`charmcraft clean` doesn't clean
Metadata
Current evaluation
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.
Suggested action: —
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed and superseded by craft-application#425. The underlying cleanup bug remains unresolved, with charmcraft 3 exhibiting different but still broken behavior due to the dependency issue. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2078 `charmcraft clean` does not clean all platforms for charm | charmcraft | open | charmcraft clean only removes LXC containers for platforms currently listed in charmcraft.yaml, leaving stale containers for removed platforms. Reported with repro steps; linked to issue #1338 in Jan 2025, no further activity. | |
| #412 clean: introduce clean command (CRAFT-62) | charmcraft | merged | Merged. Introduces a clean command to remove LXD containers built by Charmcraft and adds a caplog filter fixture for testing. Approved by two reviewers, the update modifies five files with 116 additions and 4 deletions. | |
| #1042 add `charmcraft purge` or `charmcraft cleanall` command to clean all instances | charmcraft | open | Feature request to add a `charmcraft purge` command to clean all LXD build containers and pip caches. Design discussion is active with multiple flag options proposed. Blocked by craft-providers#639. |