Do not allow two different apps to have the same autostart-desktop file
Metadata
Current evaluation
Requests validation preventing different apps from sharing an autostart .desktop file; current Snapcraft only validates each filename's format, leaving the conflict undetected.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The issue has no labels, assignee, or maintainer response, and its sole comment is from the reporter providing debug evidence. The current app validator checks only the autostart filename format, while no project-level uniqueness check was found, so the reported gap remains valid but still needs maintainer triage.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
52
Quick Win:
33
Complexity:
24
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
84
Issue body
We had a bug in ubuntu-software where the same desktop file was used as an autostart script, this was causing snapd to always launch the desktop file as the wrong application.
This was the wrong snapcraft.yaml file:
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/Community/Ubuntu/gnome-software/-/blob/eb26457f1/snap/snapcraft.yaml#L55-78
In fact, as per: https://github.com/snapcore/snapd/blob/6b29eb8f/usersession/autostart/autostart.go#L184-L188 the application binary used for auto-start is automatically computed by snapd, but at the same time the first app matching the desktop-id (or well, in this case its basename) is picked: https://github.com/snapcore/snapd/blob/6b29eb8f/usersession/autostart/autostart.go#L159-L165
So, snapcraft should use a stronger check to ensure that a desktop-id is not shared by multiple auto-start entries for different apps, otherwise snapd will not be able to launch the correct application.
Snapd could also do some stronger checks, based on the exec file, but that would make its logic more complex.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
52
Quick Win:
33
Complexity:
24
Confidence:
92
Actionability:
84
|
needs triage | Requests validation preventing different apps from sharing an autostart .desktop file; current Snapcraft only validates each filename's format, leaving the conflict undetected. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
45
Quick Win:
27
Complexity:
28
Confidence:
88
Actionability:
84
|
needs triage | Snapcraft permits multiple apps to reference the same autostart .desktop file, so snapd can launch the wrong app. The issue remains unaddressed and untriaged. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
55
Quick Win:
36
Complexity:
22
Confidence:
93
Actionability:
85
|
needs triage | Snapcraft accepts the same autostart desktop file for multiple apps, while snapd selects the first matching app and can launch the wrong binary. This validation remains absent. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Impact:
50
Quick Win:
30
Staleness:
85
Complexity:
40
Confidence:
40
Support Request:
20
|
needs triage | Feature request for snapcraft to validate that autostart desktop files have unique desktop IDs across different apps, preventing snapd from launching the wrong application. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Request to add validation in snapcraft to prevent multiple apps from sharing the same autostart desktop file, which causes snapd to launch the wrong application. Untriaged and inactive for over 3 years. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
35
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
close stale | Request to add snapcraft validation preventing multiple apps from sharing the same autostart desktop file, which causes snapd to launch the wrong application. Unresponded for over 3 years. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
95
Complexity:
30
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
5
|
close stale | Request to add validation in snapcraft to prevent duplicate autostart desktop files across different apps. Issue is over three years old with no maintainer response or activity. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related issues
No related issues found above the similarity threshold.