snapcraft.yaml should have a version field
Metadata
Current evaluation
Rejected as unnecessary: maintainers said Snapcraft 2.x rolled with Ubuntu releases 16.04, 17.04 and 18.04, so no format/version field was added to resolve the issue.
Resolution: closed not a bug
Reason: Maintainer sergiusens explicitly said the proposal “really can't be fixed” because 2.x was rolling and behavior was tied to Ubuntu release series. This was a design rejection; the later base key was added separately by canonical/snapcraft#1419.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
snapcraft is a quickly moving target, making backwards-incompatible behaviour changes along the way often (including bugfixes).
snapcraft.yaml should have a "snapcraft version" or "snapcraft format" entry, which allows the package maintainer to note what version this package was created for. Newer snapcraft versions can then decide if it will either emulate old behaviour, offer to migrate in a python 2to3 way or bail out -- ideally with a helpful message on what needs to be adapted manually.
(There is lots of opportunity here for https://xkcd.com/1172/)
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed not a bug | Rejected as unnecessary: maintainers said Snapcraft 2.x rolled with Ubuntu releases 16.04, 17.04 and 18.04, so no format/version field was added to resolve the issue. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed not a bug | No version field was added; maintainers said snapcraft 2.x tracked rolling development and Ubuntu releases such as 16.04, 17.04 and 18.04 provided the compatibility boundary. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed not a bug | Closed by maintainer decision: Snapcraft 2.x followed rolling releases, while post-16.04 compatibility was tied to Ubuntu releases, so no snapcraft.yaml version field was added. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed not a bug | Closed after maintainers said Snapcraft 2.x was rolling and tied to Ubuntu 16.04, 17.04 and 18.04; later releases introduced explicit snapcraft.yaml bases. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | The snapcraft.yaml compatibility-field proposal was closed after 3,865 days with no comments or implementation, leaving its version/format requirement unaddressed. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | The suggestion to add a version field to snapcraft.yaml for handling backwards compatibility was closed without discussion or implementation. The proposal remains unaddressed and effectively abandoned. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without implementation. The proposal to add a version field to snapcraft.yaml was abandoned due to inactivity. No format standard or migration strategy was adopted. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Request to add a version field to snapcraft.yaml for managing backwards-incompatible changes was closed without discussion or implementation, indicating it was abandoned. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed without discussion or implementation. The proposal to add a snapcraft version field to snapcraft.yaml was abandoned due to inactivity. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
canonical/snapcraft#1419
(confidence 85%)
Commit 024b9203c later added the top-level snapcraft.yaml base key, providing an explicit compatibility selector rather than the requested format version.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1590349 snapcraft should have a 'version' command | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Added the version subcommand via snapcore/snapcraft PR #1746 (commit 0820103ae); the change was merged and released in Snapcraft 2.40. | |
| #1742585 snapcraft version number output inconsistent | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 2.35 displays 3.10 for push but 3.1 for release and status; the detailed report remains open with no maintainer response. | |
| #1692752 snapcraft 2.30 has no version command | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Resolved by merged PR canonical/snapcraft#1366 (commit be4a92ad7), adding global snapcraft --version; expected in Snapcraft 2.32. |