Managing Flatpak Applications and Checking Sizes
Flatpak Application Management
Flatpak is a universal package manager for Linux that allows you to distribute applications independent of the Linux distribution. One useful aspect of managing flatpak applications is being able to view installed applications and their disk usage.
Listing Flatpak Applications
To view all installed flatpak applications with their sizes, use the following command:
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flatpak list --columns=application,size
This command displays a table with two columns:
- application: The application ID or name of the installed flatpak
- size: The disk space used by each application
Understanding the Output
The output will look similar to this:
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Application Size
org.gnome.Evolution 250.0 MB
org.mozilla.firefox 420.3 MB
com.github.tchx84.Flatseal 12.5 MB
org.gnome.Extensions 8.2 MB
Other Useful Flatpak List Commands
You can customize the output with different column options:
Show all available information
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flatpak list --app --columns=application,version,branch,origin,size
Only system flatpaks
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flatpak list --app --system
Only user flatpaks
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flatpak list --app --user
Show runtimes
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flatpak list --runtime
Managing Flatpak Storage
To see detailed information about flatpak storage usage:
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du -sh ~/.var/app/*/
This shows the size of data directories for each installed application in your home directory.
Cleaning Up Unused Flatpaks
To remove unused flatpaks and free up disk space:
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# Remove unused runtimes
flatpak uninstall --unused
# Remove a specific application
flatpak uninstall org.mozilla.firefox
# Remove unused data
flatpak repair
Summary
Flatpak’s list command with various column options provides a convenient way to monitor your installed applications and their resource usage. This is particularly useful when managing storage on systems with limited disk space or when auditing which flatpaks are installed.