I have Gnome 3.26, 3.28 and 3.34 on my machine (Ubuntu 18.04) and want to know if I can get rid of any of them to save disk space. Is there some kind of snap command I can run that will show me?
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charlesdeb
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Probably, there is a command that allows you to see details on a snap, including which other snaps it would need. The full documentation of snap is here: https://snapcraft.io/docs – vanadium Sep 29 '20 at 08:52
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1Yes, I expect there probably there is. And I would like to know what it is. Hence my question! `snap info
--verbose` doesn't give me that dependency info. – charlesdeb Oct 27 '20 at 11:46 -
1I'm not quite understanding your question. By definition, snaps are self-contained binary blobs, so there are no external dependencies. This is by design. However, if you're asking whether you can safely delete snaps such that their removal won't adversely impact your Linux environment, the command to run would be `sudo snap services` which lists active services employed via snaps. For validation, you can also run `sudo systemctl status snap.
`. I hope that helps answer your question. – richbl Nov 02 '22 at 22:29 -
How do you get the list of Gnome versions? – cachius Nov 04 '22 at 13:41
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1@cachius `snap list` gives you the list of snaps - and I see I now have Gnome 3.38 and Gnome 42 as well on my machine! But I first spotted this looking at disk space usage. – charlesdeb Nov 04 '22 at 14:06
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1@richbi running `sudo snap services` lists a canonical live patch service and a desktop integration thing - but nothing that says "gnome". My question was - as you have I think worked out - is "what will happen if I delete these gnome snaps?". I think the answer is here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1155957/two-different-versions-of-gnome-runtime. Bur I still don't know where these snaps came from or what ubuntu software relies on them. – charlesdeb Nov 04 '22 at 14:11
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On [my answer](http://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1851-17402003000100005) I mention that [`gnome-...` snaps are just backends for GTK snap apps](https://askubuntu.com/a/1345181/349837). If you don't use snaps you can remove them. Also "it's possible to remove all the snaps, and remove snapd... the desktop will function fine" (from Popey, former snap developer; now developer of [unsnap](https://github.com/popey/unsnap)). – Pablo Bianchi Nov 04 '22 at 16:44
2 Answers
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Snap Commands to track connections
You may use command below to list all slots/plugs used.
snap connectionsor for specific app, example:
$ snap connections snap-store Interface Plug Slot Notes appstream-metadata snap-store:appstream-metadata :appstream-metadata - content[gnome-3-38-2004] snap-store:gnome-3-38-2004 gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004 - content[gtk-3-themes] snap-store:gtk-3-themes gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes - content[icon-themes] snap-store:icon-themes gtk-common-themes:icon-themes - content[sound-themes] snap-store:sound-themes gtk-common-themes:sound-themes - dbus - snap-store:packagekit-svc - dbus - snap-store:snap-store - desktop snap-store:desktop :desktop - desktop-legacy snap-store:desktop-legacy :desktop-legacy - ...or probably best option with reverse search:
$ snap connections gnome-3-38-2004 Interface Plug Slot Notes content[gnome-3-38-2004] firefox:gnome-3-38-2004 gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004 - content[gnome-3-38-2004] snap-store:gnome-3-38-2004 gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004 - content[gnome-3-38-2004] snapd-desktop-integration:gnome-3-38-2004 gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004It may be worth adding, search by interface too:
$ snap interface content | grep gnome - firefox:gnome-3-38-2004 - snap-store:gnome-3-38-2004 - snapd-desktop-integration:gnome-3-38-2004 - gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004
Explaining snap connection
Due to the objective nature of snaps. Snap runs regular apps in confined environment. So each snap app that depends on another app, its developer has to declare the "connection" (or we may say plug-slot), mook765's answer here has used it for his approach (snap.yaml contains the dependencies declaration). The type of the connection is called "interface" content[gnome-3-38-2004]. And each connection composed of (one "slot" which is connected to either no, one or many "plugs"). Slot gnome-3-38-2004:gnome-3-38-2004 in this case is provided by gnome core snap, app declares and uses a plug ex:snap-store:gnome-3-38-2004 to that slot.
A good reference to read more: snapcraft.io: gnome-3-38-extension - plugs
Removing gnome-extension snap (Test)
Connections may auto/manually be connected or disconnected, that why I expect snap doesn't force uninstalling of dependent apps. I tested it within Ubuntu 22.04 in Virtual-box. Snap disconnects plug/slot and then removes the app. The app fails to run anyway.
$ snap remove gnome-3-38-2004
gnome-3-38-2004 removed
$ snap connections snap-store
Interface Plug Slot Notes
appstream-metadata snap-store:appstream-metadata :appstream-metadata -
content snap-store:gnome-3-38-2004 - -
content[gtk-3-themes] snap-store:gtk-3-themes gtk-common-themes:gtk-3-themes -
content[icon-themes] snap-store:icon-themes gtk-common-themes:icon-themes -
content[sound-themes] snap-store:sound-themes gtk-common-themes:sound-themes -
dbus - snap-store:packagekit-svc -
...
$ snap-store
ERROR: not connected to the gnome-3-38-2004 content interface.
$ firefox
ERROR: not connected to the gnome-3-38-2004 content interface.
user.dz
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1Interesting. So, for your example, it looks like the `gnome-3-38-2004` snap is used for the `firefox`, `snap-store` and `snapd-desktop-integration` snaps. If you were to remove the gnome snap, presumably those other 3 snaps would be affected/break/need to be uninstalled as well. Do I have that right? – charlesdeb Nov 05 '22 at 14:31
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BTW, I have no idea what connections, interfaces, plugs or slots are when it comes to snaps. I thought a snap was just a different way if installing software - so all these other terms are brand new to me. I guess I'd need to read the docs... Thanks for your help – charlesdeb Nov 05 '22 at 14:32
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@charlesdeb You are right however you don't have to remove dependent apps, but they may have limited/partial functionality or completely break. (I didn't test it, i will soon, I have Ubuntu in a virtualbox). – user.dz Nov 05 '22 at 14:37
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@charlesdeb About idioms, Snap create isolated runtime environment for each app. So each app needs another app, its developer has to declare the "connection", type of connection is called "interface". And each connection composed of (1 "slot" and 0 or many "plugs"). Slot in this case is provided by gnome core snap, each app that depend on gnome, declare and use a plug to that slot. – user.dz Nov 05 '22 at 14:42
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@rubo77 Snap core is built after releasing Ubuntu. So they are released and updated in sequence: Ubuntu 22.04 -> core22 -> Apps migration. They are kind of slow in stable channel, only if some prefer installing from edge channel. – user.dz Nov 06 '22 at 16:51
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Note that this doesn't seem to list the base (core18, core20, core22, and so on). – Flimm Mar 16 '23 at 12:41
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You can find out the dependencies of a snap by examining it's snap.yaml-file which is
/snap/<snapname>/<revision>/meta/snap.yaml
The commands
~$ grep "default-provider:" /snap/*/*/meta/snap.yaml
~$ grep "base:" /snap/*/*/meta/snap.yaml
will produce a list of all needed dependencies for all installed snaps, a dependency not listed can safely be removed. See the example in this answer.
mook765
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