snapcraft --target-arch=i386 does not build i386 images, because core20 does not support i386 and yet the build starts and wastes time
Metadata
Current evaluation
Reports that snapcraft --target-arch=i386 on a core20 base silently builds an amd64 snap instead of failing early, wasting build time. Unlabelled, 0 comments, inactive ~5 years; a related core20/i386 bug was closed as superseded by improved arch parsing.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The issue is unlabelled with zero comments and no maintainer interaction in ~5 years, so it has never been triaged. A closely related bug (snapcraft (launchpad)#1862256, 'complain loudly when building base: core20 snap on i386') was closed as superseded by improved architecture parsing that now rejects unsupported base-arch combinations, suggesting this may already be fixed, but I could not directly verify current code behavior, so a maintainer should confirm before closing.
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
24.0
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
15
Issue body
Tried to make a i386 snap, got amd64 instead. Is that an expected undocumented misfeature?
~/repos/stress-ng$ snapcraft --target-arch=i386
.. after a while ..
Staging stress-ng
+ snapcraftctl stage
Priming stress-ng
+ snapcraftctl prime
Snapping |
Snapped stress-ng_V0.13.02_amd64.snap
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
24.0
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
15
|
needs triage | Reports that snapcraft --target-arch=i386 on a core20 base silently builds an amd64 snap instead of failing early, wasting build time. Unlabelled, 0 comments, inactive ~5 years; a related core20/i386 bug was closed as superseded by improved arch parsing. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
20
|
needs triage | snapcraft --target-arch=i386 silently produces amd64 snaps instead of failing early when base core20 lacks i386 support, wasting build time. Issue is unlabelled and inactive for ~4.8 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | User reports snapcraft silently ignores --target-arch=i386 and builds amd64 instead, wasting time since core20 lacks i386 support. Issue is unlabelled, has zero comments, and is nearly 5 years old. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | snapcraft --target-arch=i386 silently produces amd64 snaps instead of failing or warning, wasting build time. The report is 4.8 years old with zero maintainer interaction or labels. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | snapcraft --target-arch=i386 silently falls back to amd64 when using core20, wasting build time. Lacks early validation for unsupported architectures. Open, zero comments, awaiting triage. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related work
-
Duplicate Of:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1862256
(confidence 70%)
Same underlying request: reject/fail on core20+i386 instead of silently building the wrong arch; that bug was closed as superseded by improved arch parsing.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1997752
(confidence 45%)
Related core20 architecture-triplet handling on mismatched host arch; closed without a fix.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #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. | |
| #1997752 base core20: wrong arch triplet | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without a fix or resolution, likely abandoned due to inactivity. The report indicated Snapcraft incorrectly sets SNAPCRAFT_ARCH_TRIPLET when building on a mismatched host architecture. No comments or patches were submitted. | |
| #1737532 "snapcraft cleanbuild --target-arch=i386" produces amd64 executables | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without resolution. Cross-compilation for i386 via snapcraft cleanbuild continued producing amd64 binaries due to an incorrect container architecture and missing cross-compiler configuration. | |
| #2012074 snapcraft cannot build snap by default on aarch64 | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | snapcraft init defaults to core20 base which lacks arm64 Multipass images, causing build failures on aarch64. Fixed by PR #4118 which changed the default init base to core22. | |
| #1881515 Snapcraft pulling wrong arch of debs when building foreign snaps | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | 2018 report: --target-arch=armhf on x86 pulls x86-64 stage-packages debs instead of armhf. No labels, comments, or maintainer response in 6+ years. Legacy --target-arch flag removed; modern cross-compile documents the :$CRAFT_ARCH_BUILD_FOR suffix requirement. | |
| #2007790 core22: Only amd64 snap is built when multiple architectures are specified | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Untriaged report that specifying multiple architectures in snapcraft.yaml only triggers amd64 builds in the Snapcraft build service. | |
| #1835556 No way to natively build for the non-host arch | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | 2018 feature request for snapcraft to build for non-host architectures (e.g. --arch=i386) by launching a matching VM/container. Zero comments, no labels, dormant 7+ years; modern snapcraft now supports cross-arch builds via --build-for, so the request is effectively fulfilled. | |
| #4960 Can't build Core20 snaps on non-snap distros | snapcraft | open | Core20 snap builds fail on non-snap distros (NixOS) due to LXD snap detection. Triaged with a proposed backport fix, but core20 support and snapcraft_legacy have since been removed from the project, making the issue no longer applicable. | |
| #1866300 snapcraft fails to build core20 snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed without comments or resolution after 74 days. The core20 build failure involving multipass hangs and LXD tracebacks was abandoned. | |
| #1817288 snapcraft cleanbuild produces incorrect architecture snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Abandoned and closed without resolution. The legacy mode cleanbuild multi-arch naming bug remains unfixed due to lack of activity and deprecation of legacy mode. |