sources can't extract tar.xz archive
Metadata
Current evaluation
Tar source extraction failed with KeyError on linkname not found; cause was hardlink targets keeping the stripped common prefix. Fixed in snapcraft commit 9b240efe3 (PR #688), logic now lives in craft-parts tar_source.py with hardlink tests.
Suggested action: close resolved
Reason: The reporter's own follow-up identified the real cause ('Seems to be sym/hardlink related', pointing at CPython's _find_link_target), which matches the traceback: tar.extractall stripped the 'transmission-2.92/' prefix from member names but not from hardlink linknames, so _find_link_target raised KeyError. Commit 9b240efe3 'Strip common path prefixes from linkname as well as name when extracting a tarfile (#688)' implemented exactly that, and the code now lives in craft_parts/sources/tar_source.py::_strip_prefix with a dedicated test_strip_common_prefix_hardlink unit test, so the defect no longer reproduces.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
26
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
86
Actionability:
85
Issue body
That's the trace from Snapcraft 2.8.4
```
"GET /files/transmission-2.92.tar.xz HTTP/1.1" 200 3378116
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/snapcraft", line 31, in <module>
snapcraft.main.main()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/main.py", line 146, in main
return run(args, project_options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/main.py", line 193, in run
lifecycle.snap(project_options, args['<directory>'], args['--output'])
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/lifecycle.py", line 240, in snap
snap = execute('strip', project_options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/lifecycle.py", line 82, in execute
_Executor(config, project_options).run(step, part_names)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/lifecycle.py", line 111, in run
self._run_step(step, part, part_names, dirty, recursed)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/lifecycle.py", line 149, in _run_step
getattr(part, step)()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/pluginhandler.py", line 259, in pull
self.code.pull()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/_baseplugin.py", line 120, in pull
sources.get(self.sourcedir, self.build_basedir, self.options)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/sources.py", line 280, in get
handler.pull()
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/sources.py", line 188, in pull
self.provision(self.source_dir)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/sources.py", line 212, in provision
self._extract(tarball, dst)
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/snapcraft/internal/sources.py", line 247, in _extract
tar.extractall(members=filter_members(tar), path=dst)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/tarfile.py", line 1995, in extractall
numeric_owner=numeric_owner)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/tarfile.py", line 2037, in extract
numeric_owner=numeric_owner)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/tarfile.py", line 2115, in _extract_member
self.makelink(tarinfo, targetpath)
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/tarfile.py", line 2202, in makelink
self._extract_member(self._find_link_target(tarinfo),
File "/usr/lib/python3.5/tarfile.py", line 2369, in _find_link_target
raise KeyError("linkname %r not found" % linkname)
KeyError: "linkname 'transmission-2.92/qt/icons/Faenza/actions/scalable/small/list-remove.svg' not found"
```
But I can extract the archive just fine from the command line using the xf flags
The snapcraft config
```
transmission:
plugin: autotools
source: https://download.transmissionbt.com/files/transmission-2.92.tar.xz
source-type: tar
```
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
40
Quick Win:
26
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
86
Actionability:
85
|
close resolved | Tar source extraction failed with KeyError on linkname not found; cause was hardlink targets keeping the stripped common prefix. Fixed in snapcraft commit 9b240efe3 (PR #688), logic now lives in craft-parts tar_source.py with hardlink tests. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
50
Quick Win:
32
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
90
|
close resolved | Snapcraft failed to extract tarballs with hardlinks (misreported as .tar.xz): KeyError because linkname kept the stripped common prefix. Fixed by 9b240efe3 (PR #688); logic now in craft-parts tar_source.py with hardlink tests. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
2
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
60
Actionability:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.8.4 fails to extract tar.xz archives with hardlinks due to KeyError in tarfile._find_link_target. Issue is 10 years old; old codebase no longer exists. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
18
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
60
Support Request:
15
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.8.4 fails to extract a tar.xz source (transmission-2.92) with a KeyError on a missing symlink target during tarfile.extractall. 10+ years old, no maintainer response; traceback references code paths no longer present in the current codebase. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.8.4 fails to extract tar.xz archives with a KeyError during symlink resolution. Reported over 10 years ago with no maintainer response. The affected version and Python runtime are long deprecated. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.8.4 fails to extract tar.xz archives due to a Python tarfile KeyError. Unaddressed for over 8 years with no maintainer interaction. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
25
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft 2.8.4 fails to extract a tar.xz archive due to a Python tarfile KeyError. The report is over 10 years old, references unsupported software, and has had no maintainer interaction. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
snapcraft#688
(confidence 92%)
Commit 9b240efe3 'Strip common path prefixes from linkname as well as name when extracting a tarfile (#688)' is the direct fix; the logic survives in craft-parts tar_source.py with hardlink coverage.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1606700 tarball sources fail if they contain hardlinks | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Hardlink extraction was fixed by snapcore/snapcraft PR #688, commit 9b240efe3, which normalizes tar link targets as well as member names. |