Flatpak Automatic provides a secure, configurable, and systemd-native automation wrapper for Flatpak updates.

It integrates with Snapper to provide atomic-like pre/post update snapshots and uses systemd timers for reliable, scheduled execution on Fedora and other RPM-based distributions.

✨ Features

• Automated Updates – Keeps your Flatpak applications up to date
• Atomic-like Rollbacks – Integrates with Snapper/Btrfs for pre/post snapshots
• Smart Execution – Dry-run checks prevent unnecessary snapshots and logs
• Notifications – Sends update reports via local mail (s-nail/mailx)
• Systemd Integration – Managed via standard oneshot services and timers
• Configurable – Easily tune email, snapshot, and scheduling behavior via /etc/sysconfig/flatpak-automatic

🚀 Quick Start Guide

Flatpak Automatic is distributed via a dedicated repository hosted on GitHub Pages for both RPM (Fedora/RHEL) and DEB (Ubuntu/Debian) distributions:

👉 https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/

1. Add the Repository

RPM-based:

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/flatpak-automatic.repo <<'EOF'
[flatpak-automatic]
name=Flatpak Automatic - Stable
baseurl=https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/rpms/latest/stable/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/gpg.key
EOF

DEB-based:

KEY="https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/gpg.key"
REPO="https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/debs"
RING="/usr/share/keyrings/flatpak-automatic-archive-keyring.gpg"

curl -fsSL $KEY | sudo gpg --dearmor -o $RING
echo "deb [signed-by=$RING] $REPO stable main" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/flatpak-automatic.list

2. Update Cache & Install

RPM-based:

sudo dnf makecache
sudo dnf install -y flatpak-automatic

DEB-based:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y flatpak-automatic

3. Enable the Timer

sudo systemctl enable --now flatpak-automatic.timer

🔐 GPG Key

The GPG key is available at https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/gpg.key.

Fingerprint:

8D12 D614 9E1E 5E83 29DD E6FD 9B99 A03F 6577 BF59

⚙️ Configuration

The main configuration file is located at:

/etc/sysconfig/flatpak-automatic

Key options include:

• ENABLE_EMAIL: Set to yes to enable mail notifications.
• EMAIL_TO: Recipient for update reports.
• FLATPAK_APPRISE_URLS: Comma-separated Apprise URLs for Slack, Discord, Gotify, Matrix, etc.
• ENABLE_SNAPSHOTS: Enable Snapper integration.
• SNAPPER_CONFIG: The Snapper configuration to use (default: root).

💾 Manual Execution

To trigger an update manually:

sudo flatpak-automatic

To monitor the logs of the automated service:

sudo journalctl -u flatpak-automatic.service -f

📁 Repository Contents

The package repository contains:

• RPM packages: flatpak-automatic (in /rpms)
• Debian packages: flatpak-automatic (in /debs)
• Repository metadata
• GPG signing key (gpg.key)

Troubleshooting & Runbook

If you encounter issues with flatpak-automatic, follow these steps to diagnose and resolve them:

1. Viewing Logs

Since the script integrates natively with systemd, the best place to check for failures or warnings is the system journal:

journalctl -u flatpak-automatic.service -e

2. Snapper Config Errors

If the health check reports FAIL: snapper config 'root' is invalid or missing, you need to initialize a Snapper configuration for your root filesystem:

sudo snapper -c root create-config /

3. Email/Mailx Authentication Failures

If you have ENABLE_EMAIL=yes but are not receiving notifications, check your s-nail configuration. The mail client relies on /etc/mail.rc. Ensure your SMTP server, port, and authentication credentials are set up correctly.

⚠️ Disclaimer

This is an independent project and not affiliated with Fedora or the Flatpak project. Use at your own discretion.

🔗 Resources

• 🌐 Project Repo: https://fedorabee.github.io/flatpak-automatic/