flatpak

sandboxed application distribution for Linux

TLDR

Run an installed application

$ flatpak run com.example.app

Install an application from remote

$ flatpak install flathub com.example.app

List installed applications

$ flatpak list --app

Update all applications and runtimes

$ flatpak update

Add a remote repository

$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Remove an application

$ flatpak remove com.example.app

Remove unused applications and runtimes

$ flatpak remove --unused

Show info about an application

$ flatpak info com.example.app

flatpak is a tool for managing applications and their associated runtimes. It enables building and distributing applications independently from the host system while providing sandbox isolation at runtime. The system supports both system-wide and per-user installation modes.

PARAMETERS

-h, --help

Show help options and exit

-v, --verbose

Show debug information (use -vv for more detail)

--version

Print version information and exit

--default-arch

Print the default architecture and exit

--supported-arches

Print supported architectures in order of priority

--gl-drivers

Print the list of active GL drivers

--installations

Print paths of system installations

--print-updated-env

Print environment variables needed to use flatpak

--user

Work on per-user installation only

--system

Work on system-wide installation (default)

--installation=NAME

Work on the specified installation (from /etc/flatpak/installations.d/)

INSTALL

sudo apt install flatpak

sudo dnf install flatpak

sudo pacman -S flatpak

sudo apk add flatpak

sudo zypper install flatpak

nix profile install nixpkgs#flatpak

CAVEATS

System-wide data is stored in $prefix/var/lib/flatpak/, while per-user data is in $HOME/.local/share/flatpak/. Flatpak uses OSTree repositories internally which can be manipulated directly using the ostree utility.

HISTORY

flatpak was originally developed as xdg-app by Alexander Larsson at Red Hat and was renamed to Flatpak in 2016. It provides a distribution-agnostic packaging format for Linux desktop applications.