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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.

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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/

---

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