FAM - Flatpak Alias Manager

FAM is a vibecoded script, made for personal use, that automatically generates and manages shell aliases for Flatpak applications. When active, it listens for new Flatpak installs or removals, updating the alias shell script accordingly.

For example, running librewolf on the terminal becomes the equivalent of running flatpak run io.gitlab.librewolf-community. If the command already exists, a -flatpak tag is added to the alias.

Features

• Bash, Zsh, and Fish support.
• Automated detection of Flatpak changes via a systemd user service.
• Support for name overrides, blacklisting, and environment variable injection.
• Built-in configuration for backups and restores.

Installation

• Download the fam script.
• Make it executable with chmod +x fam
• Launch it with ./fam
• Select Option [1] to install.

Usage

Run fam to sync aliases. Use flags below alone for interactive menus or with arguments for manual configuration.

Category	Short	Long	Description	Manual Example
Core	-s	--show	List active aliases and tags.	fam -s
	-f	--force	Force alias regeneration.	fam -f
	-p	--preview	Dry run (no files modified).	fam -p
Config	-o	--override	Set a custom alias name.	fam -o [ID] [NAME]
	-co	--clear-override	Remove a custom alias.	fam -co [ID]
	-i	--ignore	Blacklist an application.	fam -i [ID]
	-ui	--unignore	Remove from blacklist.	fam -ui [ID]
	-e	--env	Inject environment variables.	fam -e [ID] [VARS]
Maint.		--backup	Export config to tarball.	fam --backup [PATH]
		--restore	Import config from tarball.	fam --restore [PATH]
	-r	--reinstall	Repair systemd/shell hooks.	fam -r
	-u	--uninstall	Completely remove FAM.	fam -u

Usage examples

• fam -o org.gimp.GIMP photoshop overrides GIMP's generated alias with photoshop.
• fam -i org.vim.Vim prevents the Flatpak version of Vim from shadowing the native command.
• fam -e org.mozilla.firefox MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 appends to Firefox's generated alias a custom environmental variable.
• fam --backup ~/fam-config.tar.gz creates a backup of your configuration to a directory of your choice.

Roadmap

• Cleanup and tidy the code.
• Translate manually to Python 3 with well defined modular functions.

Contributions

Feel free to contribute in any form via Pull Requests, whether by placing ideas, features or bug reports. I'll gladly listen to your suggestions.