follow the reverse domain-name schema (the TLD used by it is not known to the validator).
- cid-invalid-character #
Severity: error
The component ID contains an invalid character. Only ASCII characters, dots and numbers are permitted.
- cid-punctuation-prefix #
Severity: error
The component ID starts with punctuation. This is not allowed.
- cid-rdns-contains-hyphen #
Severity: warning
The component ID contains a hyphen/minus in its domain part. Using a hyphen is strongly discouraged to improve interoperability with other tools such as D-Bus. A good option is to replace any hyphens with underscores (`_`). Hyphens are only allowed in the last segment of a component ID.
- cid-has-number-prefix #
Severity: info
The component ID contains a segment starting with a number. Starting a segment of the reverse-DNS ID with a number is strongly discouraged, to keep interoperability with other tools such as D-Bus. Ideally, prefix these segments with an underscore.
- cid-contains-uppercase-letter #
Severity: pedantic
The component ID should only contain lowercase characters.
- cid-domain-not-lowercase #
Severity: error
The domain part of the rDNS component ID (first two parts) must only contain lowercase characters.
- cid-missing-affiliation-freedesktop #
Severity: warning
The component is part of the Freedesktop project, but its ID does not start with fd.o's reverse-DNS name ("org.freedesktop").
- cid-missing-affiliation-kde #
Severity: warning
The component is part of the KDE project, but its ID does not start with KDE's reverse-DNS name ("org.kde").
- cid-missing-affiliation-gnome #
Severity: info
The component is part of the GNOME project, but its ID does not start with GNOME's reverse-DNS name ("org.gnome").
- spdx-expression-invalid #
Severity: error
The SPDX license expression is invalid and could not be parsed.
- spdx-license-unknown #
Severity: warning
The license ID was not found in the SPDX database. Please check that the license ID is written in an SPDX-conformant way and is a valid free software license.
- metadata-license-too-complex #
Severity: error
The metadata itself seems to be licensed under a complex collection of licenses. Please license the data under a simple permissive license, like FSFAP, MIT or CC0-1.0 to allow distributors to include it in mixed data collections without the risk of license violations due to mutually incompatible licenses.
- metadata-license-invalid #
Severity: error
The metadata itself does not seem to be licensed under a permissive license. Please license the data under a permissive license, like FSFAP, CC0-1.0 or 0BSD to allow distributors to include it in mixed data collections without the risk of license violations due to mutually incompatible licenses.
- update-contact-no-mail #
Severity: warning
The update-contact does not appear to be a valid email address (escaping of `@` is only allowed as `_at_` or `_AT_`).
- screenshot-invalid-env-style #
Severity: warning
The `environment` property is set to an unrecognized graphical environment/style combination.
- screenshot-invalid-width #
Severity: warning
The `width` property must be a positive integer.
- screenshot-invalid-height #
Severity: warning
The `height` property must be a positive integer.
- screenshot-invalid-scale #
Severity: warning
The `scale` property must be a positive integer.
- screenshot-image-invalid-type #
Severity: error
The image type must be either `source` or `thumbnail`.
- screenshot-image-missing-width #
Severity: warning
The `width` property must be present if the image type is `thumbnail`.
- screenshot-image-missing-height #
Severity: warning
The `height` property must be present if the image type is `thumbnail`.
- screenshot-image-source-duplicated #
Severity: error
There can only be one `source` image per screenshot and language.
- screenshot-image-no-source #
Severity: error
A screenshot must have at least one untranslated image of type `source`.
- screenshot-image-no-source-but-en-locale #
Severity: error
A screenshot must have at least one untranslated image of type `source`, which could not be found. Instead, a tag with an `en` locale (`xml:lang=en`) was found, which is likely intended to be the translatable image. Please remove the XML localization attribute in this case.
- screenshot-image-not-found #
Severity: warning
Unable to reach the screenshot image on its remote location - does the image exist?
- screenshot-video-not-found #
Severity: warning
Unable to reach the screenshot video on its remote location - does the video file exist?
- screenshot-media-url-not-secure #
Severity: info
Consider using a secure (HTTPS) URL to reference this screenshot image or video.
