DESCRIPTION¶
If REF names an installed application, flatpak runs the application in a
sandboxed environment. Extra arguments are passed on to the application.
If REF names a runtime, a shell is opened in the runtime. This is
useful for development and testing.
By default, flatpak will look for the application or runtime in
all per-user and system installations. This can be overridden with the
--user, --system and --installation options.
flatpak creates a sandboxed environment for the application to run
in by mounting the right runtime at /usr and a writable directory at /var,
whose content is preserved between application runs. The application itself
is mounted at /app.
The details of the sandboxed environment are controlled by the
application metadata and various options like --share and
--socket that are passed to the run command: Access is allowed if it
was requested either in the application metadata file or with an option and
the user hasn't overridden it.
The remaining arguments are passed to the command that gets run in
the sandboxed environment. See the --file-forwarding option for
handling of file arguments.
Environment variables are generally passed on to the sandboxed
application, with certain exceptions. The application metadata can override
environment variables, as well as the --env option. Apart from that,
Flatpak always unsets or overrides the following variables, since their
session values are likely to interfere with the functioning of the
sandbox:
PATH
LD_LIBRARY_PATH
XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
XDG_DATA_DIRS
SHELL
TMPDIR
PYTHONPATH
PERLLIB
PERL5LIB
XCURSOR_PATH
Flatpak also overrides the XDG environment variables to point
sandboxed applications at their writable filesystem locations below
~/.var/app/$APPID/:
XDG_DATA_HOME
XDG_CONFIG_HOME
XDG_CACHE_HOME
The host values of these variables are made available inside the
sandbox via these HOST_-prefixed variables:
HOST_XDG_DATA_HOME
HOST_XDG_CONFIG_HOME
HOST_XDG_CACHE_HOME
Flatpak sets the environment variable FLATPAK_ID to the
application ID of the running app.
OPTIONS¶
The following options are understood:
-h, --help
Show help options and exit.
--user
Look for the application and runtime in per-user
installations.
--system
Look for the application and runtime in the default
system-wide installations.
--installation=NAME
Look for the application and runtime in the system-wide
installation specified by NAME among those defined in
/etc/flatpak/installations.d/. Using --installation=default is
equivalent to using --system.
-v, --verbose
Print debug information during command processing.
--ostree-verbose
Print OSTree debug information during command
processing.
--arch=ARCH
The architecture to install for.
--command=COMMAND
The command to run instead of the one listed in the
application metadata.
--cwd=DIR
The directory to run the command in. Note that this must
be a directory inside the sandbox.
--branch=BRANCH
The branch to use.
-d, --devel
Use the devel runtime that is specified in the
application metadata instead of the regular runtime, and use a seccomp profile
that is less likely to break development tools.
--runtime=RUNTIME
Use this runtime instead of the one that is specified in
the application metadata. This is a full tuple, like for example
org.freedesktop.Sdk/x86_64/1.2, but partial tuples are allowed. Any empty or
missing parts are filled in with the corresponding values specified by the
app.
--runtime-version=VERSION
Use this version of the runtime instead of the one that
is specified in the application metadata. This overrides any version specified
with the --runtime option.
--share=SUBSYSTEM
Share a subsystem with the host session. This overrides
the Context section from the application metadata. SUBSYSTEM must be one of:
network, ipc. This option can be used multiple times.
--unshare=SUBSYSTEM
Don't share a subsystem with the host session. This
overrides the Context section from the application metadata. SUBSYSTEM must be
one of: network, ipc. This option can be used multiple times.
--socket=SOCKET
Expose a well known socket to the application. This
overrides to the Context section from the application metadata. SOCKET must be
one of: x11, wayland, fallback-x11, pulseaudio, system-bus, session-bus,
ssh-auth. This option can be used multiple times.
--nosocket=SOCKET
Don't expose a well known socket to the application. This
overrides to the Context section from the application metadata. SOCKET must be
one of: x11, wayland, fallback-x11, pulseaudio, system-bus, session-bus,
ssh-auth. This option can be used multiple times.
