How to Install and Use Snap Package Manager on Ubuntu 20.04

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.

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.