- screenshot-no-unscaled-image #
Severity: warning
A screenshot must have at least one image that has a scaling factor of 1.
- screenshot-no-media #
Severity: error
A screenshot must contain at least one image or video in order to be useful. Please add an <image/> to it.
- screenshot-mixed-images-videos #
Severity: error
A screenshot must contain either images or videos, but not both at the same time. Please use this screenshot exclusively for either static images or for videos.
- screenshot-no-caption #
Severity: pedantic
The screenshot does not have a caption text. Consider adding one.
- screenshot-video-codec-missing #
Severity: info
The screenshot video does not specify which video codec was used in a `codec` property.
- screenshot-video-container-missing #
Severity: pedantic
The screenshot video does not specify which container format was used in a `container` property.
- screenshot-video-codec-invalid #
Severity: warning
The selected video codec is not supported by AppStream and software centers may not be able to play the video. Only the AV1 and VP9 codecs are currently supported, using `av1` and `vp9` as values for the `codec` property.
- screenshot-video-container-invalid #
Severity: warning
The selected video container format is not supported by AppStream and software centers may not be able to play the video. Only the WebM and Matroska video containers are currently supported, using `webm` and `mkv` as values for the `container` property.
- screenshot-video-file-wrong-container #
Severity: warning
For videos, only the WebM and Matroska (.mkv) container formats are currently supported. The file extension of the referenced video does not belong to either of these formats.
- screenshot-default-contains-video #
Severity: error
The default screenshot of a software component must not be a video. Use a static image as default screenshot and set the video as a secondary screenshot.
- screenshot-default-missing #
Severity: warning
No screenshot is marked as default.
- relation-invalid-tag #
Severity: warning
Found an unknown tag in a requires/recommends group. This is likely an error, because a component relation of this type is unknown.
- relation-item-no-value #
Severity: error
A `requires` or `recommends` item requires a value to denote a valid relation.
- relation-item-has-version #
Severity: warning
Found `version` property on required/recommended item of a type that should not have or require a version.
- relation-item-missing-compare #
Severity: info
Found `version` property on this required/recommended item, but not `compare` property. It is recommended to explicitly define a comparison operation.
- relation-item-invalid-vercmp #
Severity: error
Invalid comparison operation on relation item. Only one of `eq/ne/lt/gt/le/ge` is permitted.
- relation-item-has-vercmp #
Severity: info
The relation item has a comparison operation set, but does not support any comparisons.
- relation-item-redefined #
Severity: warning
This relation item has already been defined once for this or a different relation type. Please do not redefine relations.
- relation-memory-in-requires #
Severity: info
Found a memory size relation in a `requires` tag. This means users will not be able to even install the component without having enough RAM. This is usually not intended and you want to use `memory` in the `recommends` tag instead.
- relation-control-in-requires #
Severity: info
Found a user input control relation in a `requires` tag. This means users will not be able to even install the component without having the defined input control available on the system. This is usually not intended and you want to use `control` in the `recommends` tag instead.
- relation-control-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
This `control` item defines an unknown input method and is invalid. Check the specification for a list of permitted values.
- relation-display-length-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
This `display_length` item contains an invalid display length. Its value must be a positive integer value denoting logical pixels. Please refer to the AppStream specification for more information on this tag.
- relation-display-length-side-property-invalid #
Severity: warning
This `side` property of this `display_length` item contains an invalid value. It must either be `shortest` or `longest`, or unset to imply `shortest` to make the item value refer to either the shortest or longest side of the display.
- relation-hardware-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
This `hardware` item contains an invalid value. It should be a Computer Hardware ID (CHID) UUID without braces.
- relation-memory-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
A `memory` item must only contain a non-zero integer value, depicting a system memory size in mebibyte (MiB)
- relation-internet-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
The set tag value is not valid for an `internet` relation.
- relation-internet-bandwidth-offline #
Severity: warning
The `bandwidth_mbitps` property is not allowed when using `offline-only` as value.
- relation-internet-bandwidth-value-invalid #
Severity: warning
The value of this property must be a positive integer value, describing the minimum required bandwidth in mbit/s.
