flatpak-run(1) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

FLATPAK RUN(1)                 flatpak run                FLATPAK RUN(1)

NAME         top

       flatpak-run - Run an application or open a shell in a runtime

SYNOPSIS         top


       flatpak run [OPTION...] REF [ARG...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       If REF names an installed application, Flatpak runs the
       application in a sandboxed environment. Extra arguments are
       passed on to the application. The current branch and arch of the
       application is used unless otherwise specified with --branch or
       --arch. See flatpak-make-current(1).

       If REF names a runtime, a shell is opened in the runtime. This is
       useful for development and testing. If there is ambiguity about
       which branch to use, you will be prompted to choose. Use --branch
       to avoid this. The primary arch is used unless otherwise
       specified with --arch.

       By default, Flatpak will look for the application or runtime in
       the per-user installation first, then in all 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
           XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
           SHELL
           TEMP
           TEMPDIR
           TMP
           TMPDIR
           PYTHONPATH
           PERLLIB
           PERL5LIB
           XCURSOR_PATH
           KRB5CCNAME
           XKB_CONFIG_ROOT
           GIO_EXTRA_MODULES
           GDK_BACKEND
           VK_DRIVER_FILES
           VK_ICD_FILENAMES

       Also several environment variables with the prefix "GST_" that
       are used by gstreamer are unset (since Flatpak 1.12.5).

       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
           XDG_STATE_HOME (since Flatpak 1.13)

       Apps can use the --persist=.local/state and
       --unset-env=XDG_STATE_HOME options to get a Flatpak
       1.13-compatible ~/.local/state on older versions of Flatpak.

       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
           HOST_XDG_STATE_HOME (since Flatpak 1.13)

       Flatpak sets the environment variable FLATPAK_ID to the
       application ID of the running app.

       Flatpak also bind-mounts as read-only the host's /etc/os-release
       (if available, or /usr/lib/os-release as a fallback) to
       /run/host/os-release in accordance with the os-release
       specification[1].

       If parental controls support is enabled, flatpak will check the
       current user’s parental controls settings, and will refuse to run
       an app if it is blocklisted for the current user.

OPTIONS         top

       The following options are understood:

       -h, --help
           Show help options and exit.

       -u, --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 run. See flatpak --supported-arches for
           architectures supported by the host.

       --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, pcsc, cups, gpg-agent.
           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, pcsc, cups,
           gpg-agent. 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, input, kvm, shm, 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, input, kvm, shm, 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, host-os,
           host-etc, 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. See the "[Context]
           filesystems" list in flatpak-metadata(5) for details of the
           meanings of these filesystems.

       --nofilesystem=FILESYSTEM
           Undo the effect of a previous --filesystem=FILESYSTEM in the
           app's manifest and/or the overrides set up with
           flatpak-override(1). This overrides the Context section of
           the application metadata.  FILESYSTEM can take the same
           values as for --filesystem, but the :ro and :create suffixes
           are not used here. This option can be used multiple times.

           This option does not prevent access to a more narrowly-scoped
           --filesystem. For example, if an application has the
           equivalent of --filesystem=xdg-config/MyApp in its manifest
           or as a system-wide override, and flatpak override --user
           --nofilesystem=home as a per-user override, then it will be
           prevented from accessing most of the home directory, but it
           will still be allowed to access $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/MyApp.

           As a special case, --nofilesystem=host:reset will ignore all
           --filesystem permissions inherited from the app manifest or
           flatpak-override(1), in addition to having the behaviour of
           --nofilesystem=host.

       --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.

       --unset-env=VAR
           Unset an environment variable in the application. This
           overrides the unset-environment entry in the [Context] group
           of the metadata, and the [Environment] group. This option can
           be used multiple times.

       --env-fd=FD
           Read environment variables from the file descriptor FD, and
           set them as if via --env. This can be used to avoid
           environment variables and their values becoming visible to
           other users.

           Each environment variable is in the form VAR=VALUE followed
           by a zero byte. This is the same format used by env -0 and
           /proc/*/environ.

       --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.

       --no-talk-name=NAME
           Don't 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.

       --system-no-talk-name=NAME
           Don't 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.

       --no-session-bus
           Run this instance without the filtered access to the session
           dbus connection. Note, this is the default when run with
           --sandbox.

       --session-bus
           Allow filtered access to the session dbus connection. This is
           the default, except when run with --sandbox.

           In sandbox mode, even if you allow access to the session bus
           the sandbox cannot talk to or own the application ids
           (org.the.App.*) on the bus (unless explicitly added), only
           names in the .Sandboxed subset (org.the.App.Sandboxed.* and
           org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.org.the.App.Sandboxed.*).

       --no-a11y-bus
           Run this instance without the access to the accessibility
           bus. Note, this is the default when run with --sandbox.

       --a11y-bus
           Allow access to the accessibility bus. This is the default,
           except when run with --sandbox.

       --sandbox
           Run the application in sandboxed mode, which means dropping
           all the extra permissions it would otherwise have, as well as
           access to the session/system/a11y busses and document portal.

       --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.

       --parent-pid=PID
           Specifies the pid of the "parent" flatpak, used by
           --parent-expose-pids and --parent-share-pids.

       --parent-expose-pids
           Make the processes of the new sandbox visible in the sandbox
           of the parent flatpak, as defined by --parent-pid.

       --parent-share-pids
           Use the same process ID namespace for the processes of the
           new sandbox and the sandbox of the parent flatpak, as defined
           by --parent-pid. Implies --parent-expose-pids.

       --instance-id-fd
           Write the instance ID string to the given file descriptor.

       --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.

       --app-path=PATH
           Instead of mounting the app's content on /app in the sandbox,
           mount PATH on /app, and the app's content on /run/parent/app.
           If the app has extensions, they will also be redirected into
           /run/parent/app, and will not be included in the
           LD_LIBRARY_PATH inside the sandbox.

       --app-path=
           As a special case, --app-path= (with an empty PATH) results
           in an empty directory being mounted on /app.

       --usr-path=PATH
           Instead of mounting the runtime's files on /usr in the
           sandbox, mount PATH on /usr, and the runtime's normal files
           on /run/parent/usr. If the runtime has extensions, they will
           also be redirected into /run/parent/usr, and will not be
           included in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH inside the sandbox.  This
           option will usually only be useful if it is combined with
           --app-path= and --env=LD_LIBRARY_PATH=....

EXAMPLES         top

       $ flatpak run org.gnome.gedit

       $ flatpak run --devel --command=bash org.gnome.Builder

       $ flatpak run --command=bash org.gnome.Sdk

SEE ALSO         top

       flatpak(1), flatpak-override(1), flatpak-enter(1)

NOTES         top

        1. os-release specification
           https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/os-release.html

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the flatpak (a tool for building and
       distributing desktop applications on Linux) project.  Information
       about the project can be found at ⟨http://flatpak.org/⟩.  It is
       not known how to report bugs for this man page; if you know,
       please send a mail to man-pages@man7.org.  This page was obtained
       from the project's upstream Git repository
       ⟨https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak⟩ on 2023-12-22.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-08.)  If you discover any rendering
       problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there
       is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org

flatpak                                                   FLATPAK RUN(1)

Pages that refer to this page: flatpak(1)flatpak-enter(1)flatpak-kill(1)flatpak-override(1)flatpak-ps(1)flatpak-spawn(1)flatpak-metadata(5)