Flatpak

Flatpak
Original authorAlexander Larsson
DeveloperFlatpak Team
ReleaseSeptember 2015; 11 years ago (2015-09)
Stable release
1.18.4 Edit this on Wikidata / 28 September 2026; 48 days ago (28 September 2026)
Written inC
Operating systemLinux
LicenseLGPL-2.1-or-later
WebsiteFlatpak
Flathub
Repository

Flatpak (formerly xdg-app) is a software packaging and deployment system made for Linux. It provides a sandbox environment in which users can run application software, or “apps”, in isolation from the rest of the system. Flatpak also enables developers to push updates directly to users, without having to package and test the application separately for each distribution.

Functionality

Installation

Flatpak applications can be installed either system-wide or user-wide. This means that a user is able to install any flatpak application, even without any admin privileges.

Flatpak applications generally contain AppStream data, which is metadata about the pieces of software they provide (e.g. description, categories, dependencies). They are in the form of metainfo files, which are small XML files.

Users can also install Flatpak applications directly from source, instead of installing from flatpak repositories. Supported filetypes include:

  • .flatpak files, which are single-file bundles (note that it doesn't dependencies or AppStream data),
  • .flatpakref files, which are application descriptions, and
  • OCI images.

Configurable sandbox

Applications using Flatpak are sandboxed, meaning they need permissions to access resources such as sound (via PipeWire), network, and files. The default permissions that the Flatpak application use are configured by the maintainers of the Flatpak, and they can be overridden by users on their system.

Because Flatpak runs in a sandbox, which provides a separate ABI-stable version of common system libraries and operating system interfaces, it uses more space on the system than common native packages. To solve this, Flatpak uses OSTree, which deduplicates matching files. This means that the first few Flatpak installations will occupy more space, but as more packages are added, the system will use space more efficiently.

Repositories

Flathub, a centralized repository (or remote source in the Flatpak terminology), is the de facto standard for installing Flatpak applications. Packages are contributed by both Flathub administrators and application developers. To get into Flathub, the applications must meet Flathub's requirements. Administrators can prevent applications from being merged into Flathub at any point during or after the submission and review process.

Applications can be verified when Flathub administrators confirm that an application's ID is owned by the developer or an authorized party. On the Flathub website, there will be a blue tick on the application's page if it is verified.

Users can add their own remotes; the Flatpak documentations recommends users to use .flatpakrepo files, which contain details about the remote and its GPG key. Users can also host their own Flatpak repositories that are independent of Flathub.

By November of 2026, Flathub had 3,760 apps, 2,219 of which were verified. Flathub had more than a million users and 4.9 billion downloads. Cassidy James Blaede attributed this to the adoption of Flatpak by well-known companies and Linux distributions, and the newly made verification system.

Support

Other than a few edge cases, Flatpak apps can be installed on any Linux distribution, including those installed with the Windows Subsystem for Linux compatibility layer, so long as bubblewrap and OSTree are available.

It can also be used on Linux kernel-based systems like ChromeOS.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "About". Archived from the original on 2023-07-14. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  2. ↑ "Flatpak's History". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2022-04-10. Retrieved 2018-08-19.
  3. ↑ "Release 1.18.4". 28 September 2026. Retrieved 29 September 2026.
  4. ↑ "COPYING". GitHub. 31 March 2015. Archived from the original on 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2021-10-14.
  5. ↑ Larsson, Alexander (9 May 2016). "Renamed to flatpak in git". freedesktop.org. Archived from the original on 24 June 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2016.
  6. ↑ Larsson, Alexander (29 April 2016). "Using bubblewrap in xdg-app". Alexander Larsson: Cool links and commentary. GNOME. Archived from the original on 14 May 2019. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  7. ↑ Willis, Nathan (2015-01-21). "GNOME and application sandboxing revisited". LWN. Archived from the original on 2018-11-25. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
  8. ↑ Larsson, Alex (21 August 2018). "Kick-starting the revolution 1.0". Retrieved 14 April 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  9. ↑ "User vs system install | Flathub Documentation". docs.flathub.org. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  10. ↑ "Upstream Metadata | AppStream | AppStream 1.2". www.freedesktop.org. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  11. ↑ "Single-file bundles". Flatpak. Archived from the original on 2026-10-24. Retrieved 2026-11-05.
  12. ↑ "Flatpak Command Reference". Flatpak. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  13. ↑ "Sandbox Permissions". Flatpak documentation. Archived from the original on 2019-06-20. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  14. ↑ "flatpak-run". Flatpak documentation. Archived from the original on 2019-06-26. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  15. ↑ Brodkin, Jon (2016-06-21). "Linux's RPM/deb split could be replaced by Flatpak vs. snap". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2026-05-08.
  16. ↑ TheEvilSkeleton (2022-05-16). "Response to "Flatpak Is Not the Future"". TheEvilSkeleton. Archived from the original on 2023-02-11. Retrieved 2023-02-11.
  17. ↑ "7 Flatpak Apps You Can Install Right Now from Flathub". OMG! Ubuntu!. 2017-07-20. Archived from the original on 2019-05-29. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
  18. ↑ Submission - Flathub Documentation., Flathub, 2024-02-05, archived from the original on 2024-02-05, retrieved 2024-02-05
  19. ↑ "Verification | Flathub Documentation". docs.flathub.org. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  20. ↑ "Verified apps | Flathub Documentation". docs.flathub.org. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  21. ↑ "List remotes". Flatpak documentation. Archived from the original on 2019-07-06. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  22. ↑ "Hosting a Repository". Archived from the original on 18 February 2020. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  23. ↑ "Reasons to use Flatpak". Flatpak documentation. Archived from the original on 2019-06-17. Retrieved 2019-06-24.
  24. 1 2 "Statistics | Flathub". Flathub - Apps for Linux. Retrieved 2026-11-07.
  25. ↑ "Over One Million Active Users, and Growing | Flathub Documentation". docs.flathub.org. 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2026-11-01.
  26. ↑ "Chrome OS Quick Setup". Archived from the original on 2020-08-02. Retrieved 2020-07-22.