AppImage Usage¶

An AppImage is available for Linux that bundles geoextent with Python, GDAL, PROJ, and all dependencies into a single portable executable. No installation or system dependencies required — just download and run.

Downloading the AppImage¶

Download the latest AppImage from the GitHub Releases page:

# Download (replace VERSION and URL with the latest release)
wget https://github.com/nuest/geoextent/releases/download/vVERSION/geoextent-VERSION-x86_64.AppImage

# Make executable
chmod +x geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage

Or using curl:

curl -fSL -o geoextent.AppImage https://github.com/nuest/geoextent/releases/download/vVERSION/geoextent-VERSION-x86_64.AppImage
chmod +x geoextent.AppImage

Tip

You can rename the AppImage to geoextent and place it on your PATH for convenient usage:

mv geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage ~/.local/bin/geoextent

Basic Usage¶

The AppImage works exactly like the regular geoextent CLI:

# Show help
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage --help

# Show version
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage --version

# Show supported formats
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage --formats

Local File Processing¶

Process local files directly — no volume mounts or path translation needed:

# Extract bounding box from a GeoTIFF
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b data/raster.tif

# Extract both spatial and temporal extent from GeoJSON
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b -t data/muenster_ring_zeit.geojson

# Extract bounding box from a CSV with coordinate columns
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b data/cities.csv

# Process a directory of geospatial files
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b -t data/

# Extract convex hull instead of bounding box
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b --convex-hull data/

Remote Repository Processing¶

Extract geospatial extent from research repositories using DOIs or URLs:

# Extract from Zenodo
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4593540

# Extract from PANGAEA with temporal extent
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b -t https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.734969

# Extract from OSF with size limiting
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b --max-download-size 50MB https://osf.io/4xe6z/

# Extract from a GitHub repository
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b https://github.com/user/repo

Output Formats¶

# GeoJSON output (default)
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b data/file.geojson

# WKT output for PostGIS/GDAL
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b --format wkt data/file.geojson

# WKB output for database storage
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b --format wkb data/file.geojson

# Export results to a file
./geoextent-*-x86_64.AppImage -b -t --output results.gpkg data/

AppImage vs CLI Equivalence¶

The AppImage is a drop-in replacement for python -m geoextent:

CLI Command	AppImage Equivalent
`python -m geoextent --help`	`./geoextent.AppImage --help`
`python -m geoextent -b file.geojson`	`./geoextent.AppImage -b file.geojson`
`python -m geoextent -b -t directory/`	`./geoextent.AppImage -b -t directory/`
`python -m geoextent -b https://doi.org/...`	`./geoextent.AppImage -b https://doi.org/...`

Scripting with the AppImage¶

#!/bin/bash
# Process multiple repositories
GEOEXTENT="./geoextent-x86_64.AppImage"

REPOSITORIES=(
  "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4593540"
  "https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.734969"
)

for repo in "${REPOSITORIES[@]}"; do
  echo "Processing: $repo"
  $GEOEXTENT -b --quiet "$repo"
done

Capture output in a variable:

BBOX=$(./geoextent.AppImage -b --format wkt --quiet data/file.geojson)
echo "Bounding box: $BBOX"

Environment Variables¶

The AppImage bundles its own GDAL, PROJ, and Python, so you do not need to set GDAL_DATA, PROJ_DATA, or PYTHONHOME. These are configured automatically inside the AppImage.

For placename lookup, pass API keys as usual:

GEONAMES_USERNAME=your_username ./geoextent.AppImage -b --placename data/file.geojson

Building the AppImage Locally¶

If a pre-built AppImage is not available for your needs (e.g., you want to package a development version), you can build it yourself on any Linux x86_64 system:

git clone https://github.com/nuest/geoextent
cd geoextent
bash scripts/build-appimage.sh

The build script downloads Miniforge and appimagetool automatically (cached for subsequent builds). The resulting AppImage is written to the project root directory.

Requirements:

Linux x86_64
~2 GB disk space during build
Internet access (first run)
bash, curl

You can set the version explicitly:

GEOEXTENT_VERSION=0.13.0 bash scripts/build-appimage.sh

See scripts/build-appimage.sh for all options.

Troubleshooting¶

FUSE not available¶

Some systems (containers, older kernels) lack FUSE support. Use the --appimage-extract-and-run flag:

./geoextent.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run -b data/file.geojson

Or extract the AppImage once and run directly:

./geoextent.AppImage --appimage-extract
./squashfs-root/AppRun -b data/file.geojson

SSL certificate errors¶

The AppImage bundles its own CA certificates. If you encounter SSL errors (e.g., behind a corporate proxy), set the SSL_CERT_FILE environment variable to your system certificates:

SSL_CERT_FILE=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt ./geoextent.AppImage -b https://doi.org/...

Glibc compatibility¶

The AppImage is built on Ubuntu 22.04 (glibc 2.35). It should work on most Linux distributions from 2022 onwards. If you get a glibc error, your system is too old to run this AppImage.

Extracting the AppImage contents¶

To inspect what’s inside the AppImage:

./geoextent.AppImage --appimage-extract
ls squashfs-root/