classic confinement requires manually setting PATH and PYTHONPATH
Metadata
Current evaluation
Classic snaps may need explicit PATH/PYTHONPATH, but the reporter and snappy team said this was by design; current metadata handling intentionally omits injected PATH and library paths.
Suggested action: close not a bug
Reason: The reporter said the snappy team confirmed the behavior was designed, and later found PYTHONPATH unnecessary in Snapcraft 2.22, narrowing the original need to PATH for a command invoked by name. Current classic-confinement tests preserve this behavior, while commit 9b6e58337 (#4216) explicitly stopped injecting PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH; the later Python 3 claims lacked a minimal reproducer.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
36
Quick Win:
9
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
84
Actionability:
55
Issue body
I have to manually set PATH and PYTHONPATH to include $SNAP/bin/ and $SNAP/lib/python2.7/site-packages when creating a snap with classic confinement. Using 'environment:' works fine to set these, but it seems like I shouldn't have to take this extra step.
environment:
PATH: $PATH:$SNAP/bin/
PYTHONPATH: $PYTHONPATH:$SNAP/lib/python2.7/site-packages
Note: This is when using the python plugin, so perhaps it's limited to that.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
36
Quick Win:
9
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
84
Actionability:
55
|
close not a bug | Classic snaps may need explicit PATH/PYTHONPATH, but the reporter and snappy team said this was by design; current metadata handling intentionally omits injected PATH and library paths. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
48
Quick Win:
11
Complexity:
61
Confidence:
80
Actionability:
59
|
keep open | Classic Python snaps have intermittently required manual PATH/PYTHONPATH and correct PATH ordering across Snapcraft 2.27.1–3.7, despite an earlier “working as designed” conclusion; the issue remains unresolved. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
14
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
60
Actionability:
60
|
needs triage | Classic confinement python plugin requires manual PATH and PYTHONPATH setup. Open for 9.5 years with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
35
Quick Win:
21
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
55
Support Request:
30
|
close stale | Classic-confinement snaps built with the python plugin require manually setting PATH and PYTHONPATH via environment: to include $SNAP/bin and $SNAP/lib/python2.7/site-packages; reporter argues snapcraft should do this automatically. No maintainer response or labels; issue is ~9 years old. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
65
|
close stale | Reporter notes manual PATH and PYTHONPATH setup is needed for classic confinement with the python plugin. Issue has zero comments and no maintainer activity for over 7 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
20
|
close stale | Classic confinement snaps using the python plugin require manual PATH and PYTHONPATH configuration. The issue has been inactive for over 7 years with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
92
Support Request:
30
|
close stale | Issue reports manual PATH and PYTHONPATH setup needed for classic confinement with the python plugin. Unanswered for over 9 years, likely outdated due to snapcraft evolution. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft#4216
(confidence 96%)
Commit 9b6e58337 intentionally omits PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH for classic confinement, matching current test expectations.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #4187 Environment is being set for classic snaps | snapcraft | closed | Classic-confinement snaps no longer receive top-level LD_LIBRARY_PATH and PATH; fixed by merged PR #4216 in commit 9b6e58337. |