Ubuntu – How to make snaps access hidden files and folders in ~/home

20.04filespermissionssnapsoftware installation

OS: Ubuntu 20.04

I installed gedit, kate, and libreoffice as snaps. 

$ snap list (partial output)
Name                             Version                     Rev   Tracking         Publisher   Notes
gedit                            3.36.0+git7.764f9c67f       537   latest/stable    canonical✓  -
kate                             20.04.0                     64    latest/stable    kde✓        -
libreoffice                      6.4.3.2                     177   latest/stable    canonical✓  -
$

None of these snaps can access any hidden files and hidden folders in my home folder. Is that by design?

The ls -al output for ~/home is below:

$ ls -al
total 104
drwxr-xr-x 18 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 16:26 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root  4096 Apr 26 16:12 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 dkb  dkb   2782 May  9 07:59 .bash_aliases
-rw-------  1 dkb  dkb  10748 May  9 19:32 .bash_history
-rw-r--r--  1 dkb  dkb    220 Apr 26 16:12 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 dkb  dkb   3953 Apr 27 15:09 .bashrc
drwx------ 14 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 15:58 .cache
drwxr-xr-x 21 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 15:58 .config
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 16:19 Desktop
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 15:47 Documents
drwxr-xr-x  3 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 16:17 Downloads
drwx------  3 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 30 19:10 .gnupg
-rw-------  1 dkb  dkb     97 May  4 09:39 .lesshst
drwxr-xr-x  3 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:22 .local
drwx------  5 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 27 16:34 .mozilla
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:22 Music
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 May  5 16:34 Pictures
-rw-r--r--  1 dkb  dkb    807 Apr 26 16:12 .profile
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:22 Public
drwxr-xr-x 13 dkb  dkb   4096 May 11 16:00 snap
drwx------  2 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:36 .ssh
-rw-r--r--  1 dkb  dkb      0 Apr 26 16:31 .sudo_as_admin_successful
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:22 Templates
drwx------  6 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 30 19:29 .thunderbird
drwxr-xr-x  2 dkb  dkb   4096 Apr 26 16:22 Videos
$

The issue doesn't may not be about hidden files or folders, per se. If I copy ~/.config over to ~/Downloads all three snaps can open ~/Downloads/.config and the files therein.

On the other hand, if I copy ~/.bashrc to ~/bashrc, the snaps have no difficulty.

Best Answer

The Snap 'home' interface permits access only to non-hidden files and directories in a user's /home.

The Snap 'personal-files' interface permits access to all files and directories in a user's /home.

  • Snap interfaces are defined in the yaml file used in snap creation.
  • The personal-files interface requires an additional $snap connect foo:foo-connect. The home interface does not, which makes it more convenient for some uses.
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