snapcraft doesn't validate plugs: values
Metadata
Current evaluation
Snapcraft accepts malformed plug entries such as plugs: [home x11] and fails later during publishing; maintainers acknowledged the diagnostic gap, but no implemented fix is evidenced.
Suggested action: keep open
Reason: Maintainer ~elopio acknowledged the report, linked bug #1617302, and stated that fixing it would report "home x11" as an invalid interface, while also proposing regex validation. The current app model still types plugs as unconstrained strings, and no resolving commit was found.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
20
Complexity:
38
Confidence:
88
Actionability:
76
Issue body
I'm in the process of creating a snap for HTMLDOC via build.snapcraft.io. However, after successfully building the snap the bot was unable to publish it due to an error in my plugs: definition, which read:
plugs: [home x11]
Now, this was a simple typo (missing comma), but since snapcraft didn't catch it and the build bot was unable to report the cause of the publishing error, it took me a while to determine what was wrong and correct the situation.
A simple fix here might be to check that the strings do not contain whitespace, and if so log that as an error with a recommendation to add commas to delimit the interfaces.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
20
Complexity:
38
Confidence:
88
Actionability:
76
|
keep open | Snapcraft accepts malformed plug entries such as plugs: [home x11] and fails later during publishing; maintainers acknowledged the diagnostic gap, but no implemented fix is evidenced. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
42
Quick Win:
20
Complexity:
38
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
78
|
keep open | Snapcraft accepts malformed plug lists such as plugs: [home x11], so builds succeed but publishing fails. A maintainer acknowledged the report and proposed syntax validation. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
19
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
70
Actionability:
80
|
needs triage | snapcraft does not validate plugs: list syntax, allowing missing commas between plug names to pass local validation and only fail during publishing | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
20
Quick Win:
16
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
40
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to add whitespace validation for plugs values in snapcraft.yaml (e.g. 'home x11' instead of 'home, x11'). Filed ~2015 during the build.snapcraft.io era, zero comments, no labels, no maintainer interaction in 9+ years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
20
Confidence:
95
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Snapcraft fails to validate plugs list syntax, allowing typos like missing commas to pass parsing but fail at publishing. Unaddressed for over 9 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
15
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to validate snapcraft plugs definitions and catch missing commas. Currently inactive for over 9 years with no maintainer response or labels. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
10
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Request to add validation for snapcraft plugs definitions to catch typos like missing commas. Issue is over 9 years old with no maintainer response or labels. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1617302
(confidence 98%)
The maintainer explicitly identified it as a similar issue whose fix would validate the invalid interface.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1617302 Specifying a nonexistent plug does cause any errors | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Unknown plug typos once built silently; snapd now validates interfaces and Snapcraft has used that validation since before June 2020, leaving no Snapcraft-side fix. | |
| #1950465 snapcraft does not seem to call `snap pack --check-skeleton` to validate that snap has correct things | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Snapcraft now runs snap pack --check-skeleton during packing, catching invalid plug and slot names before installation. Implemented by merged PR #3743 (commit 7c927032d). |