In snap: "error: unknown flag hold"

Question

Snap automatic updates can now be disabled with $ sudo snap refresh --hold.

This can be seen in this other thread and this blog post and from the mouth of the horse itself.

My Ubuntu 22.04 is up to date but I get an error when running the command. Any idea why?

$ sudo apt update
...
All packages are up to date.

$ sudo snap refresh
All snaps up to date.

$ sudo snap refresh --hold
error: unknown flag `hold'

There is no `--hold` option in `snap` AFAIK. Did you look at the man documentation? — FedKad, Dec 21 '22 at 15:38
@FedKad: I did look at the man pages and there's no `--hold` option. But if you look at the linked thread there are answers there suggesting it's use. — Daniel, Dec 21 '22 at 15:57
... your "mouth of the horse" link describes it as *"The new hold feature"* so perhaps it is not available in your version? According to the [roadmap](https://snapcraft.io/docs/snapd-roadmap) it was added in 2.58, whereas Ubuntu 22.04 has 2.56.2 — steeldriver, Dec 21 '22 at 17:10
@steeldriver: Ah, you're right! It's 2.58 in roadmap and I have 2.57.6 (`$ snap --version`). Strange that others are mentioning the use of `--hold` in relation to Ubuntu. Maybe they're using Ubuntu 22.10 or another distro but still dropping comments on AskUbuntu. — Daniel, Dec 21 '22 at 19:32
@steeldriver: I'll accept your comment as an answer since it explains why `--hold` isn't working in 22.04. — Daniel, Dec 21 '22 at 19:36
`snap --version` at Ubuntu 22.10 is `snap 2.57.6 snapd 2.57.6`. — FedKad, Dec 22 '22 at 09:55

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 25 '22 at 06:17

2

sudo snap refresh snapd --edge

or if you don't have snapd installed as a snap:

sudo snap install snapd --edge

And after that --hold and --unhold flags will be at your service!

answered Dec 25 '22 at 06:17

Daniel

21
1

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited Dec 22 '22 at 09:57

Quoting from the third link in your question:

Refresh hold

The new hold feature allows system administrators and end users to stop or postpone their snap updates for as long as necessary.

Searching around a bit, The snapd roadmap indicates that the refresh --hold feature was added in version 2.58. Meanwhile, Ubuntu 22.04 currently provides 2.56 at the latest:

$ apt policy snapd
snapd:
  Installed: 2.56.2+22.04ubuntu1
  Candidate: 2.56.2+22.04ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 2.56.2+22.04ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.55.3+22.04 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages

So, your version simply doesn't support the feature.

In Ubuntu 22.10:

$ apt policy snapd
snapd:
  Installed: 2.57.5+22.10ubuntu0.1
  Candidate: 2.57.5+22.10ubuntu0.1
  Version table:
 *** 2.57.5+22.10ubuntu0.1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu kinetic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu kinetic-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.57.4+22.10ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu kinetic/main amd64 Packages

So, even Ubuntu 22.10 does not have this option.

In snap: "error: unknown flag hold"

2 Answers2

Refresh hold

Linked