Snapcraft uses dget but doesn't depend upon devscripts
Metadata
Current evaluation
Fixed fresh-install staging failures by adding devscripts, which provides dget, as a Snapcraft Debian dependency in commit dc1f106e7.
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: Commit dc1f106e7 added the missing devscripts dependency required by the Ubuntu plugin's dget command, resolving staging when devscripts was not installed.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
Scenario: A developer starts with a fresh Ubuntu install, configures the Snapcraft PPA, and installs Snapcraft. Then he sets up the following snapcraft.yaml:
parts:
my-ubuntu-package:
plugin: ubuntu
Finally, he runs:
$ snapcraft stage
Expected behavior: my-ubuntu-package is installed in the staging area by Snapcraft.
Actual behavior: Snapcraft fails with "exec: dget: not found."
UPDATE:
After purging devscripts (which I manually installed to get around this) and trying to stage again, Snapcraft did try to lazily install it for me. So this bug isn't just "uses dget without depends" but more like "lazy install isn't reliable."
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Fixed fresh-install staging failures by adding devscripts, which provides dget, as a Snapcraft Debian dependency in commit dc1f106e7. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Added devscripts to Snapcraft's Debian dependencies so the Ubuntu plugin can run dget, fixing staging on fresh installs (commit dc1f106e7). | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Fixed by adding the missing devscripts dependency for the Ubuntu plugin’s dget command in commit dc1f106e7. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without a fix. The ubuntu plugin failed when devscripts was missing. An update revealed Snapcraft's lazy installation mechanism was unreliable, leading to the issue being abandoned. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed and abandoned. The author identified unreliable lazy installation of devscripts as the root cause, with no subsequent fix or merge applied. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Abandoned without resolution. The author noted Snapcraft fails when devscripts is missing, exposing an unreliable lazy installation mechanism for dget. No fix or merge was implemented. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Abandoned. The lazy installation mechanism for devscripts proved unreliable, leaving the missing dependency issue unaddressed. No resolution was implemented. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1497453 snapcraft fails if it needs to pull a deb that has an uninstallable version on the system | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Resolved in release preparation: changelog commit c1a44492b records LP #1497453 as fixed for Snapcraft’s failing deb-fetch handling. |