create-key prints no progress

Metadata

Project: snapcraft (launchpad)
Number: #1629978
Type: issue
State: open
Author: ~elopio
Labels: store
Created: 2016-10-03 07:02 PM UTC
Updated: 2016-10-12 04:09 AM UTC
Closed: —

Current evaluation

create-key prints no progress while generating a key (slow entropy collection on idle VMs), reported 2016. Now a thin wrapper that delegates to `snap create-key` (snapd) for all key generation.

Suggested action: close stale

Reason: The code path that could add progress/entropy feedback no longer exists in snapcraft: `StoreCreateKeyCommand.run` ends in `subprocess.check_call(["snap", "create-key", ...])` (snapcraft/commands/keys.py:162) and `_get_usable_keys` documents that it reads "keys registered by snapd" via `snap keys --json` (keys.py:396-410), with unit tests asserting only that `snap create-key` is called. Any progress reporting for the GPG/entropy-pool wait now belongs to snapd, so snapcraft cannot fix this without reimplementing key generation.

Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot

Impact: 18 Quick Win: 2 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 88 Actionability: 10

Issue body

When I use snapcraft create-key, it takes a long time to finish but it prints nothing to the terminal about the things it's running and the progress it's making. That's not nice for the user, you might think it's stuck, and you are left wondering why it's taking so long. elopio@ubuntu-xenial:~/snapcraft$ date lun 3 oct 12:43:07 CST 2016 elopio@ubuntu-xenial:~/snapcraft$ ./bin/snapcraft create-key Passphrase: Confirm passphrase: elopio@ubuntu-xenial:~/snapcraft$ date lun 3 oct 13:01:10 CST 2016 In addition to that, it took too long probably because it was collecting entropy. But it didn't explain that. This was on a vm that I left idle while doing something else. When I returned it was still stuck, so I used rngd to speed it up.

Evaluation history

Date	Model	Scores	Action	Summary
2026-10-02 06:53 PM UTC	stealth/space-bunny-alpha	Impact: 18 Quick Win: 2 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 88 Actionability: 10	close stale	create-key prints no progress while generating a key (slow entropy collection on idle VMs), reported 2016. Now a thin wrapper that delegates to `snap create-key` (snapd) for all key generation.
2026-09-23 04:14 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Impact: 30 Quick Win: 17 Complexity: 20 Confidence: 75 Actionability: 70	keep open	snapcraft create-key provides no progress feedback during execution, which can take 10+ minutes especially when collecting entropy. Still present in current codebase.
2026-09-01 07:38 AM UTC	qwen/qwen3.8-27b	Impact: 20 Quick Win: 14 Staleness: 95 Complexity: 30 Confidence: 70 Support Request: 10	needs triage	snapcraft create-key prints no progress output and can appear stuck while collecting entropy; issue is open, unlabelled, and has no maintainer response.
2026-07-23 11:49 AM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Staleness: 98 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 95 Support Request: 10	close stale	snapcraft create-key lacks progress output and fails to explain long delays during entropy collection, leaving users unsure if the process is stuck.
2026-07-22 12:18 PM UTC	qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b	Staleness: 98 Complexity: 25 Confidence: 85 Support Request: 10	close stale	User reports snapcraft create-key lacks progress output and explanation during long execution, likely due to entropy collection. Issue has seen no activity or comments in nearly a decade.
2026-07-09 06:57 PM UTC	qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6	Staleness: 98 Complexity: 15 Confidence: 90 Support Request: 10	close stale	Request to add progress output and entropy feedback to snapcraft create-key. Inactive for nearly 10 years with no maintainer response. Likely obsolete due to significant CLI refactoring and project evolution since 2016.

Update history

Date	Change
2016-10-12 04:09 AM UTC	created

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