LXD Provider requires a local installation of LXD on macOS
Metadata
Current evaluation
Enhancement to support remote LXD clusters for non-Linux hosts. Acknowledged by maintainer with existing proof-of-concept but pending UX and application-side implementation.
Suggested action: keep open
Reason: Maintainer @mr-cal acknowledged the request on 2024-02-27, confirmed craft-providers has most of the work implemented, and explained remaining UX/architectural challenges (e.g., cross-architecture filtering). The issue is a valid enhancement with maintainer buy-in, so it should remain open for future implementation.
Impact:
65
Quick Win:
18.2
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
72
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
Issue body
### What needs to get done
Allow LXD provider to work with a remote LXD cluster so that builds on non-linux hosts like windows and macOS can become faster. I have asked for a similar requirement in Snapcraft repo as well [here](https://github.com/snapcore/snapcraft/issues/4454).
Hoping to get some traction and insight here.
### Why it needs to get done
Currently the LXD provider checks for a local installation of LXD which is not possible for non-linux platforms. Please correct me if I am wrong here but most of the craft tools require only a client side implementation of the providers and offload the actual building by using mount/transfer options available for the provider to run the building process on the source package.
So giving the option to use a remote LXD cluster for packaging things instead of relying on multipass could make things faster as well since multipass always launches a new vm which is a rather heavy operation as compared to a container.
Propose Solution:
Making an LXC client that is correctly configured to a reachable lxd cluster, the `required` dependency could solve this problem ?
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Impact:
65
Quick Win:
18.2
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
72
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | Enhancement to support remote LXD clusters for non-Linux hosts. Acknowledged by maintainer with existing proof-of-concept but pending UX and application-side implementation. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | Request to enable remote LXD cluster support for the LXD provider, allowing builds on macOS/Windows without local LXD. Acknowledged by maintainers as partially implemented but requiring further UX and cross-architecture handling work. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
55
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | Enhancement request to support remote LXD clusters for non-Linux hosts. Maintainer acknowledged the feature, noted existing partial implementation, and created an internal tracking ticket. Awaiting architectural planning and UX design. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
65
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
keep open | Enhancement request to support remote LXD clusters instead of requiring local installation, enabling builds on macOS/Windows. Acknowledged by maintainers with internal ticket created, awaiting further implementation work. |
Update history
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Related issues
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