Some snapcraft 7.x commands have irrelevant "help" info
Metadata
Current evaluation
Fixed in Snapcraft 8 by command-group help refactoring merged in canonical/snapcraft#4934 (commit 6a388877f).
Resolution: closed resolved
Reason: The command_groups override was merged in PR #4934 as commit 6a388877f, restricting help to relevant commands. Maintainer ~mr-cal confirmed closure by stating: "Fixed in snapcraft 8."
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
No scores available.
Issue body
Pretty sure this relates to several snapcraft 7.x commands, but "snapcraft pull --help" displays numerous options that clearly have no relevance for the pull step:
$ snapcraft pull --help
Usage:
snapcraft pull [options] <part-name>
Summary:
Download or retrieve artifacts defined for a part. If part names
are specified only those parts will be pulled, otherwise all parts
will be pulled.
Options:
-h, --help: Show this help message and exit
-v, --verbose: Show debug information and be more
verbose
-q, --quiet: Only show warnings and errors, not
progress
--verbosity: Set the verbosity level to 'quiet',
'brief', 'verbose', 'debug' or
'trace'
-V, --version: Show the application version and exit
--destructive-mode: Build in the current host
--use-lxd: Use LXD to build
--debug: Shell into the environment if the
build fails
--enable-manifest: Generate snap manifest
--manifest-image-information: Set snap manifest image-info
--bind-ssh: Bind ~/.ssh directory to local build
instances
--build-for: Set target architecture to build for
--shell: Shell into the environment in lieu of
the step to run.
--shell-after: Shell into the environment after the
step has run.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Fixed in Snapcraft 8 by command-group help refactoring merged in canonical/snapcraft#4934 (commit 6a388877f). | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed resolved | Snapcraft 7.x lifecycle commands showed irrelevant options; Snapcraft 8 migrated them to craft-application commands, resolving the help output. | |
| qwen/qwen3.8-27b | — | closed resolved | Snapcraft 7.x lifecycle commands like 'snapcraft pull --help' displayed irrelevant global options (e.g. --destructive-mode, --use-lxd). Fixed in snapcraft 8 via migration to craft-application lifecycle commands with per-step help. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha | — | closed stale | Closed without a fix or follow-up after prolonged inactivity; irrelevant options remained in Snapcraft 7.x command help. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. The report of irrelevant help text for snapcraft 7.x commands was abandoned with no fix or follow-up. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without resolution. Snapcraft 7.x pull command help text incorrectly displayed irrelevant options. Zero comments were posted, and no fix was implemented, leaving the report abandoned. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Closed without comments or a fix. The report of irrelevant help text for snapcraft 7.x commands was not addressed, indicating the issue was abandoned or marked stale. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Closed without resolution. Report indicated irrelevant help options in snapcraft 7.x pull command. No fix or discussion occurred. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Likely Fixed By:
canonical/snapcraft#4934
(confidence 95%)
The merged commit specifically concerns overriding command_groups and addresses the behavior behind irrelevant command options.
-
Related To:
canonical/snapcraft#4560
(confidence 75%)
Snapcraft 8's initial craft-application/craft-cli migration established the newer command-help framework.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #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. | |
| #2065230 No help text for the "help" sub-command when in a directory containing snapcraft.yaml | snapcraft (launchpad) | open | Confirmed 8.2.5 snapcraft help help failure with a snapcraft.yaml; the later craft-application command migration removes the old base-lookup crash path. | |
| #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. | |
| #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. | |
| #1582506 --help needs some love | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Resolved by snapcore/snapcraft#1307 (commit d34dc16af), replacing docopt with Click and adding clearer per-subcommand help and option summaries. | |
| #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. | |
| #1845 cli: implement help <command> | snapcraft | merged | PR #1845 (commit cf20b3593) by sergiusens merged command-specific help support, adding `snapcraft help <command>` to the CLI and closing feature request #1699. | |
| #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. | |
| #3735 commands: help for all legacy commands | snapcraft | merged | Merged PR #3735, adding help passthrough for all legacy Snapcraft commands; merged as commit 8f8b2df42. | |
| #2429 cli: fix usage string in help command | snapcraft | merged | Merged a one-line CLI fix so `snapcraft help` displays the correct usage string. |