How to Remove a Snap Package on Ubuntu

Want to know how to remove a snap package on Ubuntu?

While using a computer system, you install different applications to use the system at hand completely. These applications can be for office, education, entertainment, or multimedia purposes. How these programs are utilized and which applications are installed depends on the user and their requirements. 

There are different methods of downloading and installing new applications. Most of the setups of the required applications can be downloaded from web browsers, and then the users can run them to install the applications. 

Moreover, depending on the operating system a user has, the manufacturer provides different app stores. For example, Windows users can use the Microsoft store, and macOS users can use the Mac App Store. However, Linux users have their own app store and an additional package manager known as Snapcraft. 

Snapcraft provides Linux users with different applications in the form of snap packages that they can download and then install on their respective computer systems. If you are an Ubuntu user and are confused about how to remove a snap package, then you are at the right place, as this article will guide you on the methods you can use. 

So, without further ado, let’s get going!

Uninstalling a Snap Package.

Uninstalling a snap package is as straightforward as performing any other simple task on Linux. There are a few commands you need to learn of, and then you can be on your way to removing the particular snap package.

As you may know, uninstalling an application from Linux requires you to use one of the $rm/$remove or the $purge command. You can use the same commands for removing snap packages as well, but there is a change in syntax in the generally used command. The syntax to remove any snap package from your Ubuntu system is as follows. 

$ sudo snap purge <package name>

Or 

$ sudo snap remove <package name>

Or 

$ sudo snap rm <package name>

You can also use both these commands in combination.

$ sudo snap remove –purge <package name>

Ubuntu users usually use the “apt” package installer or manager to install or delete their packages. So the commands used for these purposes are as follows:

$ sudo apt-get <package name>

And for uninstalling,

$ sudo apt remove <package name>

Examples of Removing Snap Packages.

The difference between having snap packages and apt packages is that snaps are provided by Canonical. There are multiple benefits, such as better security, updated features, and all dependencies installed with the application. 

Let’s move on to examples of removing snap packages. Follow these steps.

1. Open the Command Terminal.
2. First, let’s check the snap packages you have installed on your system. You can use the following command for this purpose. 

$ snap list

You should see all the snap packages you have installed in the form of a list. 

3. Select the snap package you want to remove and then use the following command as a template to remove that particular package.

$ sudo snap remove –purge <package name>

The benefit of using $purge while removing any package is that the configuration files and the dependencies that are not removed by the $remove command are also deleted, hence freeing up more space. However, the drawback is that if you install that particular package again, the configuration files will be rewritten. 

• This is not all, as when you remove the package using the above command. There is still a chance that the snap package gets installed again if the $apt-get update command is run. For this, you need to stop the apt trigger as well. You can do this by adding a new preference file in the “/etc/apt/preferences.d/” directory and then adding another file having an arbitrary name. Upon creating that file, add the following lines. 

$ Package: snapd

  Pin: release a=*
    Pin-Priority: -10

This is how to remove a snap package on Ubuntu.

Installing a Snap Package.

To install a snap package on Ubuntu, you must ensure that you have the “snapd” function installed on your system. Otherwise, you can install it by running the following commands on the command terminal.

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install snapd

Next, we move on to installing a snap package. The process and the command for installing a snap package are similar to removing a snap package. You can use the following command for this purpose. 

$ sudo snap install <package name>

Alternatively, you can also install snap packages using the GUI. Follow these steps.

1. Open a browser of your choice. 
2. In the search bar, type “snap packages”.
3. You should see the following results. Click on the “snapcrafts.io” link. This should lead you to the home of “Snapcraft”. 
4. Over there, you can search for the application you want a snap package of. 

The Control Panel is generally for managing programs and applications. It comes pre-installed in every operating system. However, you can also install additional control panel applications from the web. 

One of the most popular applications for this purpose is TinyCP. It is a lightweight control panel application widely used because of its web-based operation. TinyCP allows you to access and manage everything regarding your computer system from a web browser. 

TinyCP is not only a control panel but is a base application from which you can launch large applications such as Nginx and the Web Apache server. Overall, it’s a very powerful and useful application that can help you in several ways. 

If you are interested in learning more about TinyCP and how to install it, you should go to this web-server link. It will lead you to a comprehensive guide on how to install TinyCP, along with the info about different applications and services available with it. 

This was an article on how to remove snap packages on Ubuntu. Snap packages are very easily installed and removed, as proved by the commands in this guide. We hope that we were able to help you out, and in case you have any further queries, let us know in the comments. 

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