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Setting SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY doesn't take effect

View original Launchpad issue

Metadata

Project
snapcraft (launchpad)
Number
#1814729
Type
issue
State
open
Author
~popey
Labels
18.10-build-vm
Created
Updated
Closed
—

Current evaluation

SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY change ignored when reusing existing Multipass VM; filed in 18.10 era, 0 comments, no maintainer interaction in 7.5 years, related LP bug closed without resolution

Suggested action: close stale

Reason: The issue is 2764 days old with zero comments and no maintainer interaction, filed during the 18.10 era before build environment handling was moved to craft-providers. The related Launchpad bug 1822265 (same problem) was closed without resolution, and the current craft-providers architecture uses hash-based VM naming so changing memory settings would produce a different VM hash and create a new VM, making the original problem no longer reproducible.

Impact: 35 Quick Win: 15.75 Staleness: 95 Complexity: 55 Confidence: 65 Support Request: 25

Issue body

I have a snap which is very large and failed to build due to running out of memory in multipass. I set SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY=8G and re-ran snapcraft. It re-used the previous VM rather than noting the change in RAM, to take the opportunity to launch a new one. Perhaps snapcraft could detect the change in resources and act accordingly, cleaning or at least suggesting a clean is worthwhile if the environment around multipass changes?

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 35
Quick Win: 15.75
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 65
Support Request: 25
close stale SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY change ignored when reusing existing Multipass VM; filed in 18.10 era, 0 comments, no maintainer interaction in 7.5 years, related LP bug closed without resolution
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 20
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 10
close stale User reports SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY is ignored when reusing an existing Multipass VM. No maintainer response. Issue is over 7 years old and inactive.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 25
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 10
close stale Feature request to detect SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY changes and recreate the multipass VM or warn the user. Inactive for over 7 years with no maintainer response.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 20
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Report that SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY fails to update existing Multipass VM memory. Issue remains open with no maintainer response or comments after over seven years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 45
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Snapcraft ignores SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_MEMORY changes, reusing an existing multipass VM instead of recreating it with updated RAM. Open with no comments, awaiting triage to implement automatic environment detection and VM recreation.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

Related work

  • Duplicate Of: snapcraft (launchpad)#1822265 (confidence 85%)

    Same problem: SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_* changes not applied to existing VMs; closed without resolution

  • Related To: snapcraft#6025 (confidence 60%)

    Related but distinct: env vars ignored entirely on macOS, blocked by craft-providers#531; confirms craft-providers now owns this behavior

Related issues

Issue Project State Summary Similarity
#6025 Snapcraft ignores SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_* environment variables on MacOS snapcraft open SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_CPU/MEMORY env vars documented for Multipass VM sizing are ignored on macOS; maintainer confirmed values are hardcoded, fix blocked by upstream craft-providers#531 (open 2+ years). Triaged as enhancement, no progress since Feb 2026.
80%
#1822265 SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_* change doesn't apply to existing VMs snapcraft (launchpad) closed Closed without resolution. SNAPCRAFT_BUILD_ENVIRONMENT_* changes failing to apply to existing VMs were left unaddressed with zero comments, indicating the report was abandoned or marked stale.
80%
#1791821 multipass should use snapcraft defined environments snapcraft (launchpad) closed Closed without discussion or resolution, indicating the feature request was likely abandoned or superseded. The proposal to align multipass with snapcraft-defined build images received no further action.
71%