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Just some beginner developer
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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F-Droid
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F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform. The client makes it easy to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.
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To publish on F-Droid, you need to publish the code. F-Droid complies their own binaries using their keys. They have a faq on their page on how to set it up.
You can also publish your binary and offer it to the IzzyOnDroid F-Droid repo. They're less stingy with requirements, tho I believe the app still needs to be open source.
Or again with a binary, as long as it's published on github/gitlab etc, people can add it via the Obtainium app, or just download it directly.
(I'm not a dev, so don't know much more details.)
Worth noting, they support reproducible builds, which allows developers to sign with their own key:
https://f-droid.org/docs/Reproducible_Builds/
I would definitely recommend going this route if you're starting with a new app. Having the binary on GitHub (or wherever you'd otherwise publish) match exactly the binary on F-Droid is really good for assuring people nothing in your repo was tampered with during the build process (i.e. that the binary was built from the public code, and nothing else).
It should not take extra work to do this. The project generated by Android Studio should already be reproducible. As long as you don't change the build setup and break reproducibility yourself, it'll "just work." When you submit to F-Droid, just be sure to let them know you want to go the reproducible route (if you make the PR yourself, it's a flag in the YAML file).
Ah okay that's news for me.
So let's say for example, I make like a little software out of Godot, then I will tgz the code and send it to F-droid. Is that how it works?
You don't need to send it, they just retrieve it from your git, they have a faq on their site. But people are saying you can package it yourself if you compile the binary according to their instructions, so I'm out of the loop anyway. Just look at their site, they ought to have the instructions.