- component-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The set component type is not a recognized, valid AppStream component type.
- component-priority-in-metainfo #
Severity: warning
The component has a priority value set. This is not allowed in metainfo files.
- component-merge-in-metainfo #
Severity: warning
The component has a `merge` method defined. This is not allowed in metainfo files.
- component-id-missing #
Severity: error
The component is missing an ID (<id/> tag).
- component-name-missing #
Severity: error
The component is missing a name (<name/> tag).
- component-name-too-long #
Severity: warning
The name of this component is excessively long and can likely not be displayed properly in most layouts.
- component-summary-missing #
Severity: error
The component is missing a summary (<summary/> tag).
- id-tag-has-type #
Severity: info
The <id/> tag still contains a `type` property, probably from an old conversion to the recent metainfo format.
- multiple-pkgname #
Severity: pedantic
The `pkgname` tag appears multiple times. You should evaluate creating a metapackage containing the metainfo and .desktop files in order to avoid defining multiple package names per component.
- name-has-dot-suffix #
Severity: pedantic
The component name should (likely) not end with a dot (`.`).
- summary-has-dot-suffix #
Severity: info
The component summary should not end with a dot (`.`).
- summary-has-tabs-or-linebreaks #
Severity: error
The component summary must not contain tabs or linebreaks.
- summary-has-url #
Severity: error
The summary must not contain any URL. Use the `<url/>` tags for links.
- summary-first-word-not-capitalized #
Severity: info
The summary text does not start with a capitalized word, project name or number.
- summary-too-long #
Severity: warning
The summary text is very long, and will likely not be displayed properly everywhere. It should be <= 90 characters.
- icon-stock-cached-has-url #
Severity: error
Icons of type `stock` or `cached` must not contain an URL, a full or an relative path to the icon. Only file basenames or stock names are allowed.
- icon-remote-no-url #
Severity: error
Icons of type `remote` must contain an URL to the referenced icon.
- icon-remote-not-found #
Severity: warning
Unable to reach remote icon at the given web location - does it exist?
- icon-remote-not-secure #
Severity: info
Consider using a secure (HTTPS) URL for the remote icon link.
- metainfo-invalid-icon-type #
Severity: error
Metainfo files may only contain icons of type `stock` or `remote`, the set type is not allowed.
- url-invalid-type #
Severity: warning
Invalid `type` property for this `url` tag. URLs of this type are not known in the AppStream specification.
- url-not-reachable #
Severity: warning
Unable to reach remote location that this URL references - does it exist?
- url-not-secure #
Severity: info
Consider using a secure (HTTPS) URL for this web link.
- web-url-expected #
Severity: error
A web URL was expected for this value.
- url-uses-ftp #
Severity: warning
This web link uses the FTP protocol. Consider switching to HTTP(S) instead.
- url-redefined #
Severity: warning
An URL of this type has already been defined.
- url-homepage-missing #
Severity: warning
This component is missing an `url` element of type `homepage` to link to the project's homepage.
- developer-name-tag-deprecated #
Severity: info
The toplevel `developer_name` element is deprecated. Please use the `name` element in a `developer` block instead.
- developer-info-missing #
Severity: info
This component contains no `developer` element with information about its author.
- developer-id-missing #
Severity: info
The `developer` element is missing an `id` property, containing a unique string ID for the developer. Consider adding a unique ID.
- developer-id-invalid #
Severity: warning
The developer-ID is invalid. It should be an rDNS string identifying the developer, or a Fediverse handle. It must also only contain lowercase ASCII letters, numbers and punctuation.
- developer-name-missing #
Severity: warning
The `developer` block does not have a `name` element with a human-readable project author name.
- developer-name-has-url #
Severity: warning
The `name` child of a `developer` block must not contain a hyperlink.
- unknown-desktop-id #
Severity: error
The set value is not an identifier for a desktop environment as registered with Freedesktop.org.
- launchable-unknown-type #
Severity: error
This `launchable` tag has an unknown type and can not be used.
- bundle-unknown-type #
Severity: error
This `bundle` tag has an unknown type and can not be used.
