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remote build: deprecate `--build-for`

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Metadata

Project
snapcraft
Number
#5435
Type
issue
State
open
Author
mr-cal
Labels
Status: Triaged Type: Enhancement
Created
Updated
Closed
—

Current evaluation

Deprecate --build-for in snapcraft remote-build to align with Craft Application and other craft tools. Triaged by maintainer who confirmed it can ship in a minor release, but blocked by Launchpad's new build farm migration for --platform support. Code confirms --build-for is still active without deprecation warning.

Suggested action: keep open

Reason: The issue is labeled 'Status: Triaged' and maintainer mr-cal commented 215 days ago confirming it can be done in a minor release without waiting for Snapcraft 9. Code inspection of snapcraft/commands/remote.py confirms --build-for is still defined in _fill_parser with no deprecation warning or help-text hiding, so the work remains outstanding. The issue is blocked by an external Launchpad migration, which justifies keeping it open rather than closing.

Impact: 35 Quick Win: 22.75 Staleness: 45 Complexity: 35 Confidence: 80 Support Request: 5

Issue body

### What needs to get done * Add a warning that `--build-for` is deprecated for `snapcraft remote-build` * Hide `--build-for` from the help text ### Why it needs to get done * To align with the upstream remote build command in Craft Application * To align with rockcraft and charmcraft's remote build commands * It has a significant limitations due to Launchpad's API and forces snapcraft to add many restrictions to valid platform defintions * `--build-for` is planned to be deprecated in Craft Application This is blocked by a migration to Launchpad's new build farm where we will be able to provide proper support for the `--platform` arg in remote builds.

Evaluation history

Date Model Scores Action Summary
qwen/qwen3.8-27b
Impact: 35
Quick Win: 22.75
Staleness: 45
Complexity: 35
Confidence: 80
Support Request: 5
keep open Deprecate --build-for in snapcraft remote-build to align with Craft Application and other craft tools. Triaged by maintainer who confirmed it can ship in a minor release, but blocked by Launchpad's new build farm migration for --platform support. Code confirms --build-for is still active without deprecation warning.
qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b
Staleness: 35
Complexity: 40
Confidence: 85
Support Request: 10
keep open Issue to deprecate `--build-for` flag in `snapcraft remote-build` due to upstream changes and API limitations. Currently triaged, under discussion for implementation in a minor release before Snapcraft 9.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 45
Complexity: 15
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 0
keep open Triaged enhancement to deprecate the --build-for flag in snapcraft remote-build by adding a warning and hiding it from help text. Maintainer recently suggested implementing the deprecation in a minor release rather than waiting for a major version.
qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6
Staleness: 45
Complexity: 10
Confidence: 90
Support Request: 0
keep open Deprecate the --build-for flag in snapcraft remote-build by adding a warning and hiding it from help text. Aligns with upstream Craft Application. Currently triaged and approved for a minor release, but blocked pending Launchpad build farm migration.

Update history

No update history recorded yet.

Related work

  • Related To: snapcraft#5351 (confidence 70%)

    PR that fixed early error for invalid --build-for/--platform usage in remote builds; related to the same CLI surface but does not deprecate --build-for.

  • Related To: snapcraft#4858 (confidence 65%)

    Closed issue about Launchpad failing to parse platform definitions, which is the upstream limitation motivating the --build-for deprecation.

Related issues

Issue Project State Summary Similarity
#5387 Warn if `--platform` is used for remote builds snapcraft open Enhancement: make snapcraft remote-build error when --platform is passed and recommend --build-for, since --platform was dropped in 8.7.0 with no in-tool notice. Triaged by maintainer; no implementation yet.
73%
#5676 remote build: remove legacy remote builder snapcraft closed Superseded by a merged pull request that removed the legacy remote builder and related configuration, completing the deprecation cleanup for Snapcraft 9.
72%
#2467 remote-build: add support for `--build-for` charmcraft open Feature request to add --build-for flag to charmcraft remote-build for building a subset of architectures, mirroring snapcraft. No maintainer response or labels in 319 days; remote-build still lacks the flag in current code.
70%
#5859 Non-list `build-for` values are no longer allowed snapcraft open snapcraft 8.13.0 rejects valid non-list build-for values (e.g. build-for: amd64) in core22 platforms, raising an unhelpful RuntimeError instead of treating the string as a single-entry list. Triaged, open, no fix yet.
70%