This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:

This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org:
---
Title : Ubuntu Snap auto updates broke my development setup and there is no way to turn them off
Author : Remy van Elst
Date : 01-08-2020
Last update : 02-08-2020
URL : https://raymii.org/s/blog/Ubuntu_Snap_auto_updates_broke_my_development_setup.html
Format : Markdown/HTML
---

After updating-by-reinstall to Ubuntu 20.04, I installed CLion via `snap` since
that seemed more convinient than manually downloading a java installation.
**CLion is the best thing since sliced bread**, or I mean a C/C++ IDE by
JetBrains. Ubuntu `snap` is a packaging system made by Canonical and pushed
hard in Ubuntu. Today I found out the hard way that snap auto-updates and that
there is no way to turn that off permanently. CLion was updated, which I
noticed because the process was killed. The update broke several key plugins
for my workflow and the theme was weird. In this article I'll discuss my
disgust, I as the owner of the computer want to be in full control, not some
developer forcing their will, deciding I need auto updates. I ended up removing snap completely,
and my next install will not be Ubuntu due to this.

Here is a picture after the auto update occured.

![clion after snap][1]

Not just the plugins on the screenshot broke, but also the plugin used to
cross compile to ARM, which was the main issue. The theme issue was fixed
after switching the theme to Dracula and back to High Contrast.

 Recently I removed all Google Ads from this site due to their invasive tracking, as well as Google Analytics. Please, if you found this content useful, consider a small donation using any of the options below: <a href="https://leafnode.nl">I'm developing an open source monitoring app called Leaf Node Monitoring, for windows, linux & android. Go check it out!</a> <a href="https://github.com/sponsors/RaymiiOrg/">Consider sponsoring me on Github. It means the world to me if you show your appreciation and you'll help pay the server costs.</a> <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212">You can also sponsor me by getting a Digital Ocean VPS. With this referral link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days. </a> 

I do love auto updates and the security benefit, but I rather prefer to be in
control on such an important system. I carefully `apt update` and `snap
refresh` every week, but only after reviewing which packages are included in
the update, checking changelogs and holding off CLion updates until they've
been out for two weeks. With `apt` I can `hold` packages and if I want,
disable `unattended-upgrades`, with `snap`, this is impossible.

### A response to online comments on snap revert

In the [reddit post][6], on Hacker news and Lobste.rs, most of the online
comments mention that I could have just rolled back to the previous
version of CLion by using `snap revert clion`. I was aware of that when
writing the article, but that entirely misses the point. **I don't want to
rollback when something breaks**. I want to be in control when things are updated.
You don't service the engine onm your car while driving on the highway,
even when you can fix things after you've crashed. You plan that maintenance.
Just as I want to do with my software.

### Disable snap updates

There is no way to disable snap updates. Yes you read that right. Ubuntu is
worse than windows in this regard, because even Microsoft lets you, in company
setups, disable updates (Windows 10 LTSC with group policies, or Windows 10
with WSUS).

[There is a three year long forum topic][3] but no solution is provided by the
snap developers. The snap store / backend is also not open source, although
the client is, you cannot configure any other snap store (like different apt
repositories). So in theory, Canonical has full control over your computer and
can execute malicious code without user intervention.

You know what the worst thing is? There is a sort-of disable option, but snap
ignores that:

> After a refresh, the next refresh can be delayed by up to 60 days, after
which a refresh will be performed regardless of the refresh.hold value.

[source][2]

### Workarounds

One workaround I found is to remove snap entirely:

sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd

Which is what I ended up doing. My next (re)install will also probably be
Linux Mint since they disable snap and do let their users configure updates.

One [other thing I found][4] is people blocking the snap domains [in their
hosts file][5] or setting up a proxy for snap (why does that not follow system
wide settings? Another example of stupid developers reinventing the wheel I
guess).

But, workarounds are as the name suggests, workarounds. Just give people the
option to disable auto updates. Even if you enable them by default, let me be
in control of what and when things happen.

### Conclusion

After uninstalling snap and reinstalling the previous version of CLion via the
regular java installation method, my plugins worked again. But it did take
half an hour of my precious time and caused some frustration when I found
out the utter stupidity of the snap development team for forcing their will
on everyone. Vote with your wallet, stop buying / using Ubuntu and snap,
otherwise it will only get worse.

[1]: /s/inc/img/clion-update.png
[2]: https://snapcraft.io/docs/keeping-snaps-up-to-date
[3]: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/disabling-automatic-refresh-for-snap-from-store/707/284
[4]: https://discuss.linuxcontainers.org/t/disable-snap-auto-refresh-immediately/5333
[5]: https://askubuntu.com/questions/930593/how-to-disable-autorefresh-in-snap
[6]: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/i19zrr/ubuntu_snap_auto_updates_broke_my_development/

---

License:
All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise.
This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it
the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified)
content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got
and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source.

This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for
advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you.
Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it.

All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license
unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form
of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software:

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational
purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you
screw something up. Use common sense, do not 'rm -rf /' as root for example.
If you have any questions then do not hesitate to contact me.

See https://raymii.org/s/static/About.html for details.