Snapcraft complains about "snapcraft.yaml~" in snap/ dir
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft warns about editor backup files like snapcraft.yaml~ in the snap/ directory, creating noise that can mask real problems. The issue has been open and unaddressed for 2890 days with no maintainer response.
Suggested action: close stale
Reason: The issue is 2890 days old with zero comments and no maintainer engagement. The warning behavior still exists in the current codebase (snapcraft/parts/project_check.py), but the lack of any activity for 8 years suggests this is no longer a priority. The fix would be simple (add backup file patterns to _EXPECTED_SNAP_DIR_PATTERNS), but without recent interest or reproduction, it's appropriate to close as stale.
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
24.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
Issue body
When I'm developing a snap project and run snapcraft, I get the following warning message:
The snap/ directory is meant specifically for snapcraft, but it contains the following non-snapcraft-related paths, which is unsupported and will cause unexpected behavior:
- snapcraft.yaml~
If you must store these files within the snap/ directory, move them to snap/local/, which is ignored by snapcraft.
The check for non-snapcraft files is a good idea, but having it trigger for common cases like backup files from editors is just noise.
Worse, it could lead to people missing real problems if they start ignoring the message "because Snapcraft always prints that".
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
24.0
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft warns about editor backup files like snapcraft.yaml~ in the snap/ directory, creating noise that can mask real problems. The issue has been open and unaddressed for 2890 days with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
0
|
close stale | Snapcraft warns about editor backup files in the snap/ directory. The reporter suggests filtering them to reduce warning noise. The issue has been inactive for nearly 8 years with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Snapcraft warns about editor backup files in the snap/ directory, causing noise and potentially masking real issues. The issue has been open for ~8 years with no maintainer response or comments. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to ignore editor backup files in snapcraft's snap/ directory warning. Open for over 7 years with no maintainer interaction or labels. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Snapcraft warns about editor backup files like snapcraft.yaml~ in the snap/ directory. The report suggests filtering common artifacts to reduce noise. Untriaged and inactive for over 7 years. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1869542 snapcraft unable to find snap/snapcraft.yaml file | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft 3.11 (2019) loses snap/snapcraft.yaml after a few builds and drops to the VM shell; workaround is snapcraft clean. 6+ years old, no labels, no maintainer comments, tied to a long-superseded build environment. | |
| #1845276 snapcraft shouldn't complain about snap/README.md | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Request to stop snapcraft warning about snap/README.md as a non-snapcraft path so docs can live in the snap/ dir. 7 years old, zero comments, no labels or maintainer response; the warning is intentional and already documents the snap/local/ workaround. | |
| #1867052 Snapcraft crashes while creating snap for ssh-audit | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Snapcraft v2.43.1 crashes with FileNotFoundError during snap packaging due to a missing executable path in snapcraft.yaml. Issue is completely inactive for over 6 years. | |
| #1604326 snapcraft init doesn't fail if there is a .snapcraft.yaml file | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution. The snapcraft init command remains unchanged and still creates snapcraft.yaml when .snapcraft.yaml exists, indicating the bug was abandoned or superseded by newer project changes. | |
| #2098999 Snapcraft auth does not create dir needed and errors out | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft auth fails to create credentials directory on macOS, causing FileNotFoundError. Issue is 560 days old with no maintainer response. | |
| #1608032 snapcraft crashes with useless message on bad YAML | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Abandoned. Snapcraft crashed with an unhelpful error on invalid YAML. No fix or follow-up was provided. | |
| #2104274 Snapcraft has unclear behavior when providing same build-snap from different channels | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Bug report: snapcraft resolves build-snap from wrong channel (stable vs candidate). Untriaged, no maintainer response in 527 days. |