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using source-branch and source-tag not possible but no explanation in help why this is the case

View original Launchpad issue

Metadata

Project
snapcraft (launchpad)
Number
#1851240
Type
issue
State
open
Author
~ogra
Labels
—
Created
Updated
Closed
—

Current evaluation

Request to document in `snapcraft help sources` that source-branch and source-tag are mutually exclusive for git sources (or allow both). Filed ~6.8 years ago by ogra with no labels, comments, or maintainer response; current state unverified.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The issue has no labels, no assignee, and zero comments or maintainer acknowledgement in 2492 days, so it has never been triaged. It is a legitimate, low-complexity documentation gap (help text should note source-branch/source-tag mutual exclusion), but I could not verify whether the current help/schema text still lacks the note because repo inspection tools failed with 'No pinned SHA available', so a maintainer should confirm before closing.

Impact: 20 Quick Win: 17.0 Staleness: 90 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 55 Support Request: 20

Issue body

trying to build a kernel snap from a certain tag and branch results in the following error: Sorry, an error occurred in Snapcraft: Failed to pull source: cannot specify both 'source-branch' and 'source-tag' for a git source. See `snapcraft help sources` for more information. looking at "snapcraft help sources" does not explain that these two are mutually exlusive in any way: ... - source-branch: <branch-name> Snapcraft will checkout a specific branch from the source tree. This only works on multi-branch repositories from git and hg (mercurial). ... - source-tag: <tag> Snapcraft will checkout the specific tag from the source tree revision control system. ... they should either not be mutually exclusive (why are they at all) or there should be a proper hint in the help that one disables support for the other

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 20
Quick Win: 17.0
Staleness: 90
Complexity: 15
Confidence: 55
Support Request: 20
needs triage Request to document in `snapcraft help sources` that source-branch and source-tag are mutually exclusive for git sources (or allow both). Filed ~6.8 years ago by ogra with no labels, comments, or maintainer response; current state unverified.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 30
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 40
close stale User reports that using both 'source-branch' and 'source-tag' in Snapcraft fails with an error, but the help documentation doesn't explain why they are mutually exclusive. Issue is over 6 years old with no activity.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 15
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 25
close stale Snapcraft errors when both source-branch and source-tag are specified, but help docs don't explain they are mutually exclusive. Unlabelled, no maintainer response, inactive for ~6.7 years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 10
Confidence: 92
Support Request: 25
close stale Snapcraft fails when using both source-branch and source-tag, citing mutual exclusivity, but help docs lack explanation. Issue is completely inactive for over six years with no maintainer response.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 10
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Documentation issue requesting clarification that source-branch and source-tag are mutually exclusive. No maintainer response in over 6 years.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

Related work

  • Related To: snapcraft (launchpad)#1724526 (confidence 40%)

    Tangentially related Launchpad bug about source-tag git checkout behaviour; closed as abandoned without resolution, but a different failure mode than this documentation request.

Related issues

Issue Project State Summary Similarity
#1687967 git-tag does not support tags snapcraft (launchpad) closed Snapcraft incorrectly treated source tags as branches, causing clone failures. The report was closed without comments or resolution, indicating the issue was abandoned or rejected without a fix.
71%