- update-contact-in-catalog-data #
Severity: warning
The `update_contact` tag should not be included in catalog AppStream XML.
- nonstandard-gnome-extension #
Severity: info
This tag is a GNOME-specific extension to AppStream and not part of the official specification. Do not expect it to work in all implementations and in all software centers.
- unknown-tag #
Severity: info
Found invalid tag. Non-standard tags should be prefixed with `x-`. AppStream also provides the <custom/> tag to add arbitrary custom data to metainfo files. This tag is read by AppStream libraries and may be useful instead of defining new custom toplevel or `x-`-prefixed tags if you just want to add custom data to a metainfo file.
- metadata-license-missing #
Severity: error
The essential tag `metadata_license` is missing. A license for the metadata itself always has to be defined.
- app-description-required #
Severity: error
The component is missing a long description. Components of this type must have a long description.
- font-description-missing #
Severity: info
It would be useful to add a long description to this font to present it better to users.
- driver-firmware-description-missing #
Severity: info
It is recommended to add a long description to this component to present it better to users.
- generic-description-missing #
Severity: pedantic
This generic component is missing a long description. It may be useful to add one.
- desktop-app-launchable-missing #
Severity: error
This `desktop-application` component is missing a `desktop-id` launchable tag. This means that this application can not be launched and has no association with its desktop-entry file. It also means no icon data or category information from the desktop-entry file will be available, which will result in this application being ignored entirely.
- desktop-app-launchable-omitted #
Severity: info
This `desktop-application` component has no `desktop-id` launchable tag, however it contains all the necessary information to display the application. The omission of the launchable entry means that this application can not be launched directly from installers or software centers. If this is intended, this information can be ignored, otherwise it is strongly recommended to add a launchable tag as well.
- console-app-no-binary #
Severity: warning
Type `console-application` component, but no information about binaries in $PATH was provided via a `provides/binary` tag.
- web-app-no-url-launchable #
Severity: error
This `web-application` component is missing a `launchable` tag of type `url`.
- web-app-no-icon #
Severity: error
This `web-application` component is missing a `icon` tag to specify a valid icon.
- web-app-no-category #
Severity: warning
This `web-application` component is missing categorizations. A `categories` block is likely missing.
- font-no-font-data #
Severity: error
Type `font` component, but no font information was provided via a `provides/font` tag.
- driver-no-modalias #
Severity: warning
Type `driver` component, but no modalias information was provided via a `provides/modalias` tag.
- extends-not-allowed #
Severity: error
An `extends` tag is specified, but the component is not of type `addon`, `localization` or `repository`.
- addon-extends-missing #
Severity: error
The component is an addon, but no `extends` tag was specified.
- localization-extends-missing #
Severity: info
This `localization` component is missing an `extends` tag, to specify the components it adds localization to.
- localization-no-languages #
Severity: error
This `localization` component does not define any languages this localization is for.
- service-no-service-launchable #
Severity: error
This `service` component is missing a `launchable` tag of type `service`.
- metainfo-suggestion-type-invalid #
Severity: warning
Suggestions of any type other than `upstream` are not allowed in metainfo files.
- category-invalid #
Severity: warning
The category name is not valid. Refer to the XDG Menu Specification for a list of valid category names.
- all-categories-ignored #
Severity: warning
All categories for this component have been ignored, either because they were invalid or because they are of low quality (e.g. custom 'X-' prefixed or toolkit ones like 'GTK' or 'Qt'). Please fix your category names, or add more categories.
- app-categories-missing #
Severity: error
This component is in no valid categories, even though it should be. Please check its metainfo file and desktop-entry file.
- screenshot-caption-too-long #
Severity: info
The screenshot caption is too long (should be <= 100 characters)
- file-read-failed #
Severity: error
Unable to read file.
- xml-markup-invalid #
Severity: error
The XML of this file is malformed.
- component-catalog-tag-invalid #
Severity: error
Invalid tag found in catalog metadata. Only `component` tags are permitted.
- metainfo-ancient #
Severity: error
The metainfo file uses an ancient version of the AppStream specification, which can not be validated. Please migrate it to version 0.6 (or higher). Modern files use the `component` root tag and include many other differences, so check for changes carefully when modernizing the data.
