NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

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

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.

       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 blacklisted for the current
       user.

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 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. 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. 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, 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, 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,
           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
           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.

       --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.

           Isandbox 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 .Sandbox subset (org.the.App.Sandbox.*).

       --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.

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

       --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.

EXAMPLES

       $ flatpak run org.gnome.gedit

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

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

SEE ALSO

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