14 DAY TRIAL // Flatpak developer Alex Larsson announced the release of Flatpak 0.6.10, a new maintenance update of the universal Linux binary format used in various GNU/Linux distributions.
Release highlights of Flatpak 0.6.10 include the implementation of a new run permission called "--allow=devel," which allows certain apps to use the perf and ptrace system calls, improvements to the update process so that it won't stop during the first failure, as well as initial support for .flatpakref files.
"These are simple key value files similar to .flatpakrepo files, however they specify an application to install in addition to the repo information. For example, Gedit can be installed by downloading https://sdk.gnome.org/gedit.flatpakref and running: flatpak install --from gedit.flatpakref," explains Alex Larsson in the release notes.
There's also a new D-Bus request called "HostCommand" integrated into org.freedesktop.Flatpak to execute any command on a host, the ability to run flatpak-builder from inside a Flatpak app, improvements to the "flatpak build-update-repo" command, and support for apps to trigger a restart for newly installed versions.
Bubblewrap 0.1.2 and OSTree 2016.10 are now required
Flatpak 0.6.10 also bumps the OSTree and Bubblewrap dependencies to versions 2016.10 and 0.1.2, respectively, removes the requirement for the "systemd --user" command, thus making the dependency on the systemd init system in the user session optional, and adds information about a running app in the $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/flatpak-info file.
Below, we've attached the full changelog of Flatpak 0.6.10, just in case you have questions about any of the new features and improvements listed above. In the meantime, we recommend upgrading your GNU/Linux operating system to Flatpak 0.6.10 as soon as the new version lands in the main repositories.