Users can update Snapcraft to version 2.17 right now

Sep 16, 2016 20:25 GMT  ·  By

Today, September 16 2016, Canonical's Sergio Schvezov was proud to announce the release of yet another maintenance update to the Snapcraft tool that helps application developers package their apps as Snaps for Ubuntu and other Linux OSes.

The biggest new features implemented in the Snapcraft 2.17 release are the implementation of the "snapcraft list-keys" and "snapcraft-register-key" commands, globbing support for the "organize" keyword for parts, as well as a brand new "python" plugin that combines code from both "python2" and "python3" plugins.

"This new plugin creates leaner snaps, works better with regards to build environments, separates `stage-packages` from package brought in with `pip` and solves many latent bugs from the previous incantation of the python plugins," says Sergio Schvezov in today's announcement. Various bugs were fixed as well, so you should check out the Launchpad changelog for more details.

Here how to install Snapcraft 2.17 in Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

If you're new to Snapcraft and you want to install it on your Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) operating system, you can do so right now by using the two commands listed below. After installation, you should run the first command from the second set to also install the example Snaps to help you get started. The last command below allows you to view all of Snapcraft's options.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapcraft
sudo apt install snapcraft-examples
snapcraft --help
On the other hand, if you're familiar with Snapcraft, and you just want to update your installation to today's 2.17 release, you can do so right now by installing Snapcraft 2.17 from the official repositories of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus). In the meantime, you should also check out a brand new app that offers you a graphical user interface, Snapcraft GUI, making easier to package your apps as Snaps.