Skip to main content

Your submission was sent successfully! Close

Thank you for signing up for our newsletter!
In these regular emails you will find the latest updates from Canonical and upcoming events where you can meet our team.Close

Thank you for contacting us. A member of our team will be in touch shortly. Close

  1. Blog
  2. Article

Jamie Bennett
on 1 June 2016

Apps to Snaps


Distributing applications on Linux is not always easy. You have different packaging formats, base systems, available libraries, and distribution release cadences all of which contribute to the headache. But now we have something much simpler: Snaps.

Snaps are a new way for developers to package their applications, bringing with it many advantages over the more traditional package formats such as .deb, .rpm, and others. Snaps are secure, isolated from each other and the host system using technologies such as AppArmor, they are cross-platform, and they are self-contained, allowing a developer to package the exact software their application needs. This sandboxed isolation also improves security and allows applications, and whole snap-based systems, to be rolled back should an issue occur. Snaps really are the future of Linux application packaging.

Creating a snap is not difficult. First, you need the snap-based runtime environment that is able to understand and execute snaps on your desktop; this tool is named snapd and comes as default on all Ubuntu 16.04 systems. Next you need the tool to create snaps, Snapcraft, which can be installed simply with:

$ sudo apt-get install snapcraft

Once you have this environment available it is time to get snapping.

Snaps use a special YAML formatted file named snapcraft.yaml that defines how the application is packaged as well as any dependencies it may have. Taking a simple application to demonstrate this point, the following YAML file is a real example of how to snap the moon-buggy game, available from the Ubuntu archive.

name: moon-buggy
version: 1.0.51.11
summary: Drive a car across the moon
description: |
A simple command-line game where you drive a buggy on the moon
apps:
play:
command: usr/games/moon-buggy
parts:
moon-buggy:
plugin: nil
stage-packages: [moon-buggy]
snap:
– usr/games/moon-buggy

The above code demonstrates a few new concepts. The first section is all about making your application discoverable in the store; setting the packaging metadata name, version, summary, and description. The apps section implements the play command which points to the location of the moon-buggy executable. The parts section tells Snapcraft about any required plugins that are needed to build the application along with any packages it depends on. In this simple example all we need is the moon-buggy application itself from the Ubuntu archive and Snapcraft takes care of the rest.

Running snapcraft in the directory where you have the snapcraft.yaml file will create the moon-buggy_1.0.51.11_amd64.snap which can be installed by running:

$ snap install moon-buggy_1.0.51.11_amd64.snap

To seen an example of snapping something a little more complex, like the Electron-based Simplenote application see here, for a tutorial online here and the corresponding code on GitHub. More examples can be found on the getting Ubuntu developer website here.

Related posts


Canonical
9 May 2025

New 50 TOPS DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC ships with Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS pre-installed 

AI Article

Canonical is excited to announce the launch of DeepComputing’s new 50 TOPS DC-ROMA RISC-V AI PC and AI PC Mini with Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS pre-installed. The PC was launched in collaboration with Framework and is powered by ESWIN’s advanced RISC-V AI SoC EIC7702X—featuring 8 SiFive’s high-performance P550 CPU cores .  Built on the DC-RO ...


Stephanie Domas
7 May 2025

CRA compliance: Things IoT manufacturers can no longer do under the CRA (and what to do instead)

Compliance Article

In this blog, I’ll give you a thorough overview of common IoT manufacturer and PDE developer practices that need immediate attention, and how to change or improve these practices so that you can pass CRA compliance. ...


Frank Heimes
6 May 2025

IBM LinuxONE 5 and Ubuntu Server, a great combination from day one

Cloud and server Article

Today, IBM announced the launch of their latest server: the new IBM LinuxONE Emperor 5. This fifth generation redefines IBM’s LinuxONE system as their most secure and high-performing Linux computing platform for data, applications and trusted AI.  Canonical supports LinuxONE Emperor 5 with Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu is cost-efficient and easy ...