Currently, when --comp is not passed to appimagetool, we call mksquashfs without its -comp parameter, falling back to mksquashfs's default compression (which is configured at its build time). We also show a warning that we fall back to the default. This is for users of the tool which do not use the officially provided AppImages, but build their own version (using custom builds of mksquashfs etc., too).
This is not a great UX. To improve the situation, we decided to just pass -comp zstd if --comp is not provided, making mksquashfs either use it as intended, or print a meaningful error message that this compression is not available. Users who need to use a build of mksquashfs that does not support -comp zstd can then fix the situation either by providing a proper build of this tool or manually passing the name of an alternative compression algorithm like xz (our old default).
Currently, when
--comp
is not passed to appimagetool, we callmksquashfs
without its-comp
parameter, falling back tomksquashfs
's default compression (which is configured at its build time). We also show a warning that we fall back to the default. This is for users of the tool which do not use the officially provided AppImages, but build their own version (using custom builds ofmksquashfs
etc., too).This is not a great UX. To improve the situation, we decided to just pass
-comp zstd
if--comp
is not provided, makingmksquashfs
either use it as intended, or print a meaningful error message that this compression is not available. Users who need to use a build ofmksquashfs
that does not support-comp zstd
can then fix the situation either by providing a proper build of this tool or manually passing the name of an alternative compression algorithm likexz
(our old default).