Limba provides developers with a way to easily create software bundles for their applications which run on multiple Linux distributions. It provides atomic upgrades of software, simultaneous installation of multiple software versions and a simple way to obtain and upgrade software.

It is based on ideas of Glick2 and Listaller, and uses modern Linux kernel features to allow applications to share libraries and other components, reducing the amount of duplicate software components running on a Linux system.

You can find official release tarballs here: people.freedesktop.org/~mak/limba/releases

At the current state of development, it makes more sense to clone the Git repository instead, to get the latest changes.

In order to run Limba applications, you will need a Linux kernel supporting OverlayFS1 and multiple OverlayFS layers. This is at least Linux 4.0.

Applications installed with Limba will nicely integrate with your desktop-environment, and should not look different from native applications.

We have very brief instructions on how to create new Limba packages in the documentation. A complex example showing how to automatically create Limba packages can be found at Limba-Neverball.

• glib2 (>= 2.36)
• GObject-Introspection
• AppStream (libappstream)
• PolicyKit
• libarchive
• GPGMe
• libuuid
• libcurl
• systemd (optional)

Ensure all build dependencies are installed. Then run the following commands to compile (and install) Limba:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Run "make test" first, This will produce two packages (file extension .ipk) in the tests/data directory. You can install these packages using

sudo lipa install file.ipk

One package depends on the other (so runtime generation and dependencies can be tested in the testsuite), this means you will have to install the library first. You can list all installed software using the "lipa list" command. The FooBar demo application can be run by executing

runapp foobar-1.0:/bin/foo

or simply by using the link which should have been installed into the GUI application menu of your desktop environment. If you want to remove the software again, just use the lipa remove command.

A more complex example can be found at the Limba-Neverball repository. It shows how to build a Limba package, and how to distribute it via a software source. Just take a look at the instructions there.

You can help localizing Limba! Take a look at the Transifex Project. New languages will be approved as soon as possible.

Just create a pull request or submit a patch via the issue tracker or email. The software is subjected to the LGPLv2+ and GPLv2+ licenses.