--device=DEVICE
Expose a device to the application. This overrides to the
Context section from the application metadata. DEVICE must be one of: dri,
kvm, all. This option can be used multiple times.
--nodevice=DEVICE
Don't expose a device to the application. This overrides
to the Context section from the application metadata. DEVICE must be one of:
dri, kvm, all. This option can be used multiple times.
--allow=FEATURE
Allow access to a specific feature. This overrides to the
Context section from the application metadata. FEATURE must be one of: devel,
multiarch, bluetooth. This option can be used multiple times.
See flatpak-build-finish(1) for the meaning of the various
features.
--disallow=FEATURE
Disallow access to a specific feature. This overrides to
the Context section from the application metadata. FEATURE must be one of:
devel, multiarch, bluetooth. This option can be used multiple times.
--filesystem=FILESYSTEM
Allow the application access to a subset of the
filesystem. This overrides to the Context section from the application
metadata. FILESYSTEM can be one of: home, host, xdg-desktop, xdg-documents,
xdg-download, xdg-music, xdg-pictures, xdg-public-share, xdg-templates,
xdg-videos, xdg-run, xdg-config, xdg-cache, xdg-data, an absolute path, or a
homedir-relative path like ~/dir or paths relative to the xdg dirs, like
xdg-download/subdir. The optional :ro suffix indicates that the location will
be read-only. The optional :create suffix indicates that the location will be
read-write and created if it doesn't exist. This option can be used multiple
times.
--nofilesystem=FILESYSTEM
Remove access to the specified subset of the filesystem
from the application. This overrides to the Context section from the
application metadata. FILESYSTEM can be one of: home, host, xdg-desktop,
xdg-documents, xdg-download, xdg-music, xdg-pictures, xdg-public-share,
xdg-templates, xdg-videos, an absolute path, or a homedir-relative path like
~/dir. This option can be used multiple times.
--add-policy=SUBSYSTEM.KEY=VALUE
Add generic policy option. For example,
"--add-policy=subsystem.key=v1 --add-policy=subsystem.key=v2" would
map to this metadata:
[Policy subsystem]
key=v1;v2;
This option can be used multiple times.
--remove-policy=SUBSYSTEM.KEY=VALUE
Remove generic policy option. This option can be used
multiple times.
--env=VAR=VALUE
Set an environment variable in the application. This
overrides to the Context section from the application metadata. This option
can be used multiple times.
--own-name=NAME
Allow the application to own the well known name NAME on
the session bus. If NAME ends with .*, it allows the application to own all
matching names. This overrides to the Context section from the application
metadata. This option can be used multiple times.
--talk-name=NAME
Allow the application to talk to the well known name NAME
on the session bus. If NAME ends with .*, it allows the application to talk to
all matching names. This overrides to the Context section from the application
metadata. This option can be used multiple times.
--system-own-name=NAME
Allow the application to own the well known name NAME on
the system bus. If NAME ends with .*, it allows the application to own all
matching names. This overrides to the Context section from the application
metadata. This option can be used multiple times.
--system-talk-name=NAME
Allow the application to talk to the well known name NAME
on the system bus. If NAME ends with .*, it allows the application to talk to
all matching names. This overrides to the Context section from the application
metadata. This option can be used multiple times.
--persist=FILENAME
If the application doesn't have access to the real
homedir, make the (homedir-relative) path FILENAME a bind mount to the
corresponding path in the per-application directory, allowing that location to
be used for persistent data. This overrides to the Context section from the
application metadata. This option can be used multiple times.
--log-session-bus
Log session bus traffic. This can be useful to see what
access you need to allow in your D-Bus policy.
--log-system-bus
Log system bus traffic. This can be useful to see what
access you need to allow in your D-Bus policy.
-p, --die-with-parent
Kill the entire sandbox when the launching process
dies.
--file-forwarding
If this option is specified, the remaining arguments are
scanned, and all arguments that are enclosed between a pair of '@@' arguments
are interpreted as file paths, exported in the document store, and passed to
the command in the form of the resulting document path. Arguments between
'@@u' and '@@' are considered uris, and any file: uris are exported. The
exports are non-persistent and with read and write permissions for the
application.
