GIMP and github plugin issue

Question

I have Gimp 2.10.14 on my Ubuntu 16.04 (32-bit) installed via flatpak. Since i wanted to make use of re-synthesizer plugin available from https://github.com/bootchk/resynthesizer i downloaded it and saw that gimp didn't detect the plugins.

So I went over and and installed Gimp from snap and I couldn't access the plug-in folder from Gimp-preference window refer thread Snap , app armor and gimp plugins due to app armor policy but the same issue was noted in it.

I tried various methods mentioned in multiple forums like moving downloaded plug-ins to config > plug-in folder to mentioning i.e Edit > Preferences > Folder > plug-ins > add new folder but to no avail

Finally I saw this forum thread https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-2-10-Resynthesizer-Linux?pid=11261#pid11261 and downloaded the plug-in from the link VOILA!!! it worked (and mentioned it in preference rather than copying it to location)

So i did some detective work and found that the plug-ins downloaded from above link showed up in the terminal as green and the github one showed as plain text white -> screenshot attached

I have referred multiple forum methods before posting this but in-case if I have missed anything please let me know

So,

1. I would like to understand what the problem, is it because the plugin is not made for 2.10.14v?

2. If I need to compile the github download plug-in then how am I supposed to do it ?

3. How to change app armor policy for snap gimp ?

4. Is it due to older python version (coz firing python in terminal shows 2.7.12v) ?

Answer 1

By default ls colors in green executable files. If you do ls -l you get the access flags and the executable files have the 'x' flag(s):

-rwxrwxr-x 1 me me 0 Jun 14 01:20 foo-exec
-rw-rw-r-- 1 me me 0 Jun 14 01:20 foo-nonexec

• Instructions to install Gimp plugins on Linux and OSX usually mention that the files should have the executable bit set (chmod +x <file>).
• The executable flag is preserved by the ZIP format, so if the file was executable when it was put in the ZIP then unzipping restores the flag and it is set automatically. By contrast there is no provision for such flags in the HTTP protocol so when you download a file it loses its executable status in the process and you have to restore it on the downloaded file.