Snapcraft can't be run against a local or remote LXD project
Metadata
Current evaluation
Support user-selected local and remote LXD projects is still pending; Snapcraft hard-codes its own local LXD project, while remote-instance work is tracked separately.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The request is coherent, but it has no labels or maintainer comments and does not define the desired CLI, project-selection, or remote-authentication behavior. Current code still hard-codes LXDProvider(lxd_project="snapcraft"), and canonical/snapcraft#4454 remains an open, triaged remote-LXD enhancement, so maintainers should assess overlap and scope before implementation.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
60
Quick Win:
9
Complexity:
72
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
55
Issue body
As we are ramping up the push for users to create and utilize LXD projects[1], either locally to isolate users on a multi-user machine or remotely to run a company-wide cluster, it would be great for snapcraft to understand those and let you use them.
This probably ties into remote builds to LXD to an extent so you may want to merge this in that effort.
The reason for me bringing this up is that we're now testing a shared LXD cluster with various users (Canonical employees, see ~lxd-test-cluster) and it'd be nice to be able to build snaps on it.
References:
[1] https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/docs/master/projects
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
60
Quick Win:
9
Complexity:
72
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
55
|
needs triage | Support user-selected local and remote LXD projects is still pending; Snapcraft hard-codes its own local LXD project, while remote-instance work is tracked separately. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
6
Complexity:
70
Confidence:
94
Actionability:
48
|
needs triage | Requests local or remote LXD project support for isolated or shared-cluster builds; it remains open and untriaged, with remote-instance work tracked in canonical/snapcraft#4454. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b |
Impact:
30
Quick Win:
14
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
70
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request from the LXD maintainer for snapcraft to support LXD projects (local/remote) for isolated or cluster-based builds. ~6 years old, no labels, zero comments, no maintainer response. Overlaps with remote LXD work tracked in snapcraft#4454. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to enable snapcraft to use local or remote LXD projects for build isolation and clustering. Open for nearly six years with zero maintainer interaction or labels. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to add LXD project support to snapcraft for local isolation and remote clusters. Untriaged and inactive for nearly six years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
98
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
90
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Feature request to support local or remote LXD projects in snapcraft. Open for over 5 years with no maintainer response, comments, or labels. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
canonical/snapcraft#4454
(confidence 92%)
This triaged GitHub enhancement targets remote LXD instances, overlapping the remote portion of the request, and remains open.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #4454 Allow snapcraft to use remote lxd instances. | snapcraft | open | Triaged enhancement to build on remote LXD instances from macOS and other non-Linux hosts; implementation remains pending in craft-providers. | |
| #1825820 Snapcraft doesn't update the `snapcraft-project` disk source when the path is moved | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | LXD builds reportedly fail after moving a project because the instance retains the old disk source. LXD remains supported, but this untriaged report needs verification against the current craft-providers integration. | |
| #1839399 snapcraft not pulling snap from lxd container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Snapcraft 3.7.1 reported a successful --use-lxd build but left the generated snap absent on the host; a maintainer identified possible CWD handling, and the case remains unresolved. | |
| #1599578 Snapcraft cloudbuild | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Remote building was implemented by merged PR canonical/snapcraft#1121 (commit 834c24bb6), adding cleanbuild --remote for LXD hosts; PR #2500 later added Launchpad remote builds. | |
| #1795827 Snapcraft doesn't install snapcraft inside the lxd container | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Historical LXD builds failed because Snapcraft was not injected into the container; the modern Craft Providers LXD path injects Snapcraft and resolves the legacy failure. | |
| #1746612 Snapcraft cleanbuild doesn't work if you're not using the LXD snap | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Closed after the missing hostfs behavior was fixed upstream in lxc/lxd#4183. Snapcraft PR #1912 offered a workaround but was not merged. | |
| #5420 Snapcraft 7 fails to launch a LXD container based on host apt sources entries | snapcraft | closed | Closed as a duplicate of canonical/snapcraft#4408; no separate fix was made for this report. |