snapcraft help claims to have help for topics, but doesn't
Metadata
Current evaluation
Merged PR #1789 in commit e66b29d84 improved `snapcraft help` so its available topics can be discovered.
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: Maintainers linked PR #1789 as the resolution; commit e66b29d84 (“cli: improve the help command”) implements the help-command improvements.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
---
⟫ snapcraft help
Usage: snapcraft help [OPTIONS] <topic>
Error: Missing argument "topic".
---
The help for help suggests I can get help for some topics but which ones? It's not helping me discover them?
---
⟫ snapcraft help help
The plugin does not exist. Run `snapcraft list-plugins` to see the available plugins.
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Wait what, it's interpreting the argument as a plugin?
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⟫ snapcraft help --help
Usage: snapcraft help [OPTIONS] <topic>
Obtain help for a certain plugin or topic.
The <topic> can either be a plugin name or one of:
- topics
- plugins
- sources
Examples:
snapcraft help topics
snapcraft help plugins
snapcraft help sources
snapcraft help go
Options:
--devel Show more details for snapcraft developers
--help Show this message and exit.
---
... ah so there are some topics
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Merged PR #1789 in commit e66b29d84 improved `snapcraft help` so its available topics can be discovered. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Improved `snapcraft help` topic discovery in merged PR #1789 (commit e66b29d84), replacing the bare missing-argument error with available-topic guidance. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Help command improvements merged in PR #1789 (commit e66b29d84, 'cli: improve the help command'), fixing Launchpad bug #1698116: bare `snapcraft help` now lists valid topics and plugin help is exposed. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | The no-argument `snapcraft help` error was updated to list available topics, resolving the topic-discovery confusion. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed. The CLI error message for snapcraft help without arguments was updated to list available topics, resolving the discovery confusion. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without changes. The author resolved the confusion by reading the --help output, which confirmed the documented topics. No code modifications were implemented. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without action. The reporter self-resolved the confusion after discovering the help command actually supports topics like plugins, sources, and topics via --help. No code changes were implemented. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed as resolved after the author realized the help output was correct and valid topics were accessible via --help. No code changes were implemented. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
canonical/snapcraft#1789
(confidence 99%)
The linked PR was merged as commit e66b29d84.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1789 cli: improve the help command | snapcraft | merged | Merged PR #1789 in commit e66b29d84, giving snapcraft help parity with --help and exposing topic and plugin help; it resolved snapcraft#1698. | |
| #1698 “snapcraft help” parity with --help | snapcraft | closed | Fixed by merged PR #1789 (commit e66b29d84), aligning “snapcraft help” with --help and exposing topic and plugin help. | |
| #32 Add help subcommand | snapcraft | closed | Implemented snapcraft help in commit 3c3cbcf84; the maintainer confirmed topic and plugin help worked as expected before closure. | |
| #1701 snapcraft help” only command summary | snapcraft | closed | Request for concise `snapcraft help` output was closed without implementation or explanation; no resolving PR or commit was recorded. | |
| #1699 snapcraft <help> command | snapcraft | closed | Feature request by maintainer sergiusens to add a `snapcraft help <command>` sub-command. Resolved by merged PR #1845, commit cf20b3593 ("cli: implement help <command> (#1845)"), which added command-specific help support. | |
| #5169 snapcraft help fails on many commands | snapcraft | closed | Fixed by merged PR #5178 (commit f97d032bf), adding missing help text for positional args; maintainer closed the issue noting the fix ships in snapcraft 8.5.1. | |
| #1990549 snapcraft isn't context aware in displaying help text | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Requests base/context-aware `snapcraft --help`; concrete --verbosity gap for core20 was unified in 8.11 (PRs #5646/#5680) and core20 dropped in 9.0, but general context-aware help remains planned. | |
| #1986645 Some snapcraft 7.x commands have irrelevant "help" info | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Fixed in Snapcraft 8 by command-group help refactoring merged in canonical/snapcraft#4934 (commit 6a388877f). | |
| #1591011 snapcraft-parser help doesn't explain what the command does | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Fixed by snapcore/snapcraft#986 in commit b4e53f81e, which added useful command descriptions to snapcraft-parser help. | |
| #1510683 Add help subcommand | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Help subcommand with topic and plugin support added in snapcraft (commit 1d4f90583 "Add help", plus follow-ups on snapcraft/help.py such as 0b91f34fb fixing plugin listing). Confirmed by elopio and closed by sergiusens as released in snapcraft 0.4. |