Kernel plugin: Avoid redownloading os.snap on a local Git repo
Metadata
Current evaluation
Closed as won't fix: the legacy core16/core18 kernel plugin behavior only affects Snapcraft 4.x, which receives fixes only for critical bugs.
Resolution: closed stale
Reason: Maintainers closed the report as non-critical after noting that the affected legacy kernel plugin is part of Snapcraft 4.x for core16/core18. Ondrej proposed closing it in 2025, and Mr-CAL agreed in 2026.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
Currently, if I make a change to my kernel source (I'm using a source in '.' in my case) then commit it, Snapcraft simply ignores the changes since it has pulled the source previously, printing 'Skipping pull kernel (already ran)'. I have to run 'snapcraft clean' in order to get it to pull the (local) source again. Snapcraft then goes on and redownloads 'os.snap', a 60MB file. On a fast connection, this is no problem. I'm on a slightly slower connection that also has a data cap, so this is a waste of both time and bits.
It seems like there are two ways to avoid this: Cache os.snap locally, or have Snapcraft run 'git pull' to grab source changes into its working directory. The second option seems better as it will behave similar to a non-snap build, where editing the source code has an immediate change.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as won't fix: the legacy core16/core18 kernel plugin behavior only affects Snapcraft 4.x, which receives fixes only for critical bugs. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as won't fix: the legacy core16/core18 kernel plugin affects Snapcraft 4.x, which receives only critical fixes; no code fix or resolving PR was recorded. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed as won't fix: the legacy core16/core18 kernel plugin affects Snapcraft 4.x, whose remaining support is limited to critical bugs. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed without a documented fix. PR #2566 fixed os.snap download requests, not local-Git refreshes or repeated-download avoidance. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | The report targeted redundant os.snap downloads; canonical/snapcraft#2566 fixed kernel-plugin os.snap download handling and merged as a3def5fdb. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. The report requested Snapcraft to update local kernel Git repos via pull instead of redownloading os.snap after cleaning. No fix or merge was implemented. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution, likely abandoned. The kernel plugin redownloaded a large os.snap file when local Git changes went undetected. No fix or workaround was implemented. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed without resolution. Snapcraft continues to ignore local kernel source changes and unnecessarily redownloads the 60MB os.snap file during clean builds. No fix or workaround was implemented. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2566 kernel plugin: correctly download the os.snap | snapcraft | merged | Merged PR #2566 fixed kernel-plugin os.snap downloads by supplying missing Store API request data and moved tests to spread for cross-base coverage. | |
| #1624 kernel plugin: use latest stable core snap | snapcraft | merged | Merged PR #1624 via commit aa8a8429b, changing the kernel plugin to use the stable core snap instead of obsolete ubuntu-core and updating tests. | |
| #1816379 snapcraft kernel plugin includes always the uc16 initramfs | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed as stale after no progress since 2019. Later, snapcraft#5814 (8f56d299d) added replacement post-core18 kernel and initrd plugins. | |
| #1606903 kernel plugin: can't snap a kernel using launchpad | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Fixed by merged PR canonical/snapcraft#903 (commit 603948e1d), allowing Store part downloads without snapcraft login and resolving Launchpad kernel builds. | |
| #1748 kernel plugin: don't assume /lib/firmware is present if !kernel-with-firmware | snapcraft | closed | PR #1748 (kernel plugin /lib/firmware hotfix, LP #1733564) was closed as superseded by canonical/snapcraft#1750, merged as commit 2d16ac3c0 to skip /lib/firmware handling when kernel-with-firmware is false. |