Snap also know as Snappy is an alternative package management tool and program package format developed by Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux. Snap has been introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) and is part of any Ubuntu version since then, it can be used across all Linux distributions. Snap packages can be installed via command line or can be downloaded from websites as .snap files. Snap package manager creates a separate folder for each package and does not interfere with the rest of the system.

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and use the Snap package on Ubuntu 20.04.

Prerequisites

  • A server running Ubuntu 20.04.
  • A root password is configured the server.

Install Snap

By default, Snap is available in the Ubuntu default repository. You can install it with the following command:

apt-get install snapd -y

Once installed, verify the Snap version using the following command:

snap version

You should get the following output:

snap    2.48 20.04
snapd   2.48 20.04
series  16
ubuntu  20.04
kernel  5.4.0-29-generic

List Snap Packages

To list all packages available in the Snap package repository, run the following command:

snap find

You should see the following output:

No search term specified. Here are some interesting snaps:

Name                Version               Publisher           Notes    Summary
eks                 v1.18.9               canonical?          classic  Amazon EKS Distro (EKS-D) snap
thunderbird         78.6.1                canonical?          -        Mozilla Thunderbird email application
sc-controller       0.4.8                 njmcphail           -        Driver, mapper and GUI for Steam Controller, DS4 and similar controllers.
netbeans            12.2                  apache-netbeans?    classic  Apache NetBeans IDE
geforcenow          1.0.5                 popey               -        GeForce NOW
argos-translate     1.0.4                 argosopentech       -        Offline neural machine translation app
parsec              v2.1.0                touilleman          classic  Secure cloud framework
glow                1.3.0                 tbmb                -        Render markdown on the CLI, with pizzazz! ????????
termius-app         7.4.1                 termius?            -        Cross-platform SSH client
camus               0.2.2                 mrgnr               -        Peer-to-peer group video chat using WebRTC.
freecad             0.18                  vejmarie            -        This is the freecad 0.18 release supporting OCCT 7 / Netgen and many other features
flameshot           v0.8.5 git10.376a6f2  borgman-jeremy      -        Powerful yet simple to use screenshot software
signal-desktop      1.39.6                snapcrafters        -        Signal Private Messenger for Windows, Mac, and Linux
stellarium-daily    v0.20.4               t4saha              -        Free, open source planetarium software
shutter             0.94.3                popey               -        Feature-rich screenshot program
video-downloader    0.6.8                 unrud               -        Download videos from websites like YouTube and many others
vimix               0.4                   bruno-herbelin      -        Live video mixing
alfacast            2.6                   romanshpuntov       -        Multiplatform Broadcast Audio / Video Streamer & Viewer of Your Screen
uno-calculator      1.2.4-uno.725         unoplatform         -        The Uno Calculator
netcalc             3.2                   krupier3301         -        Network calculator
opera               73.0.3856.344         opera-software?     -        Fast, secure, easy-to-use browser
blender             2.91.2                blenderfoundation?  classic  Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite.
krop                0.6.0                 gocarlos            -        A tool to crop PDF files
icloud-for-linux    0.11                  marcustomlinson     -        iCloud for Linux
gitkraken           7.5.0                 gitkraken?          classic  For repo management, in-app code editing & issue tracking.
konversation        1.7.4                 kde?                -        IRC client
mattermost-desktop  4.6.1                 snapcrafters        -        Open source, private cloud Slack-alternative
forkstat            V0.02.16              cking-kernel-tools  -        process fork/exec/exit monitoring tool
vlc                 3.0.12.1              videolan?           -        The ultimate media player

Find a Specific Package with Snap

You can also find a specific package from the Snap repository with the following command:

snap find package-name

For example, find a skype package with the following command:

snap find skype

You should get the following output:

Name            Version                 Publisher   Notes    Summary
skype           8.67.0.96               skype?      classic  One Skype for all your devices. New features. New look. All Skype.
audio-recorder  3.0.5 rev1432 pkg-7b07  brlin       -        A free audio-recorder for Linux (EXTREMELY BUGGY)
guvcview        2.0.6 pkg-f796          brlin       -        A simple v4l2 full-featured video grabber
spreedme        0.29.5snap1             nextcloud?  -        Spreed.ME audio/video calls and conferences feature for the Nextcloud Snap
ramboxpro       1.4.1                   ramboxapp?  -        Rambox Pro
fakecam         2.2.0                   diddledan   -        Fakecam

Install a Package with Snap

You can install any package available in the Snap repository with the following command:

snap install package-name

For example, if you want to install VLC, run the following command:

snap install vlc

Once installed, you should get the following output:

vlc 3.0.12.1 from VideoLAN? installed

If you want to update your installed package, run the following command:

snap refresh package-name

Working with Snap

If you want to list all Snap packages, run the following command:

snap list

You should see the following output:

Name    Version    Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
core    16-2.48.2  10583  latest/stable  canonical?  core
core18  20201210   1944   latest/stable  canonical?  base
skype   8.67.0.96  161    latest/stable  skype?      classic
vlc     3.0.12.1   2103   latest/stable  videolan?   -

If you want to see recent changes made by Snap, run the following command:

snap changes

You should get the following output:

ID   Status  Spawn               Ready               Summary
1    Done    today at 10:58 UTC  today at 10:58 UTC  Initialize system state
2    Done    today at 11:14 UTC  today at 11:15 UTC  Install "skype" snap
3    Done    today at 11:14 UTC  today at 11:15 UTC  Initialize device
4    Done    today at 11:15 UTC  today at 11:16 UTC  Install "vlc" snap

If you want to see information about Snap package, run the following command:

snap info vlc

You should get detail information about VLC package in the following output:

name:      vlc
summary:   The ultimate media player
publisher: VideoLAN?
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/vlc
contact:   https://www.videolan.org/support/
license:   GPL-2.0 
description: |
  VLC is the VideoLAN project's media player.
  
  Completely open source and privacy-friendly, it plays every multimedia file and streams.
  
  It notably plays MKV, MP4, MPEG, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, MOV, WMV, QuickTime, WebM, FLAC, MP3,
  Ogg/Vorbis files, BluRays, DVDs, VCDs, podcasts, and multimedia streams from various network
  sources. It supports subtitles, closed captions and is translated in numerous languages.
snap-id: RT9mcUhVsRYrDLG8qnvGiy26NKvv6Qkd
channels:
  latest/stable:    3.0.12.1                    2021-01-23 (2103) 309MB -
  latest/candidate: 3.0.12.1                    2021-01-05 (2103) 309MB -
  latest/beta:      3.0.12.1-26-g4f8ca0de78     2021-01-20 (2140) 309MB -
  latest/edge:      4.0.0-dev-14637-g2893809229 2021-01-25 (2149) 359MB -

To remove a specific Snap package from your system, run the following command:

snap remove package-name

For example, to remove the VLC package run the following command:

snap remove vlc

All Snap files are stored in the /var/lib/snapd/snaps/ directory. You can see all of them with the following command:

ls /var/lib/snapd/snaps/

You should see the following output:

core_10583.snap  core18_1944.snap  partial  skype_161.snap

Conclusion

In the above post, you learned how to install and manage Snap packages on Ubuntu. I hope this will helps you to manage the Snap package in your system.

Show Comments