`charmcraft clean` doesn't clean
Metadata
Current evaluation
Closed unresolved: LXD cleanup remained broken in Charmcraft 3, with the changed behavior attributed to craft-application#425, which also closed without a linked fix.
Resolution: closed stale
Reason: The maintainer’s final comment attributed Charmcraft 3’s cleanup failure to canonical/craft-application#425, but that issue was also closed without a resolving PR or commit. Follow-up canonical/charmcraft#2078 remains open.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
### Bug Description
Ran out of space again :)
Apparently, `charmcraft clean` does not clean up lxd instances.
### To Reproduce
Pack a charm. Try to clean it.
### Environment
Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
Charmcraft 2.4.1
Running inside multipass VM
### charmcraft.yaml
```shell
Any, really. E.g.:
https://github.com/canonical/catalogue-k8s-operator/blob/main/charm/charmcraft.yaml
```
### Relevant log output
```shell
$ sudo ls /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/storage-pools/default/containers
charmcraft_base-instance-charmcraft-buildd-base-v10-07bde40a62a827cdc5a4 charmcraft_charmcraft-loki-k8s-27208-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_base-instance-charmcraft-buildd-base-v10-689fe40991089812a57b charmcraft_charmcraft-observability-libs-5-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-catalogue-k8s-46963-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-observability-libs-53-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-catalogue-k8s-63191-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-operator-framework-10744-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-flog-k8s-6-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-operator-framework-10791-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-10907-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-prometheus-k8s-3471-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-10907-1-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-self-signed-certificates-5-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-17985-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-traefik-k8s-61-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-17985-1-0-amd64
$ charmcraft clean
Cleaning project 'catalogue-k8s'.
Cleaned project 'catalogue-k8s'.
$ sudo ls /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/storage-pools/default/containers
charmcraft_base-instance-charmcraft-buildd-base-v10-07bde40a62a827cdc5a4 charmcraft_charmcraft-loki-k8s-27208-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_base-instance-charmcraft-buildd-base-v10-689fe40991089812a57b charmcraft_charmcraft-observability-libs-5-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-catalogue-k8s-46963-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-observability-libs-53-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-catalogue-k8s-63191-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-operator-framework-10744-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-flog-k8s-6-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-operator-framework-10791-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-10907-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-prometheus-k8s-3471-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-10907-1-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-self-signed-certificates-5-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-17985-0-0-amd64 charmcraft_charmcraft-traefik-k8s-61-0-0-amd64
charmcraft_charmcraft-grafana-agent-17985-1-0-amd64
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed unresolved: LXD cleanup remained broken in Charmcraft 3, with the changed behavior attributed to craft-application#425, which also closed without a linked fix. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed without a fix after a maintainer confirmed cleanup remained broken in Charmcraft 3 and traced the newer failure to craft-application#425; no resolving PR or commit was linked. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed without a fix after being attributed to craft-application#425; cleanup still failed in Charmcraft 3, and follow-up charmcraft#2078 remains open. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed unresolved: LXD cleanup still failed in Charmcraft 3 and was attributed to craft-application#425, which was also closed without a fix. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed superseded | No fix shipped: Charmcraft 3 still left LXD instances behind. Closure deferred the v2 concern to clean-all #1042 and the upstream host-only cleanup defect in craft-application#425. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Unresolved. LXD instances persist after running the command. Behavior changed but remains broken in charmcraft 3. Deferred to upstream craft-application issue #425 for resolution. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Superseded by upstream craft-application issue 425. The charmcraft clean command fails to remove LXD instances, with broken behavior persisting in charmcraft 3. Internally tracked as CRAFT-3254. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. The charmcraft clean command fails to remove LXD instances. Resolution is blocked by an upstream craft-application bug, leaving the issue unresolved. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed without resolution. The charmcraft clean command still fails to remove LXD instances. Behavior changed in v3 but remains broken due to craft-application#425. Superseded by related issue #1042. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Caused By:
canonical/craft-application#425
(confidence 99%)
A Charmcraft maintainer explicitly identified this issue as the cause of the changed cleanup behavior in Charmcraft 3.
-
Related To:
canonical/charmcraft#1042
(confidence 98%)
The reporter linked this bug to the broader open proposal for a purge or clean-all command.
-
Related To:
canonical/charmcraft#2078
(confidence 95%)
A later open issue reports that clean still fails to remove instances belonging to all platforms.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2078 `charmcraft clean` does not clean all platforms for charm | charmcraft | open | Open, reproducible cleanup bug: charmcraft clean uses current project platforms to derive build instances, leaving containers for removed platforms; no resolving fix is linked. | |
| #660 `charmcraft pack` fails with error writing to lxd unix socket | charmcraft | closed | A transient LXD socket timeout stopped packing; `charmcraft clean` restored operation, the error did not recur, and the reporter closed the report without a code fix. | |
| #1420 fix: use craft-application clean command | charmcraft | closed | PR #1420 (switch clean to craft-application) was closed unmerged, with no matching commit in charmcraft/commands/clean.py history. The same cleanup landed later via merged PR #1571 (commit 053d5a2d), which deleted the redundant clean command. | |
| #1594 Running `charmcraft pack` fails and returns `Instance setup failed. Check LXD logs for more details` | charmcraft | closed | Closed as an environment conflict, not a Charmcraft defect: Docker had changed networking in a way that interfered with LXD, and the reporter confirmed that uninstalling Docker and restarting fixed it. | |
| #511 `charmcraft pack` fails running `apt update` | charmcraft | closed | Closed with no Charmcraft code change: maintainers determined the `apt update` failure came from a broken host/LXD (fan bridge) networking setup, not a Charmcraft bug; guidance posted to Charmhub Discourse and the LXD forum. | |
| #506 Build a charmed failed | charmcraft | closed | LXD 3.x lacked project support causing 'unknown flag: --project'. No Charmcraft fix; maintainers asked for lxc/os info (Aug 2021), reporter never replied, issue closed stale Jan 2024. | |
| #2795 docs: improve `charmcraft clean` command documentation | charmcraft | closed | Closed unmerged; maintainer @lengau rejected the proposed charmcraft clean documentation as subpar, and no documentation commit or replacement PR landed. | |
| #746 `charmcraft pack` for existing environment does not remove files that have been deleted | charmcraft | closed | Closed as a duplicate of charmcraft#710 by maintainer facundobatativa (facundobatista) on 2022-04-13. #710 remains open, with the root cause tracked upstream in craft-parts#851. | |
| #646 Failed to inject host Charmcraft snap into target environment | charmcraft | closed | Report of charmcraft 1.4.0 failing to inject the host snap into the LXD build env. Closed without a code fix: a user fixed it with `charmcraft clean --verbose` and lengau closed it in Jan 2024 as not reproducible on current versions. | |
| #736 `charmcraft` lxc container starts failing with `FileNotFoundError` during iterative design | charmcraft | closed | Closed as unreproducible on Charmcraft 2.7/3; the maintainer requested a current reproducer. No fix PR or commit was linked. |