applications: size for Flatpaks does not include extensions (or runtime)
In the “Storage” dialog for Flatpak applications, only the size of the main ref for the application is considered when reporting the application size. For example, VLC is reported as occupying 78 MB on disk:
It is true that org.videolan.VLC
occupies only that space:
$ flatpak info -s org.videolan.VLC
78012416
However, VLC also comes with translations. For whatever reason, I have the entire org.videolan.VLC.Locale
runtime installed with all translations, which occupies another 39.4 MB – half the size of the app itself:
$ flatpak info -s org.videolan.VLC.Locale
39432704
The issue is even more pronounced with Endless's offline content apps. For example, Animals is reported as 7.8 MB:
However, these applications' content is distributed as a separate ref, which may be hundreds of megabytes, if not gigabytes:
$ flatpak info -e com.endlessm.animals.en
Animals - Learn about all of Earth's creatures
ID: com.endlessm.animals.en
Ref: app/com.endlessm.animals.en/x86_64/eos3
Arch: x86_64
Branch: eos3
License: proprietary
Origin: eos-apps
Collection: com.endlessm.Dev.Apps
Installation: system
Installed: 7,8 MB
Runtime: com.endlessm.apps.Platform/x86_64/5
Sdk: com.endlessm.apps.Sdk/x86_64/5
Commit: e7372e2e70c7abcd5e494a41db74530a73db65d7aaed85ce3ff3a262b018df22
Parent: b11349837b6f6aff0da23a0e87158bb8495fe54fc8a234979c80a192d5ee2c66
Subject: Export com.endlessm.animals.en
Date: 2019-08-05 18:43:59 +0000
Extension: runtime/com.endlessm.animals.en.Content/x86_64/eos3
ID: com.endlessm.animals.en.Content
Origin: eos-apps
Commit: e3ffa7c8122c39f441ce9518ae6a772055cb6778e6eced63185adbad52cf370c
Installed: 157,7 MB
You might also wonder whether applications' reported sizes should include their runtimes, but except in the rare case where only one application uses a particular runtime, this would be misleading: uninstalling the app would not free up the expected gigabytes of diskspace. On the other hand, uninstalling an app does remove its locale extension (and in the case of Endless's apps, its content extension) so it is reasonable to include this in the size.