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stage-packages for classic snaps silently drop core20 snap debs

View original Launchpad issue

Metadata

Project
snapcraft (launchpad)
Number
#1918999
Type
issue
State
open
Author
~racb
Labels
craft-467
Created
Updated
Closed
—

Current evaluation

Classic snaps using stage-packages silently drop dependencies already present in the core20 base, causing missing dependencies at runtime. Open 5+ years with zero maintainer interaction; workaround is to manually list every transitive dependency.

Suggested action: needs triage

Reason: The issue is a genuine bug report (not a support request) with a clear reproduction scenario and a proposed fix direction (disable eliding for classic confinement or add an opt-out). It has zero comments, no labels, and no maintainer acknowledgement in ~5.5 years, so it has never been triaged. The core20 base is now EOL and the project has moved to core22/core24/core26, which reduces urgency, but the underlying eliding logic for classic confinement may still be relevant to newer bases, so it should be triaged rather than closed outright.

Impact: 55 Quick Win: 19.25 Staleness: 95 Complexity: 65 Confidence: 60 Support Request: 10

Issue body

I'm updating the git-ubuntu classic snap to be based on core20. In doing this, I'm building a deb, and then installing it using stage-packages. See bug 1918968 for a deeper explanation of this use case. Expected: "stage-packages: [git-ubuntu]" ships all required dependencies in the snap. Actual: packages already in the core20 snap are elided from the effective "stage-packages" list. Since this classic snap cannot make use of what is in the core20 snap safely, the result is a snap with missing dependencies. Workaround: explicitly specify every single required dependency, recursively, that is also present in the core20 snap. The list of packages to use for the workaround is tedious to determine. To fix, maybe the eliding behaviour should be disabled for a classic snap, or able to be turned off with an option.

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 55
Quick Win: 19.25
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 65
Confidence: 60
Support Request: 10
needs triage Classic snaps using stage-packages silently drop dependencies already present in the core20 base, causing missing dependencies at runtime. Open 5+ years with zero maintainer interaction; workaround is to manually list every transitive dependency.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 60
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Classic snaps using stage-packages silently drop dependencies already present in the core20 base, causing missing dependencies. Issue is 5+ years old with zero maintainer interaction.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 98
Complexity: 60
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 10
close stale Classic snaps using stage-packages silently drop dependencies already in the core20 base, causing missing runtime deps. Issue is untriaged with no maintainer activity in nearly five years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 55
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
close stale Classic snap stage-packages silently drops packages present in the core20 base, causing missing dependencies. No maintainer response in over 5 years.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 95
Complexity: 65
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 15
close stale stage-packages in classic snaps silently drops packages already in the core20 base, causing missing dependencies. Unassigned, zero comments, inactive for over 1500 days. Awaits triage and a fix to disable eliding or add a toggle.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

Related work

  • Related To: snapcraft (launchpad)#1918968 (confidence 70%)

    The issue body explicitly references bug 1918968 for a deeper explanation of the git-ubuntu classic snap use case that triggers this eliding behavior.

Related issues

Issue Project State Summary Similarity
#1681722 classic snaps cannot find stage packages in $PATH snapcraft (launchpad) open Classic snaps with stage-packages cannot find dependent binaries because snap bin directories are missing from default PATH. 9+ years old, zero comments, no labels. A related workaround (PR #2889, snapcraft-runner) was merged to address classic snap PATH resolution.
74%