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Borea Deitz
Asked: 2021-05-11 10:46:22 +0800 CST

Are snaps transportable between versions?

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I have an Ubuntu 16.04 installation with a set of snap directories in /snap/. As I upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04, can I expect to be able to copy these snap directories directly into a corresponding /snap/ directory on 20.04 and have them work?

Would I need to do anything else to make it work? Or is this completely unworkable, and I'm going to need to reinstall all the snaps on the new 20.04 system?

snap

1 Answers

  1. It's a waste of time to copy snap directories. Snaps are not merely a bunch of files; they are files that are placed, configured, and managed by snapd.

    Use the snap command to properly install/uninstall.

    Snaps are release-independent and constantly updated (those are key advantages of them). It doesn't matter which release of Ubuntu you are using. It doesn't matter which release you are migrating to (or reinstalling). There's only one current version of snap for your channel, and everybody get it.

    Snaps are unaffected by deb-based do-release-upgrade or dist-upgrade. That means old snaps are not removed, new snaps are not added (exception: A set of packages converting from deb to snap), and existing snaps are updated only by coincidence.

    • If you are upgrading to a new release of Ubuntu, your snaps won't be touched. They will still be there.
    • If you are installing or re-installing Ubuntu, you must reinstall your Snaps. Use snap list to see which snaps you currently have installed so you know what to reinstall.
    • Your Snaps' data is usually stored in your /home directory, not in /snap. You generally don't need to backup anything in /snap.
    • An example of the exception (packages converting from deb to snap during a release-upgrade) include LXD and Chromium. Those deb packages were replaced with a tiny transitional package that merely installed and configured the snap. After the snap is installed, those debs can be safely uninstalled.
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