Snap is Canonical’s attempt to refine the app packaging and delivery mechanism on the Linux platform. The Snap packages enable developers to bring much newer versions of apps to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Currently, the list of available snap packages is short, but soon we’ll be able to install more packages through the new snap package manager.
It is possible to install snap packages alongside traditional deb packages. These two packaging formats live comfortably next to one another. ( Read more about it here)
If you are on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or later, you would already have snap installed on your machine, if you are on earlier version, install snap using following command.
$sudo apt install snapd
If you want to cross check if snap is installed or not, run following command.
~$ sudo apt list snapd [sudo] password for conquistador: Listing... Done snapd/xenial-updates,now 2.34.2 amd64 [installed,automatic] N: There is 1 additional version. Please use the '-a' switch to see it
Check the snap version
$ snap version snap 2.36.1 snapd 2.36.1 series 16 ubuntu 16.04 kernel 4.15.0-39-generic
Now let us see how to find a package and install it.
Search package by name
$ snap find vscode Name Version Publisher Notes Summary vscode 1.29.1-1542309157 snapcrafters classic Code editing. Redefined. ampareinvertcolor 1.0.0 juthawong - Simply Invert CSS Color - Made For Web Designer
You can search for keywords as well. If keyword has multiple words, please enclose it in single or double inverted commas.
$ snap find "image editor" Name Version Publisher Notes Summary pencilsheep 5 pencilsheep - Free professional image editor with full GPU acceleration amparepngtoico 1.0.1 juthawong - Convert PNG Image To Windows Icon File in Clicks nomacs 3.11.7 diemmarkus - nomacs is a free, open source image viewer. imeditor 0.7 huluti - Simple & versatile image editor. anituner 2.0 mmtrt - AniTuner lets you create, edit and convert Windows animated cursors ani files. gimp 2.10.8 snapcrafters - GNU Image Manipulation Program paintsupreme-3d 1.0.41 braindistrict - PaintSupreme 3D goxel 0+git.5cabc00 guillaume - Goxel. Free and Open Source 3D Voxel Editor carnet 0.9.0 alexandre-roux-m - Powerful note taking app with sync, online editor and android app anifx 1.0 mmtrt - AniFX is a free cursor editor with many features. tiled 1.1.6 bjorn - Your free, easy to use and flexible tile map editor. polarr 5.2.1 polarrco* - Powerful and easy-to-use photo editor. skrifa-lite 0.1.0 hyuchia - A simple word processor built with web technologies skrifa 0.2.6 hyuchia - A simple word processor built with web technologies photoscape latest merlijn-sebrechts - PhotoScape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix and enhance photos. kstars master+38b187e kde* - KStars is a desktop planetarium for amateur and professional astronomers. gitkraken 4.1.1 gitkraken* - For repo management, in-app code editing & issue tracking.
Installation.
sudo snap install <package>
For some application you might need to use word –classic. I got an error which installing visual studio code (vscode) using snap e.g.
$ sudo snap install vscode [sudo] password for conquistador: error: This revision of snap "vscode" was published using classic confinement and thus may perform arbitrary system changes outside of the security sandbox that snaps are usually confined to, which may put your system at risk. If you understand and want to proceed repeat the command including --classic. $ sudo snap install --classic vscode vscode 1.29.1-1542309157 from Snapcrafters installed
Snap packages are automatically updated, if you want to update any package manually, use following command.
sudo snap refresh <package>
Check list of packages installed on your computer
$ snap list Name Version Rev Tracking Publisher Notes core 16-2.36.1 5897 stable canonical* core vscode 1.29.1-1542309157 69 stable snapcrafters classic wine-platform 3.0.3-3.21.0 36 stable mmtrt -
Removing the application
sudo snap remove <package>
One the application is installed, it can be run as any other application.
If you want to go into details, please refer to official tutorial and documentation