snapd

Start the snapd service

$ sudo systemctl start snapd

$ sudo systemctl enable snapd

$ systemctl status snapd

$ sudo systemctl restart snapd

$ sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

snapd [--version]

snapd is the background service that manages snap packages on Linux systems. It handles installation, updates, removal, and security confinement of snaps through a REST API interface.
Snaps are self-contained application packages bundling all dependencies, enabling cross-distribution compatibility. The daemon automatically checks for updates four times daily and applies them in the background.
snapd enforces application sandboxing using AppArmor and seccomp, mediating access between snaps and the host system. Users interact with snapd through the snap command-line client.
The service must be running before any snap operations can be performed.

Classic snap support requires a symlink from /snap to /var/lib/snapd/snap. On SELinux-enabled systems (like Fedora), snap sandboxing is degraded since AppArmor and SELinux cannot both be fully active. Snaps may consume more disk space than traditional packages due to bundled dependencies.

Snap was developed by Canonical as part of Ubuntu, first introduced in Ubuntu 16.04 (2016). Originally called Snappy, it was designed to provide universal Linux packages that work across distributions with consistent behavior and automatic updates.

snap(8), snapcraft(1), flatpak(1), apparmor(7)