misleading warning when building base: core18 snap with 16.04 snapcore/snapcraft docker
Metadata
Current evaluation
Closed as stale. Snapcraft Dockerfiles have changed and migrated to rocks, rendering the original warning context obsolete. No code changes were made.
Suggested action: —
No scores available.
Issue body
Following https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapcraft/+bug/1830388
Snapcraft gives a very misleading warning about core18 being missing but needed when building in a 16.04 Docker. It goes on to say that the environment should, vaguely, be "properly set up" and in the very next breath says you can dismiss the warning if, again vaguely, "appropriate measures have been taken."
Shouldn't this just error out with "The specified base and Docker image do not match. Use an Ubuntu 18.04-based Docker image to match 'base: core18' in your snap/snapcraft.yaml"?
~/example❯ cat snap/snapcraft.yaml
name: my-snap-name # you probably want to 'snapcraft register <name>'
base: core18 # the base snap is the execution environment for this snap
version: '0.1' # just for humans, typically '1.2+git' or '1.3.2'
summary: Single-line elevator pitch for your amazing snap # 79 char long summary
description: |
This is my-snap's description. You have a paragraph or two to tell the
most important story about your snap. Keep it under 100 words though,
we live in tweetspace and your description wants to look good in the snap
store.
grade: devel # must be 'stable' to release into candidate/stable channels
confinement: devmode # use 'strict' once you have the right plugs and slots
parts:
my-part:
# See 'snapcraft plugins'
plugin: nil
~/example❯ docker run -v $(pwd):$(pwd) -w $(pwd) snapcore/snapcraft:beta snapcraft
Locale not set! Snapcraft will temporarily use C.UTF-8
Using 'snap/snapcraft.yaml': Project assets will be searched for from the 'snap' directory.
The following snaps are required but not installed as snapcraft is running inside docker: core18.
Please ensure the environment is properly setup before continuing.
Ignore this message if the appropriate measures have already been taken
Pulling my-part
Building my-part
Staging my-part
Priming my-part
Snapping 'my-snap-name' ...
Snapped my-snap-name_0.1_amd64.snap
~/example❯ docker run -v $(pwd):$(pwd) -w $(pwd) snapcore/snapcraft:beta cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS"
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed as stale. Snapcraft Dockerfiles have changed and migrated to rocks, rendering the original warning context obsolete. No code changes were made. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Misleading warning when building a core18 snap in a 16.04 Docker container. Author requests a clear error for base/image mismatches. Unaddressed for over 7 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to replace a vague warning about missing core18 in a 16.04 Docker container with a clear error message. Unaddressed for over 7 years with no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Report of a misleading Snapcraft warning when building a core18 snap in a 16.04 Docker container, suggesting a clearer error instead. Unaddressed for over 7 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Report from 7 years ago about a misleading Snapcraft warning when building a core18 base in a 16.04 Docker container. Suggests replacing vague messaging with a clear error. Has zero maintainer interaction or comments. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1826611 Running snapcraft 3 w/ core18 base in docker incorrectly reports missing lib deps | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale. Snapcraft resolved the issue by updating its Dockerfiles and migrating to OCI rocks for builds, eliminating the incorrect core18 dependency warnings in Docker. | |
| #4246 Reported error message building base: core18 with newer snapcrafts is wrong | snapcraft | closed | Closed without resolution. A maintainer noted the error applies to any unsupported base like core17 and suggested improving the message to clarify base incompatibility instead of blaming the plugin. | |
| #4290 docker: add core22 base | snapcraft | closed | Rejected and closed. Maintainers declined the core22 Docker base update due to legacy constraints, directing users to the new snapcraft-rocks initiative. The PR was superseded by canonical/snapcraft-rocks. | |
| #1830388 The base field created by snapcraft init should match the docker equivalent image or raise an error | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale. Superseded by infrastructure changes; Snapcraft's Dockerfiles were updated and migrated to rocks, resolving the base mismatch without code changes. | |
| #1862256 snapcraft should complain loudly when building base: core20 snap on i386 | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as superseded. Improved architecture parsing in snapcraft now correctly rejects unsupported base-architecture combinations, addressing the original request without requiring explicit i386 core20 checks. |