6 essential snap commands you should know

Snapd 2.18 was recently released. Introduce a couple of new Snap commands, and improve on a few of the old ones. The following guide presents 6 essential Snap Commands you should know. This will allow you to install and manage Snap applications in Ubuntu (16.04 LTS or later) in a simple way.

6 essential Snap commands you should know

The Snap package system debuted in the middle of this year for Ubuntu 16.04, being one of the most important additions in the life of the most popular Linux distribution of this time. This new package system offers updated applications without taking into account the dependencies of Ubuntu and greater security, thanks to the fact that they are isolated from the rest of the Linux system. These new packages replace the famous Deb, originating from Debian, which can still be used anyway.

How to log in to Ubuntu One

sudo snap login [email protected]

The login command (when run as sudo) does exactly what you'd expect: it allows you to login and authenticate with your Ubuntu One account. This allows you to buy plugins using the snap buy command.

Find Snap apps to install

If there is a barrier to Snap app adoption (aside from some apps that are available in the format) it is knowing what packages are available in the Snap app store. Just open a terminal and run the following command:

snap find query

The find command allows you to quickly search and discover the plugins available to install from the command line (examples 'snap find email', 'snap find media', 'snap find messaging')

When an unspecified query is executed (Snap Find) you will see a list of the most outstanding ones.

You can also filter the results based on a specific section of the Snap store, which include: featured, database, internet-of-things, messaging and media.

View a list of installed Snap apps

Do you have Snaps installed on the system but remember which ones? Do not worry. Use the 'list' command to see an updated list of all the Snap apps you have on your system:

snap list

This list shows the version number of each of them, revision number and the name of the developer who uploaded it (very useful when there are several versions of the same application in the store, for example, Telegram) .

If you have installed any software in development, the notes section will also mention it with the rest snap.

How to install Snap apps (or remove them)

$ snap install appname

$ snap remove appname

If you are used to managing the software using apt, you will instantly find these easy to remember snap commands. Install quick apps with the 'install' command or you can remove them using the 'remove' command.

See more information about a Snap app

snap info appname

A new command comes with Snapd 2.18, the 'info' command.

You can use this command to view detailed information about any plug-in application, whether it is installed on the system or not. This information includes the application launch channel, confinement status, size, number of reviews, and more data.

Update a Snap app

snap refresh

As Snapd is conceived, this command probably would not seem so useful in principle. Snapd is now ready to run updates of all snaps in the background. Even so, we can force applications to be updated manually whenever we want.

WE RECOMMEND YOU Discover will be compatible with Canonical Snap packages

We can force the update of all installed applications of this type or specify a specific app.

These were the 6 essential Snap Commands, I hope you found it useful and see you next time.