# ThoughtSync desktop — Arch package

A **prebuilt** native pacman package, published as an asset on every ThoughtSync
release. Nothing to compile, no toolchain to install.

Installing natively on Arch matters for more than tidiness: pacman pulls
`webkit2gtk-4.1` itself and the app runs against your system's graphics stack,
which is what keeps the bundled-library `EGL_BAD_PARAMETER` black window
(issue 2021) from coming back. It also means the app is package-manager tracked
and uninstalls cleanly.

## Install

Easiest — the one-command installer picks this package automatically on any
pacman system:

```sh
curl -fsSL https://git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/thoughtsync/raw/branch/dev/desktop/packaging/install.sh | sh
```

That installs the newest tagged release. To follow the rolling development
channel instead, pass the flag through the pipe:

```sh
curl -fsSL https://git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/thoughtsync/raw/branch/dev/desktop/packaging/install.sh | sh -s -- --channel dev
```

Or grab the `.pkg.tar.*` from the
[releases page](https://git.fabledsword.com/bvandeusen/thoughtsync/releases)
and install it directly:

```sh
sudo pacman -U thoughtsync-desktop-*-x86_64.pkg.tar.*
```

The compression suffix depends on what the build image provides — `.zst` when
`zstd` is installed, otherwise `.xz` (today's builds are `.xz`). pacman reads
all of them; only the filename differs.

Either way you get:

- `/usr/bin/thoughtsync` — the app
- `/usr/share/applications/thoughtsync.desktop` — the menu entry
- `/usr/share/icons/hicolor/*/apps/thoughtsync.png` — themed icons

Launch **ThoughtSync** from your app menu, or run `thoughtsync`.

Uninstall: `sudo pacman -R thoughtsync-desktop`.

## How the package is built

`package-prebuilt.sh` runs in CI (`.forgejo/workflows/desktop.yml`) and wraps the
binary the Linux build already produced into a pacman package — it does not
compile anything a second time.

Packaging a Debian-compiled binary for Arch is safe here because the binary
bundles nothing: it resolves `libwebkit2gtk-4.1.so.0`, `libgtk-3.so.0` and
`libsoup-3.0.so.0` by SONAME at runtime and those are identical on both distros,
SQLite is compiled in (`rusqlite` "bundled"), and glibc's forward compatibility
means building on Debian's older glibc and running on Arch's newer one is the
safe direction.

CI is Debian and has no `pacman`, so it cannot install-test the result. The build
step instead logs the package's `.PKGINFO` and complete file listing, so the
package is auditable from the run log; a real `pacman -U` is the final proof.

## Previously

This directory used to hold a source-build `PKGBUILD` requiring `makepkg -si`
with `rust` + `nodejs` + `npm` installed. It was removed once prebuilt packages
shipped — asking every user to install a compiler toolchain isn't distribution.