stage package cache no longer working
Metadata
Current evaluation
Stage-package cache reuse was restored: snapcraft PR #1122 (commit 20b422459, 'repo: cache stage packages for faster future use') merged, reusing cached debs and copying the apt cache into cleanbuild containers, closing LP #1661383.
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: Maintainer kyrofa posted links to snapcore/snapcraft PR #1113 and then the 'better fix' PR #1122, which was merged as commit 20b422459 and reuses cached stage packages (plus copies the apt cache into cleanbuild containers), fixing the reported regression.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
Snapcraft currently caches stage-packages. For example:
$ snapcraft pull
Preparing to pull ros-base
Pulling ros-base
Preparing to fetch compilers...
Fetching compilers...
Get:1 http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu xenial InRelease [4025 B]
Get:2 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Ign http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease [102 kB]
Get:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease [102 kB]
Get:5 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages [463 kB]
Get:6 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/universe amd64 Packages [387 kB]
Get:7 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/universe Translation-en [144 kB]
Fetched 1,305 kB in 0s (0 B/s)
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libgmp10 amd64 2:6.1.0+dfsg-2 [240 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libmpfr4 amd64 3.1.4-1 [191 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libmpc3 amd64 1.0.3-1 [39.7 kB]
<snip>
Now check `~/.cache/snapcraft/apt/` and you'll see that snapcraft has cached all those debs. However, that cache doesn't seem to be used, as shown by this:
$ snapcraft clean && snapcraft pull
Cleaning up priming area
Cleaning up staging area
Cleaning up parts directory
Preparing to pull ros-base
Pulling ros-base
Preparing to fetch compilers...
Fetching compilers...
Get:1 http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu xenial InRelease [4025 B]
Ign http://packages.ros.org/ros/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial InRelease
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates InRelease
Hit http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-security InRelease
Fetched 4,025 B in 0s (0 B/s)
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libgmp10 amd64 2:6.1.0+dfsg-2 [240 kB]
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libmpfr4 amd64 3.1.4-1 [191 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 libmpc3 amd64 1.0.3-1 [39.7 kB]
<snip>
See that the packages are being downloaded again instead of being unpacked from the cache.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Stage-package cache reuse was restored: snapcraft PR #1122 (commit 20b422459, 'repo: cache stage packages for faster future use') merged, reusing cached debs and copying the apt cache into cleanbuild containers, closing LP #1661383. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Stage-package cache reuse was restored by merged PR #1122 (commit 20b422459), including copying the cache into cleanbuild containers. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Stage-package caching was repaired in merged PR canonical/snapcraft#1122 (commit 20b422459), which reused cached packages and copied the cache into cleanbuild. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Cached stage packages were downloaded again after a clean. PR #1122 fixed cache reuse and was merged in commit 20b422459. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. Stage package cache regression remains unfixed, likely abandoned due to inactivity. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. The stage package cache failure after clean operations was abandoned. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
canonical/snapcraft#1122
(confidence 97%)
Merged PR 'repo: cache stage packages for faster future use' as commit 20b422459; directly referenced by the maintainer as the better fix and it fixes LP #1661383.
-
Superseded By:
canonical/snapcraft#1113
(confidence 92%)
Earlier attempt at the same fix, closed unmerged in favour of #1122.
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1663051
(confidence 55%)
Follow-up LP bug that the stage-package cache is never cleaned; remains open.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1612813 stage-package cache doesn't work on encrypted home if building snap outside of home | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | stage-package (deb) cache used hard links, breaking on encrypted homes across filesystem boundaries. Fixed by merged canonical/snapcraft PR #728 (commit 3d1835b5d), which switched the cache to common.link_or_copy with a copy fallback. | |
| #1122 repo: cache stage packages for faster future use. | snapcraft | merged | Merged PR #1122 (20b422459), reusing cached stage packages and copying the apt cache into cleanbuild containers to fix LP #1661383. | |
| #1113 repo: cache stage packages for faster future use. | snapcraft | closed | Closed unmerged in favor of #1122, which merged the stage-package caching and cleanbuild improvements as commit 20b422459. | |
| #1663051 Stage package cache is never cleaned | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Open, triaged cache-growth bug: source-hash-specific stage-package caches grow without cleanup; maintainers proposed an apt-get clean-style reset, but no clearing command or fix is evident in the current tree. | |
| #1663365 Stage package fetching progress is useless | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Fixed by merged snapcore/snapcraft#1949 (commit 54323e13b), restoring aggregate stage-package fetch progress while suppressing deb-cache output. | |
| #3110 repo: use persistent cache for fetching stage packages | snapcraft | closed | PR #3110 (persistent cache for fetching stage packages) was closed unmerged with 0 reviews and 1 open maintainer question. Its dependency #3109 also closed unmerged; the feature was later delivered by merged PR #3585 (CRAFT-488) using host /var/lib/apt state. | |
| #1157 repo: support versioned stage-packages | snapcraft | merged | Merged support for versioned stage-packages in canonical/snapcraft#1157 via commit ef4076821, resolving Launchpad bug #1666656. |