FLATPAK-INSTALL(1)

💖 NAME 💖

flatpak-install — install an application or runtime, bestie. that's it. that's the whole job. 👑

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so this is literally the command you run to get an app or runtime onto your machine. The main character way to do it is: give a REMOTE name as the source, plus one or more REFs saying which app or runtime you want. If you don't give a REMOTE, Flatpak goes shopping through all your configured remotes looking for the first REF, and then — bestie, pay attention — it asks you to confirm the choice it found. no surprises here. 💅

Every REF argument is a full or partial identifier in the flatpak ref format, which looks like (app|runtime)/ID/ARCH/BRANCH. Every single element except ID is optional and can be left out, slashes included, so most of the time you just need the ID and you're done. Anything you leave out gets matched against what's actually in the remote, and if there's more than one match, you get prompted to pick one. You also get a choice menu if REF doesn't match anything exactly but is similar to one or more refs in the remote (classic example: devhelp is similar to org.gnome.Devhelp) — but heads up, this fuzzy matching behaviour is disabled if REF contains any slashes or periods. so no vibes-based guessing once you get specific. 🫶

By default this looks for both apps and runtimes with the given REF in the specified REMOTE, but you can narrow it down with --app or --runtime, or by supplying the initial element in the REF yourself. 💅

If REMOTE is a uri or a path (absolute, or relative starting with ./) to a local repository, then that repository becomes the source, and a temporary remote gets created for the lifetime of the REF. cute, temporary, iconic. 🌸

If the specified REMOTE has a collection ID configured on it, Flatpak will search the sideload-repos directories configured either with the --sideload-repo option, or on a per-installation or system-wide basis (see flatpak(1)).

For OCI remotes, sideload repositories can also be specified as --sideload-repo=oci:PATH or --sideload-repo=oci-archive:PATH, where path points to an OCI image layout or archive of an OCI image layout. (See containers-transports(5).) When specified in this fashion, the images found in the image layout are available for all OCI remotes, without regard to collection ID. For this reason, there is no directory equivalent — it can only be specified on the command line. no cap. 🚫

The alternative form of the command (with --from, --bundle, or --image) lets you install directly from a source. The source can be a .flatpak single-file bundle, a .flatpakref application description, or a reference to an OCI image. Those options are optional if the first argument has the expected filename extension or prefix — Flatpak just knows. ✨

Not me needing to tell you this: flatpak allows you to have multiple branches of an application and runtimes installed and used at the same time. However, only one version of an application can be current, meaning its exported files (for instance desktop files and icons) are visible to the host. The last installed version is made current by default, but this can manually be changed with flatpak make-current. 📌

Unless overridden with the --user or the --installation option, this command installs the application or runtime in the default system-wide installation. periodt.

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🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

The following options are understood:

• -h, --help — show help options and exit. the "wait what does this do again" button. 💫
• --bundle — treat LOCATION as a single-bundle file. This is assumed if the argument ends with .flatpak.
• --from — treat LOCATION as an application description file. This is assumed if the argument ends with .flatpakref.
• --image — treat LOCATION as the location of a Flatpak in OCI image format. LOCATION is in the format of containers-transports(5). Supported schemes are docker://, oci:, and oci-archive:. This is assumed if the argument starts with one of these schemes. 🐳
• --reinstall — uninstall first if already installed. out with the old, in with the new. 🔥
• -u, --user — install the application or runtime in a per-user installation.
• --system — install the application or runtime in the default system-wide installation.
• --installation=NAME — install the application or runtime in a system-wide installation specified by NAME among those defined in /etc/flatpak/installations.d/. Using --installation=default is equivalent to using --system.
• --arch=ARCH — the default architecture to install for, if not given explicitly in the REF. See flatpak --supported-arches for architectures supported by the host.
• --subpath=PATH — install only a subpath of REF. This is mainly used to install a subset of locales. This can be added multiple times to install multiple subpaths.
• --gpg-file=FILE — check bundle signatures with GPG key from FILE (- for stdin). 🔐
• --no-deploy — download the latest version, but don't deploy it.
• --no-pull — don't download the latest version, deploy whatever is locally available.
• --no-related — don't download related extensions, such as the locale data.
• --no-deps — don't verify runtime dependencies when installing.
• --or-update — normally install just ignores things that are already installed (printing a warning), but if --or-update is specified it silently turns it into an update operation instead. the glow-up option. ✨
• --app — assume that all REFs are apps if not explicitly specified.
• --runtime — assume that all REFs are runtimes if not explicitly specified.
• --sideload-repo=PATH — adds an extra local ostree repo as a source for installation. This is equivalent to using the sideload-repos directories (see flatpak(1)), but can be done on a per-command basis. Any path added here is used in addition to ones in those directories.
• --include-sdk — for each app being installed, also installs the SDK that was used to build it. Implies --or-update; incompatible with --no-deps.
• --include-debug — for each ref being installed, as well as all dependencies, also installs its debug info. Implies --or-update; incompatible with --no-deps.
• -y, --assumeyes — automatically answer yes to all questions (or pick the most prioritized answer). This is useful for automation. the "yes bestie whatever you say" flag. 🫡
• --noninteractive — produce minimal output and avoid most questions. This is suitable for use in non-interactive situations, e.g. in a build script.
• -v, --verbose — print debug information during command processing.
• --ostree-verbose — print OSTree debug information during command processing.

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🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

https://flathub.org/repo/appstream/org.gnome.gedit.flatpakref

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

flatpak(1), flatpak-update(1), flatpak-list(1), flatpak-build-bundle(1), flatpakref(5), flatpak-make-current(1), ostree-find-remotes(1)

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and that's the whole page, bestie — FLATPAK INSTALL(1), straight from the flatpak manual, section 1. go install something iconic. 💜🦋✨