- root-tag-unknown #
Severity: error
This XML document has an unknown root tag. Maybe this file is not a metainfo document?
- metainfo-filename-cid-mismatch #
Severity: warning
The metainfo filename does not match the component ID.
- desktop-file-load-failed #
Severity: error
Unable to load the desktop-entry file associated with this component.
- desktop-file-not-found #
Severity: warning
This component metadata refers to a non-existing .desktop file.
- desktop-entry-category-invalid #
Severity: warning
A category defined in the desktop-entry file is not valid. Refer to the XDG Menu Specification for a list of valid categories.
- desktop-entry-bad-data #
Severity: warning
Error while reading some data from the desktop-entry file.
- desktop-entry-value-invalid-chars #
Severity: warning
The value of this desktop-entry field contains invalid or non-printable UTF-8 characters, which can not be displayed properly.
- desktop-entry-value-quoted #
Severity: warning
This desktop-entry field value is quoted, which is likely unintentional.
Severity: warning
This desktop-entry file has the 'Hidden' property set. This is wrong for vendor-installed .desktop files, and nullifies all effects this .desktop file has (including MIME associations), which most certainly is not intentional.
- desktop-entry-empty-onlyshowin #
Severity: warning
This desktop-entry file has the 'OnlyShowIn' property set with an empty value. This might not be intended, as this will hide the application from all desktops. If you do want to hide the application from all desktops, using 'NoDisplay=true' is more explicit.
- dir-no-metadata-found #
Severity: info
No AppStream metadata was found in this directory or directory tree.
- dir-applications-not-found #
Severity: pedantic
No XDG applications directory found.
- metainfo-legacy-path #
Severity: warning
The metainfo file is stored in a legacy path. Please place it in `/usr/share/metainfo/`.
- metainfo-multiple-components #
Severity: warning
The metainfo file specifies multiple components. This is not allowed.
- releases-not-in-order #
Severity: warning
The releases are not sorted in a latest to oldest version order. This is required as some tools will assume that the latest version is always at the top. Sorting releases also increases overall readability of the metainfo file.
- releases-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The type of the releases block is invalid. It needs to either `embedded` (the default) or `external`.
- releases-url-insecure #
Severity: error
The URL to an external release metadata file is insecure. This is not allowed, please use HTTPS URLs only.
- releases-download-failed #
Severity: error
Failed to download release metadata.
- releases-external-not-found #
Severity: warning
A local release metadata file was not found. It is strongly recommended to validate this metadata together with the main MetaInfo file.
- release-urgency-invalid #
Severity: warning
The value set as release urgency is not a known urgency value.
- release-type-invalid #
Severity: warning
The value set as release type is invalid.
- release-version-missing #
Severity: error
The release is missing the `version` property.
- release-time-missing #
Severity: error
The release entry is missing either the `date` (preferred) or the `timestamp` property.
- release-time-missing-for-snapshot #
Severity: info
The release entry is missing the `date` property. Ensure to add it before publishing the snapshot release.
- release-timestamp-invalid #
Severity: error
The release timestamp is invalid.
- release-description-outside-tag #
Severity: error
The release description must be put inside a `description` tag
- artifact-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The value set as artifact type is invalid. Must be either `source` or `binary`.
- artifact-bundle-type-invalid #
Severity: warning
The value set as artifact bundle type is invalid.
- artifact-invalid-platform-triplet #
Severity: warning
The platform triplet for this release is invalid. It must be in the form of `architecture-oskernel-osenv` - refer to the AppStream documentation or information on normalized GNU triplets for more information and valid fields.
- artifact-checksum-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The selected checksumming algorithm is unsupported or unknown.
- artifact-size-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The size type is unknown. Must be `download` or `installed`.
- artifact-filename-not-basename #
Severity: error
The artifact filename must be a file basename, not a (relative or absolute) path.
- release-issue-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The value set as release issue type is invalid.
- release-issue-is-cve-but-no-cve-id #
Severity: warning
The issue is tagged at security vulnerability with a CVE number, but its value does not look like a valid CVE identifier.
