Viewing updates available without installing

1

I am using Linux with flatpak 1.14.10-1~deb12u1 and when I try to view the updates without installing by using the command flatpak update --dry-run, I get the result error: Unknown option --dry-run.

Is this comand correct if not how should viewing updates without installing be performed?

2

There exist arguments to not download or deploy an update, using the --no-pull and --no-deploy arguments.

However, you can also just run flatpak update. Before downloading any update, it will show you a prompt confirming the update. If you deny then by pressing n, you essentially viewed the update without running it.

Also, if you want to use the information in an program, you should probably take a look at libflatpak.

3

You can also use flatpak remote-ls --updates

4

Performing that command shows the following.
flatpak remote-ls --updates
Name Application ID Version Branch Arch
vokoscreenNG com.github.vkohaupt.vokoscreenNG 4.4.5 stable x86_64

This app is already at version 4.4.5. if I perform flatpak update it does not show that item as being available for update.

5

Version numbers aren’t authoritative, see: [Bug]: flatpak remote-ls and remote-info inconsistently show local version instead of remote version · Issue #5974 · flatpak/flatpak · GitHub

That app did have an update today (to ostree commit 9bb3af5bca92b06d28194d6c3708976fb3eb8e389d801e4f6afc0fe4831fd8f1). Checking flatpak info APP_ID, do you have that commit yet?

See also flatpak remote-info --log flathub APP_ID

6

I see the same version when I issue the following.
flatpak info com.github.vkohaupt.vokoscreenNG

vokoscreenNG - Easy to use screencast creator

      ID: com.github.vkohaupt.vokoscreenNG
     Ref: app/com.github.vkohaupt.vokoscreenNG/x86_64/stable
    Arch: x86_64
  Branch: stable
 Version: 4.4.5
 License: GPL-2.0-only
  Origin: flathub

Collection: org.flathub.Stable
Installation: user
Installed: 6.9 MB
Runtime: org.kde.Platform/x86_64/6.8
Sdk: org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/6.8

  Commit: 66b0130caa97b61c37b27e1ca50aa8590e01fe60b1353fd727156c3d10d48af0
  Parent: 419da67d89f548448c49e293cc99b24cbdc1c6d67f47e60366cf53d3b75909d0
 Subject: vokoscreenNG: Update vokoscreenNG.git to 4.4.6 (327a28df)
    Date: 2025-03-08 22:10:41 +0000

Also the web Install vokoscreenNG on Linux | Flathub also shows version 4.4.5 for 17-march-2025.

7

you can’t look at the version and know if it’s new, you have to look at the commit hash. as that’s the only part, that tracks packaging updates too.