Snapcraft not handling cmake nested builds, not including build script files in snap, and dependency issues with meson builds
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft 2.41 (classic) user reports three problems building FeedReader: cmake plugin fails on nested builds, build-override output not primed, meson build linking host glibc/gcc/zlib. No maintainer interaction; version superseded by core22 rewrite.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue targets snapcraft 2.41 (classic), a version long superseded by the craft-parts-based core22 rewrite, and has had zero maintainer interaction or comments (comment count 0, last activity 3030 days ago). The cmake/meson plugins and build-override behavior were reworked in the new architecture, so the reported problems are no longer applicable to the current version. Issues 2 and 3 are largely configuration/usage questions, and issue 1 is ambiguous, so it reads partly as a support request.
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
12.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
65
Issue body
snapcraft, version 2.41+18.4.2
I am trying to build my first snap from a Github project, jangernert/FeedReader. There is no Debian/Ubuntu package available and the Flatpak is broken.
feedreader is a cmake-based project, with meson recently added on a testing branch. Snapcraft needs to download and build the latest valac in the snap because what comes on most distros is woefully out of date, including the Snapcraft build machine. Getting and building valac works fine with autotools.
But I have run into three issues trying different approaches:
Issue 1. I can’t simply let the cmake plugin in Snapcraft handle everything because it breaks down when encountering nested cmake files in the WebExtension submodule of the FeedReader project:
[ 11%] Built target gtkimageview
[ 11%] Linking C static library librss-glib.a
[ 11%] Building C object libVilistextum/CMakeFiles/vilistextum.dir/unicode_entities.c.o
[ 11%] Building C object libVilistextum/CMakeFiles/vilistextum.dir/util.c.o
[ 11%] Built target i18n
[ 11%] Building C object libIvy/CMakeFiles/ivy.dir/Stacktrace.c.o
[ 12%] Building C object libVilistextum/CMakeFiles/vilistextum.dir/vilistextum.c.o
[ 12%] Built target rss-glib
[ 12%] Linking C static library libvilistextum.a
[ 12%] Built target vilistextum
[ 12%] Linking C static library libgd.a
[ 12%] Built target gd
[ 13%] Linking C static library libivy.a
[ 13%] Built target ivy
[ 14%] Linking C shared library libwebextension.so
[ 14%] Built target webextension
Makefile:140: recipe for target 'all' failed
make: *** [all] Error 2
Failed to run 'make -j8' for 'feedreader': Exited with code 2.
Verify that the part is using the correct parameters and try again.
Issue 2. So I tried using the "build-override" scripting option in the cmake plugin to call cmake, make, and make install myself and that appears to build without the issue above. But none of the built libraries and binaries come over into staging or prime, even though I specify they should with snap:, which is what I described here. Other parts, specifically the latest valac built by the autotools plugin, do come over, just them in fact. So when you try to run this snap, it gives me a "feedreader" not found error because there are no feedreader files, just spiffy new valac files.
https://github.com/sirredbeard/FeedReader/blob/master/snap/snapcraft.yaml
Issue 3. FeedReader also has upstream meson build features, so I pulled those in and tried using snapcraft’s meson plugin for a yaml here. But it fails with gcc, glibc, and zlib issues:
/snap/feedreader/x1/usr/bin/feedreader: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1: version `GCC_7.0.0' not found (required by /snap/feedreader/x1/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37)
/snap/feedreader/x1/usr/bin/feedreader: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.27' not found (required by /snap/feedreader/x1/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libwebkit2gtk-4.0.so.37)
/snap/feedreader/x1/usr/bin/feedreader: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1: version `ZLIB_1.2.9' not found (required by /snap/feedreader/x1/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpng16.so.16)
/snap/feedreader/x1/usr/bin/feedreader: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.22' not found (required by /snap/feedreader/x1/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libjavascriptcoregtk-4.0.so.18)
https://github.com/sirredbeard/FeedReader/blob/master/snap/snapcraft-meson-version.yaml
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
12.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
65
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.41 (classic) user reports three problems building FeedReader: cmake plugin fails on nested builds, build-override output not primed, meson build linking host glibc/gcc/zlib. No maintainer interaction; version superseded by core22 rewrite. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
70
|
close stale | Reports Snapcraft build failures for FeedReader: CMake nested submodules error, build-override staging issues, and Meson runtime dependency mismatches. Untriaged and inactive for over 8 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
85
|
close stale | User reports three snapcraft build failures for FeedReader: cmake nested build errors, staging issues with build-override, and runtime library dependency mismatches in meson builds. Unresponded to for ~8 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
92
Support Request:
90
|
close stale | Reports three Snapcraft v2.41 build issues: cmake nested build failures, staging misconfiguration, and meson dependency mismatches. Over 8 years old with no maintainer response and references a deprecated tool version. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
92
Support Request:
75
|
close stale | User reports three Snapcraft build issues (cmake nested builds, staging failures, meson dependency errors) using version 2.41. No maintainer response or activity for over 8 years. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2099 Issues building snap from my favorite and best GUI RSS reader, Feedreader | snapcraft | closed | Closed without resolution. The author reported Snapcraft build failures for FeedReader. After upstream adopted Meson, the author shifted focus to meson plugin dependency issues, leaving this report abandoned. |