- releases-info-missing #
Severity: pedantic
This component is missing information about releases. Consider adding a `releases` tag to describe releases and their changes.
- invalid-iso8601-date #
Severity: warning
The AppStream specification requires a complete, ISO 8601 date string with at least day-granularity to denote dates. Please ensure the date string is valid.
- circular-component-relation #
Severity: warning
This component extends, provides, requires or recommends itself, which is certainly not intended and may confuse users or machines dealing with this metadata.
- runtime-project-license-no-ref #
Severity: info
Licenses for `runtime` components are usually too complex to reflect them in a simple SPDX expression. Consider using a `LicenseRef` and a web URL as value for this component's `project_license`. E.g. `LicenseRef-free=https://example.com/licenses.html`
- runtime-no-provides #
Severity: pedantic
Since a `runtime` component is comprised of multiple other software components, their component-IDs may be listed in a `<provides/>` section for this runtime.
- unknown-provides-item-type #
Severity: info
The type of the item that the component provides is not known to AppStream.
- mimetypes-tag-deprecated #
Severity: warning
The toplevel `mimetypes` tag is deprecated. Please use `mediatype` tags in a `provides` block instead to indicate that your software provides a media handler for the given types.
- content-rating-missing #
Severity: info
This component has no `content_rating` tag to provide age rating information. You can generate the tag data online by answering a few questions at https://hughsie.github.io/oars/
- content-rating-type-missing #
Severity: error
The `type` attribute of this `content_rating` element is missing or empty.
- content-rating-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The `type` attribute of the `content_rating` element has an invalid value.
- content-rating-invalid-tag #
Severity: error
The `content_rating` tag can only contain `content_attribute` children.
- content-attribute-id-missing #
Severity: error
The `id` attribute of the `content_attribute` element is missing or empty.
- content-attribute-id-invalid #
Severity: error
The `id` attribute of the `content_attribute` element has an invalid value.
- content-attribute-value-empty #
Severity: error
The `content_attribute` tag needs a value.
- content-attribute-value-unknown #
Severity: error
The `content_attribute` tag value is unknown.
- content-attribute-value-invalid #
Severity: error
The `content_attribute` tag value is invalid for the given id.
- content-attribute-id-duplicated #
Severity: error
A `content_attribute` tag with this ID has already been defined.
- usertag-missing-namespace #
Severity: info
This `tag` is missing a `namespace` attribute.
- usertag-invalid #
Severity: error
This tag or its namespace contains invalid characters. Only lower-cased ASCII letters, numbers, dots, hyphens and underscores are permitted.
- branding-color-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The type of this color is not valid.
- branding-color-scheme-type-invalid #
Severity: error
The value of this color scheme preference is not valid.
- branding-color-scheme-wrong-property #
Severity: error
The name of the color scheme property is wrong. It should be `scheme_preference`.
- branding-color-invalid #
Severity: error
This color is not a valid HTML color code.
- branding-color-duplicated #
Severity: error
A color for this type/scheme combination was already set. Colors must be unique per type/scheme.
- reference-doi-invalid #
Severity: warning
The given DOI (Digital Object Identifier) for this reference item is not valid.
- reference-citation-url-invalid #
Severity: warning
The value for this citation reference item must be an URL to a CFF (Citation File Format) file.
- reference-registry-name-missing #
Severity: error
This registry reference item is missing the `name` property to denote the name of the registry it is about.
- reference-registry-name-unknown #
Severity: warning
The registry for this reference item is unknown. This may be due to a typing error, or the registry needs to be registered with AppStream.
- reference-value-missing #
Severity: error
The reference item is missing a value.
- custom-invalid-tag #
Severity: error
The `custom` tag can only contain `value` children.
- custom-key-missing #
Severity: error
This `custom` tag value is missing a `key` attribute.
- custom-key-duplicated #
Severity: error
A key can only be used once.
- custom-value-empty #
Severity: info
This custom value is empty.
- metainfo-localized-keywords-tag #
Severity: error
A `keywords` tag must not be localized in metainfo files (upstream metadata). Localize the individual keyword entries instead.