up vote 6 down vote favorite

I downloaded and installed LibreOffice 5.2.0 beta2 as described in LibreOffice 5.2.0 beta2 as a snap package. It weighed in at 1015 MiB.

There will certainly be more updates before the RC is out. My question is this: will snap packages get differential (delta) updates or will the entire snap package, 1 GiB in this case, have to be downloaded each time?

(BTW: this version fixes the long-standing vanishing clipboard content issue!)

Postscript question: I want to know if I can delete libreoffice_5.2.0.0.beta2_amd64.snap, the 1 GiB "source" file, or must it remain on the system for the delta updates to work?

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Yes you can delete the original snap. The squashfs images being mounted are stored in /var/lib/snapd/snaps-- don't delete those :) . – Kyle Jun 15 '16 at 12:02
up vote 7 down vote accepted

This OMG! Ubuntu article says delta:

Newer Apps, Larger

One side-effect of the ‘bundle’ approach is, naturally, a larger initial package size.

But Snaps are clever; transactional and delta updates allows devs to only upgrade the parts that need updating, be it a single lib, an app icon, or the entire freaking thing.

The documentation on Snappy Ubuntu Core also mentions these points:

  • The OS and application files are kept completely separate, as a set of distinct read-only images.
  • Transactional, image-based delta updates for the system and applications that can always be rolled back.
  • These files are read-only, which means they cannot be tampered with and can be updated perfectly and predictably every time.
  • Signatures and fingerprints ensure you’re running exactly what was published by the developer, no funny business even if the bits came from the internet.
  • Delta management keeps the size of downloads to the bare minimum.
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That's great. Thanks! – DK Bose Jun 15 '16 at 10:27
    
I've added a bit to my question. Please see if you can throw some light on it. I want to know if I can delete libreoffice_5.2.0.0.beta2_amd64.snap, the 1 GiB "source" file or must it remain on the system for the delta updates to work? – DK Bose Jun 15 '16 at 10:46
    
@DKBose I can't find any information either way. – muru Jun 15 '16 at 12:51
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Please see Kyle's comment: askubuntu.com/questions/787256/libreoffice-snap-package/… – DK Bose Jun 15 '16 at 13:37
up vote 4 down vote

We changed the format of snaps in 16.04, to a newer, more compact and more secure format. We have to add back delta updates in the new format, it will come soon. Also, we will add back auto-gardening so that old snap will be removed automatically in future, but you can safely delete it now yourself.

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up vote 1 down vote

And now it's here. Delta updates in new Snaps format https://insights.ubuntu.com/2017/08/01/snap-updates-are-getting-smaller-heres-why/

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