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Need --autoclean or similar

View original Launchpad issue

Metadata

Project
snapcraft (launchpad)
Number
#1666366
Type
issue
State
open
Author
~michihenning
Labels
Created
Updated
Closed

Current evaluation

Feature request for an --autoclean option to auto-clean stale parts when a dependency's step needs re-running. 9.5 years old, zero comments, no labels; the legacy parts system it targets was replaced by craft-parts in snapcraft 2.0+.

Suggested action: close stale

Reason: The issue is ~9.5 years old with zero comments, no labels, and no maintainer interaction, and it targets the legacy snapcraft 1.x parts system whose 'Please clean the build step first' error and manual 'snapcraft clean --step=build' workflow no longer apply to the craft-parts-based lifecycle in snapcraft 2.0+, which re-runs dependent parts automatically when a dependency's step is re-run. A similar older Launchpad bug (1477904) about the same manual-cleanup problem was closed as abandoned. Confidence is moderate because repo tooling was unavailable to directly confirm current lifecycle behavior.

Impact: 30 Quick Win: 13.5 Staleness: 95 Complexity: 55 Confidence: 60 Support Request: 10

Issue body

When tinkering with snapcraft.yaml files, I often get stuff such as this: The 'stage' step for 'storage-framework' needs to be run again, but 'storage-provider-owncloud' depends upon it. Please clean the build step of 'storage-provider-owncloud' first. Now I'm forced to do snapcraft clean storage-provider-owncloud --step=build If something else needs cleaning, I get another message to clean that bit, ad nauseam. This is really annoying. snapcraft knows exactly what needs to be done, so why can't it just do it for me? It would be really nice to have some option to say "just go and build the thing and, while you are at it, if you find something out of date, clean it automatically please."

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 30
Quick Win: 13.5
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 60
Support Request: 10
close stale Feature request for an --autoclean option to auto-clean stale parts when a dependency's step needs re-running. 9.5 years old, zero comments, no labels; the legacy parts system it targets was replaced by craft-parts in snapcraft 2.0+.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 15
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 10
needs triage Feature request for an --autoclean flag in snapcraft to automatically clean outdated build steps when dependencies change. Unanswered and inactive for over 9 years.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 15
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Feature request for an --autoclean flag to automatically resolve build step dependencies in snapcraft. Remains open with zero maintainer interaction after over 9 years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 100
Complexity: 10
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 5
close stale Feature request for an --autoclean flag in snapcraft to automatically clean outdated build steps when dependencies change. Unlabelled and inactive for over 9 years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 30
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Request for an --autoclean flag in snapcraft to automatically clean outdated build steps. The issue remains open, untriaged, and inactive for over nine years with zero comments or assignments.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

Related work

  • Related To: snapcraft (launchpad)#1477904 (confidence 70%)

    Closed Launchpad bug about the same class of problem: snapcraft skipping stages and requiring manual cleanup of build directories to trigger rebuilds.

Related issues

Issue Project State Summary Similarity
#1995365 Add option to clean all parts snapcraft (launchpad) closed Feature request to add a flag for snapcraft clean that removes all parts without destroying the build container. No maintainer response or labels after 3.7 years.
72%