build!: remove native Windows support
Metadata
Current evaluation
Merged removal of native Windows build support, fully transitioning to WSL. Leftover build files were cleaned up to align with documentation. Approved by three reviewers and passed all CI checks.
Suggested action: —
No scores available.
Issue body
Removes native Windows support in favor of using WSL.
This shouldn't be a significant change for our users, because we haven't built a snapcraft EXE in years (since we moved from the `snapcore` repo to the `canonical` repo) and had already removed it from the documentation.
However the build files remained, so this PR removes them and makes a formal announcement.
Requires https://github.com/canonical/craft-cli/pull/422
Replaces https://github.com/canonical/snapcraft/pull/4975
Fixes #4964
(SNAPCRAFT-69)
---
- [x] I've followed the [contribution guidelines](https://github.com/canonical/snapcraft/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).
- [x] I've signed the [CLA](http://www.ubuntu.com/legal/contributors/).
- [x] I've successfully run `make lint && make test`.
- [x] I've added or updated any relevant documentation.
- [x] I've updated the relevant release notes.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b | — | — | Merged removal of native Windows build support, fully transitioning to WSL. Leftover build files were cleaned up to align with documentation. Approved by three reviewers and passed all CI checks. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Merged removal of native Windows build support, shifting to WSL. Leftover build files were deleted to align with existing documentation. Requires a craft-cli update and resolves issue #4964. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 | — | — | Merged. Removes native Windows build support in favor of WSL, cleaning up legacy build files. Aligns with existing documentation and long-standing practices. Replaces PR #4975 and resolves issue #4964. |
Update history
No update history recorded yet.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #2307 feat!: drop Windows support | charmcraft | merged | Merged changes dropping Windows support by removing platform-specific code across 48 files. Approved by two reviewers and resolves issue #1810. CI checks passed prior to merge. | |
| #4975 build!: remove Windows support | snapcraft | closed | Closed without merging. The pull request proposed removing Windows support to resolve #4964 but was rejected or abandoned without review. | |
| #3289 build providers: fix issues running on Windows | snapcraft | merged | Merged Windows build provider compatibility fix. Resolved tempfile handling during asset pushes, corrected destination path construction, updated architecture detection for Windows, and removed deb-src from defaults. Approved and passed CI. | |
| #2765 remote-build: initial Windows support | snapcraft | merged | Merged initial Windows support for remote-build. Approved by one reviewer, adding 72 lines and removing 26 across six files. Requires snapcraft PR #2759. |