.. _snap_reference: =============== Snap Versions =============== There are several Checkbox snaps and channels to choose from. You can get a full list via ``snap info checkbox``. You can refer to the following to decide what you should install. .. _ref_which_snap: Picking your version ==================== As you may recall from the :ref:`installing_checkbox` tutorial, when installing Checkbox you need to pick a frontend and a backend. There are several parameters that may influence your choice of the best snap for your situation but in general there are three distinguishing factors in Checkbox snaps: base, confinement and stability. Base ---- The base of a snap is the underlying version of the operating system that it uses to run. For example ``checkbox 22.04`` and ``checkbox22`` are built on top of Ubuntu 22.04. This is not an 100% accurate explanation of what a base is but you can use this rule of thumb in your decision. If you want a more complete explanation of what bases are and how they are built, refer to this `blog post from the Snapcraft team `_. In general we advise to use the version of Checkbox that most closely matches the system that is going to run it. If you are not on an LTS release of Ubuntu or you are using a completely different operating system, try to match it to the closest release we have. For example, if you are on Ubuntu 23.04, ``checkbox22`` is probably the one you will have to choose. Confinement ----------- As you may know, or may learn more from `the Snapcraft documentation `_, a snap can either use ``strict`` or ``classic`` confinement. Checkbox has a snap for both models. The strict snaps are called ``ucXX``, the classic ones have a standard LTS name. In general we advise to use ``classic`` snap. You are going to need the ``classic`` one whenever the tests you are running need a binary that is available in your system but not in the ``strict`` snap. .. note:: This section only applies to the Checkbox frontend, the backend snap is always ``strictly`` confined. Stability --------- Checkbox uses `semantic versioning `_. There are three channels that you can install from ``edge``, ``beta`` and ``stable``. If you want a stable version that we are pretty sure that works, use ``stable``, this version was tested thoroughly via continuous integration and in our lab and is the one that we use for our `Ubuntu Certified `_ program. If you can trade a little bit of stability for more up-to-date features, you can use ``beta``. This version of Checkbox was tested via CI and on a subset of our lab. It should be as good as ``stable``, but once we are sure it is we will promote it to that channel. If you want the most up-to-date possible build of Checkbox you can use the ``edge`` channel. These builds are updated daily and contain the latest changes to the framework. We do not advise to use this channel in production, it is tested via CI and it is built from the latest commit in the ``main`` branch of the `Checkbox Repository on github `_.