As of Ubuntu 18.04 running lsblk shows 16 snap loops (2-3 times for each snap). The question is, why are they being listed as results for lsblk, fdisf-l, and blkid?
It creates a lot of clutter from the actual disks drive partitions I need to see, namely /dev/ partitions. I know a purported duplicate of this question exists, but it only asks why three loops are being listed per snap. I want to know why these snaps are being listed in the first place, and the purported duplicate does not answer this (perhaps those marking this as duplicate could help me by explaining why it is a duplicate). Technically, they qualify as file systems (which I neither created nor asked for), but they are getting in the way of the information output for the /dev/ partitions I am interested in. This becomes a problem when fdisk -l outputs a three page+ list filled mainly with snaps.
The output of a recent (1 week old) Ubuntu install and I have not installed any snaps:
$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0 7:0 0 14.5M 1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/37
loop1 7:1 0 2.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/170
loop2 7:2 0 86.6M 1 loop /snap/core/4486
loop3 7:3 0 86.6M 1 loop /snap/core/4650
loop4 7:4 0 1.6M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/154
loop5 7:5 0 14.5M 1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/34
loop6 7:6 0 3.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/36
loop7 7:7 0 2.3M 1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/178
loop8 7:8 0 13M 1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/101
loop9 7:9 0 3.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/45
loop10 7:10 0 139.5M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/64
loop11 7:11 0 140M 1 loop /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/59
loop12 7:12 0 3.7M 1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/41
loop13 7:13 0 21M 1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/25
loop14 7:14 0 12.2M 1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/69
loop15 7:15 0 13M 1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/96
sda 8:0 0 298.1G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 512M 0 part /boot/efi
└─sda2 8:2 0 297.6G 0 part /
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
(supplemental screen capture of above text):
screenshot.jpg
My snap list shows 6 results:
core
gnome-3-26-1604
gnome-calculator
gnome-characters
gnome-logs
gnome-system-monitor
Meanwhile, gnome-disk-utility shows nothing at all for snaps, only showing my HDD and optical drive.
It won't be very efficient if every installed snap gets listed as a block device (2-3 times each to add). Should I expect future updates to deal with this?
Edit:
fdisk-l also dumps out a very long list with 16 instances of these "disk loops" (Disk /dev/loop0, Disk /dev/loop1, etc., each with details which I won't show here because it's too long). This can't be intended behaviour, can it?
blkid also lists 16 loops, as TYPE="squashfs". At least parted -l works as expected, only outing my actual disk partitions.
I just tested this, and installing more snaps does add more to the lsblk output. Therefore, fdisk, lsblk, blkid could have potentially huge output lists, according to the number of snaps available, and installed.
Best Answer
When you type the command
you will get the output of actual installed snap packages. The reason is when a snap package is updated, the old version is kept (see snapcraft docu).
Citate from snapcraft docu
Explicitly removing a snap from your system will also remove the code and purge the data for all prior versions.
For instance you have got installed more than one versions of gnome-calculator.
In case you only need the newest version, you can use
Using the command
shows you the mounted snaps (loop devices)
If you want to delete the double ones, type
It seems to be an error of the snap code, since all older been kept in the /var/lib/snapd/snaps file.