snap refresh --list shows an available update but snap refresh doesn't install it

[Marius Gedminas]

snap-store tells me there's an update available for snap-store. I tried to tell it to update itself, but it says it can't because the application is currently running. Fair enough, that's not the bug I'm reporting here, just some background information.

snap refresh --list shows
Name Version Rev Publisher Notes
snap-store 3.36.0-82-g80486d0 481 canonical✓ -

so I run `sudo snap refresh` to install the update (after closing snap-store), and it tells me

    Visi snap paketai yra atnaujinti.

(that's "all snaps are up to date"; I can't figure out how to make snap speak English -- it ignores LC_ALL=C/LANGUAGE=en)

snap info snap-store shows

name: snap-store
summary: Snap Store is a graphical desktop application for discovering,
  installing and managing snaps on Linux.
publisher: Canonical✓
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/snap-store
contact: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snap-store/
license: unset
description: |
  Snap Store showcases featured and popular applications with useful
  descriptions, ratings, reviews and screenshots.

  Applications can be found either through browsing categories
  or by searching.

  Snap Store can also be used to switch channels, view and alter snap
  permissions and view and submit reviews and ratings.

  Snap Store is based on GNOME Software, optimized for the Snap experience.
commands:
  - snap-store
  - snap-store.ubuntu-software
  - snap-store.ubuntu-software-local-file
snap-id: gjf3IPXoRiipCu9K0kVu52f0H56fIksg
tracking: latest/stable/ubuntu-20.04
refresh-date: 2020-06-22
channels:
  latest/stable: 3.31.1+git187.84b64e0b 2020-04-22 (415) 45MB -
  latest/candidate: 3.31.1+git189.991d1d1d 2020-08-09 (472) 45MB -
  latest/beta: 3.36.0-82-g80486d0 2020-09-11 (481) 53MB -
  latest/edge: 20200414.ac9047f 2020-04-14 (375) 50MB -
installed: 3.36.0-80-g208fd61 (467) 52MB -

and I don't understand what is going on here with the phantom update that is both available and not.

(also, I don't see latest/stable/ubuntu-20.04 among the channels, which also feels strange)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: snapd 2.46.1+20.04
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-51.56-generic 5.4.65
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-51-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.9
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Oct 17 09:35:47 2020
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-06-12 (492 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.04 "Disco Dingo" - Release amd64 (20190416)
SourcePackage: snapd
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-04-24 (175 days ago)
modified.conffile..etc.sudoers.d.99-snapd.conf: [inaccessible: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/etc/sudoers.d/99-snapd.conf']

[Maciej Borzecki (maciek-borzecki)]

Have you tried stopping snap-store and running `sudo snap refresh` again?

[Marius Gedminas (mgedmin)]

Yes, but I assumed that in order to stop snap-store it was enough to close its window. Your question made me doubt that, and I see that pgrep snap-store finds it running.

This probably explains everything, except for one question: how is a regular user expected to update snap-store? Running pkill snap-store in a terminal seems like suboptimal UX.

[Marius Gedminas (mgedmin)]

I wish snap wouldn't lie to me by saying "all snaps are up to date" when it means "there's an outdated snap but I cannot update it because the application is running".

[Maciej Borzecki (maciek-borzecki)]

Agreed, it sounds like we are dealing with 2 problems here.

One is snapd now showing a nicer message that some updates are blocked when an all-snap refresh is requested (i.e. snap refresh).

The second issue is snap-store does not stop when closing the window. I suggest you file a separate bug for it.