Installing a snap

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Snaps are installed via the snap command, using GNOME Software or via KDE Discover. Each allows the user to find out detailed information about a snap before installation.

Finding snaps

On the command line the snap find command will search the store for the specified search term.

$ snap find firefox
Name         Version        Publisher  Notes  Summary
firefox      61.0.2-1       mozilla    -      Mozilla Firefox web browser

To get more detailed information on a snap, use snap info.

$ snap info firefox
2018/08/23 13:44:35.653849 cmd.go:203: DEBUG: restarting into "/snap/core/current/usr/bin/snap"
name:      firefox
summary:   Mozilla Firefox web browser
publisher: mozilla
license:   unknown
description: |
  The new Firefox
  Meet Firefox Quantum. Fast for good.

⋮

commands:
  - firefox
snap-id:      3wdHCAVyZEmYsCMFDE9qt92UV8rC8Wdk
tracking:     stable
refresh-date: 14 days ago, at 22:04 BST
channels:
  stable:        61.0.2-1    (118) 204MB -
  candidate:     61.0.2-1    (118) 204MB -
  beta:          62.0b19-1   (122) 204MB -
  edge:          ↑
  esr/stable:    60.1.0esr-2 (102) 205MB -
  esr/candidate: ↑
  esr/beta:      ↑
  esr/edge:      ↑
installed:       61.0.2-1    (118) 204MB -

Installing from the store using the command line

By default, installing a snap from the store will take the snap from the latest/stable track and channel.

snap install firefox

Installing from another track or channel requires the --channel option.

snap install firefox --channel=esr/stable

If the snap is already installed, use the snap refresh command to change channel.

snap refresh firefox --channel=esr/stable

Once installed, users can refresh channel at any time

Installing from the store using GNOME Software

GNOME Software supports installation of snaps via the gnome-software-plugin-snap which is installed by default on Ubuntu and some flavours & derivatives. If not already installed, installation should be performed using the standard package manager such as apt or yum. Once installed, restart GNOME Software (which may require you to killall gnome-software to force-restart the background daemon).

Launch GNOME Software and search for a snap. Click the snap and review the metadata. Click the [Install] button to begin installation of the snap

Installing a local snap

Installing a snap from a local is also done with the snap command. The --dangerous option is required, to indicate that the user is aware they’re installing a snap which hasn’t been through any store review process.

snap install mysnap_1.5_amd64.snap --dangerous

Switching from local to store snap

Often a developer will test out a locally installed snap, then publish the snap in the store. Anyone who installed the local snap will not get updates from the store automatically. So the user should refresh to the store snap to get updates. The additional --amend option is required here.

snap refresh mysnap --channel=stable --amend
1 Like
2

How about an animated gif or sequence of images or just on image with arrows for Gnome Software.

3

I would really like instructions to install a non-classic snap with confinement intentionally disabled.

By far it is using --devmode.

4

shouldnt that rather go into developer docs instead of end-user docs ? (or are the docs supposed to cover both use cases)

–devmode is really nothing an end-user should use IMHO

5

I also think that if we include functionality for users to intentionally disable confinement then people will do so, and then complain when it breaks.

6

Not only does --devmode break confinement and mask issues, it also suppresses automatic update. So we’d be advocating for users to install software and get no security updates.

2 Likes