`type2-runtime` version/commit should be informed in stdout

[brunvonlope]

When using appimagetool we know its version seeing the output:

appimagetool, continuous build (git version feac857), build 185 built on 2024-11-24 19:31:44 UTC

However, it don't give any clue about what "version" (commit sha) of the runtime will be used:

Downloading runtime file from https://github.com/AppImage/type2-runtime/releases/download/continuous/runtime-x86_64
Downloaded runtime binary of size 696720

Right now, developers need to rely on date and time of the creation of the appimage to get an estimative of what version/commit of the runtime is being used, which is imprecise. So, having this info in stdout would be very useful for debugging.

[TheAssassin]

I'm not sure whether we include those data in the runtime in some portable way. Right now, we just don't have that information. Plus, continuous is a moving target anyway. We've always considered it stable, though. But if we come up with a nice way to transport the information, we can for sure display it in appimagetool.

In the future, we want to make actual releases of all components, then we can also, e.g., target the latest stable release.

[probonopd]

After creating an AppImage, appimagetool could simply run --appimage-version on the resulting file and print out that information.

@brunvonlope in the meantime, your build script could of course simply do the same thing.

[TheAssassin]

We should have an option to detect that information statically, i.e., without the need for a suitable runtime environment. An ARM runtime cannot be run on an AMD64 system, but the AppImage could be built normally.

[probonopd]

Good point.

[brunvonlope]

Running --appimage-version in appimages generated by appimagetool gives no output:

AppImage runtime version:

So we don't have even a workaround.

appimages generates by go-appimagetool (e.g.: the own go-appimagetool .appimage) have proper output of commit sha but the runtime seems to be different (static-tools). So, probably there is something wrong with type2-runtime(?)

[probonopd]

Indeed, that's a bad bug. Opening an issue there. Thanks @brunvonlope