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Snap (software)

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Snappy is a software deployment and package management system originally designed and built by Canonical for the Ubuntu phone operating system. The packages, called 'snaps' and the tool for using them 'snapd', work across a range of Linux distributions and allow therefore distro-agnostic upstream software deployment. The system is designed to work for phone, cloud, internet of things and desktop computing.[1]

Functionality

"Snap" application packages of software are self-contained and work across a range of Linux distributions. This is unlike traditional Linux package management approaches, like APT or RPM, which require specifically adapted packages per Linux distribution on an application update and delay therefore application deployment from developers to their software's end-user.[2][3] Snaps themselves have no dependency on any external store ("App store"), can be obtained from any source and can be therefore used for upstream software deployment. When snaps are deployed on Ubuntu and other versions of Linux, the Ubuntu app store is used as default back-end, but other stores can be enabled as well.

Developers can use snaps to create command line tools, background services as well as desktop applications.[4] With snap application, upgrades via atomic operation or by deltas are possible.[5][6][7][8]

In June 2016, snapd was ported to a wide range of Linux distributions to enable snaps to be used across any Linux distribution, not just the all-snap Ubuntu Core. snapd is also available or in progress for Arch Linux, CentOS, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, OpenWrt, openSUSE and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Each distribution is able to interpret the snap metadata to implement the security or other expectations of the snap in a distribution-specific fashion.

Snapcraft

Snapcraft is a tool for developers to package their programs in the Snap format for Snappy.[9]

snap format

The snap format is a single compressed filesystem that is mounted dynamically by the host operating system, together with declarative metadata that is interpreted by the snap system to set up an appropriately shaped secure sandbox or container for that application. File format extension is .snap .

Reception and usage

Snappy packaging has been deployed in internet of things environments, ranging from consumer-facing products[10] to enterprise device management gateways.[11] Snappy is included by default in Ubuntu 16.04 desktop images.

See also

References

  1. ^ http://snapcraft.io/
  2. ^ Upgrading packaged Ubuntu application unreasonably involves upgrading entire OS Bug #578045 on bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu by John King (2010-05-10)
  3. ^ Linus Torvalds on the problems of distro packaging Linus Torvalds on DebConf 2014
  4. ^ "Canonical unveils 6th LTS release of Ubuntu with 16.04". Ubuntu Insights. Canonical Ltd. Retrieved 22 April 2016.
  5. ^ Shuttleworth, Mark (9 December 2014). "Announcing Ubuntu Core, with snappy transactional updates!".
  6. ^ Willis, Nathan (28 January 2015). "Ubuntu Core and Snappy". Linux Weekly News. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  7. ^ http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/snappy
  8. ^ http://www.zdnet.com/article/ubuntu-snap-takes-charge-of-linux-desktop-and-iot-software-distribution/
  9. ^ Brodkin, Jon. "Adios apt and yum? Ubuntu's snap apps are coming to distros everywhere". Ars Technica. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  10. ^ Vaughan-Nichols, Stephen J. (11 May 2015). "Ubuntu jumps into Internet of Things with Acer, GE, and Microsoft". ZDNet. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  11. ^ Sherman, Jordana. "Snappy Core unlocks IoT value within the Dell Edge Gateway 5000 Series". Ubuntu Insights. Canonical Ltd. Retrieved 7 November 2015.


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