snapcraft release gives misleading error when revision does not exist
Metadata
Current evaluation
The legacy snapcraft release error wrongly advised registering an already-registered snap; that obsolete code path was removed in ffb164b7a, and current releases use craft-store.
Suggested action: close resolved
Reason: The reporter provided an exact command and nonexistent revision, and maintainer elopio confirmed the behavior. Git history ties the misleading message to snapcraft_legacy, which commit ffb164b7a removed; current release commands delegate to the store client backed by craft-store.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
24
Quick Win:
20
Complexity:
12
Confidence:
98
Actionability:
94
Issue body
If you try to release a revision which does not exist, you see:
Sorry, try `snapcraft register etcd` before trying to release or choose an existing revision.
The misleading part is that the snap is already registered, it's purely a 'non-existent revision' problem.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
24
Quick Win:
20
Complexity:
12
Confidence:
98
Actionability:
94
|
close resolved | The legacy snapcraft release error wrongly advised registering an already-registered snap; that obsolete code path was removed in ffb164b7a, and current releases use craft-store. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
28
Quick Win:
16
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
84
|
close resolved | Misleading registration advice for a nonexistent release revision was confirmed; the legacy error path was removed in ffb164b7a, and current releases use craft-store. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
14
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
60
Actionability:
60
|
needs triage | Misleading error message when releasing a non-existent revision suggests registering the snap instead of indicating the revision doesn't exist. Issue is untriaged with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
20
Quick Win:
18
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | snapcraft release shows misleading error suggesting 'snapcraft register' when the real problem is a non-existent revision. Filed 2016, 0 comments, no maintainer interaction; legacy CLI since replaced by craft-based rewrite. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
0
|
close stale | Reports a misleading error message when releasing a non-existent snap revision. The issue has been inactive for over nine years with no maintainer response, and the CLI/UI has likely changed significantly since then. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | snapcraft release shows a misleading error suggesting registration when attempting to release a non-existent revision. Issue is completely inactive for ~9 years with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
75
Support Request:
0
|
close stale | Reports a misleading error message when attempting to release a non-existent snap revision. The message incorrectly suggests registering the snap instead of indicating the revision is missing. No activity in over nine years. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
snapcraft#6241
(confidence 99%)
Merged PR #6241, represented by commit ffb164b7a, removed snapcraft_legacy and the affected legacy error path.
-
Duplicate Of:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1604810
(confidence 97%)
It reports the same wrong registration error when releasing a nonexistent revision.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1604810 try to snapcraft release an unexisting revision shows the wrong error | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Maintainer-confirmed misleading error when releasing a nonexistent revision; store-specific behavior still needs clarification before implementation. | |
| #2059787 inaccurate error output in snapcraft release if given invalid revision | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Valid CLI parsing bug: an invalid revision makes snapcraft release claim the release command does not exist; current code still uses type=int, and an exact duplicate remains open. | |
| #1999038 "snapcraft release" chokes given an invalid revision value | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Confirmed parser bug: `snapcraft release mysnap fubar` reports "No such command 'release'" instead of a bad-revision error. Reproduced by mr-cal on 7.2.9, labeled craft-1532, still open with no fix. | |
| #4401 misleading error message on "release" if mandatory arguments are missing | snapcraft | closed | `snapcraft release` now reports missing required arguments or invalid revision types instead of falsely claiming the release command does not exist. | |
| #1621713 snapcraft release doesn't match the spec | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Snapcraft now correctly handles revision arguments and channel updates; the maintainer confirmed the outdated release behavior is resolved. | |
| #1967722 snapcraft upload --release fails for registered snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Upload succeeded after store registration/account access was confirmed; no Snapcraft code change was needed. | |
| #1761488 snapcraft 2.39.2 failed to release a snap: snapcraft.storeapi.errors.StoreReleaseError: <exception str() failed> | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Root cause was Mozilla-side (passing a string instead of a list of channels to _store.push); Snapcraft's unprintable StoreReleaseError was fixed by commit ef350b47 and PR #2056 (merged as 1f90b2a9), shipped in 2.41. | |
| #1604815 The error when trying to release a revision that's not a integer is ugly | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Invalid release revisions now produce a formatted user-facing StoreReleaseError; the fix merged in canonical/snapcraft#1599 (c7adb25f7) and shipped in Snapcraft 2.35. |