Alias for nap-snippets

store-requests
#1

Hello,

I’m requesting an alias for a new snap I’ve built named nap-snippets. The alias needs to be nap.

I’m referencing this response from a reviewer:

Hello,

Three-letter and shorter snap names are too generic and nondescript and don't provide a good idea of what the snap actually is or does. For that reason, we prefer and suggest you pick a more descriptive name for your snap (nap-snippets for example). Keep in mind that even if the snap has one of those names, a command called "nap" can still be provided by the snap - this needs creating an "alias" but it's entirely feasible to do so.

Let me know if some of the suggested names are OK with you or if you want to pick a new one; in any case, you can simply register the new name and it should be automatically approved - only 3-letter or shorter names (well and a few other exceptions) require manual name review/approval."

You may reply at https://dashboard.snapcraft.io/register-snap-feedback/nap/.

I would prefer to keep the name nap, as it makes it more synonymous with the actual binary name from upstream, but I understand the intent of the policy. Thanks in advance.

#2

+1 on the nap alias for nap-snippets. I didn’t find any obvious conflicts with a preexisting nap command (I didn’t find any preexisting nap command :slight_smile: )

  • Daniel
1 Like
#3

The new snap is built as nap-snippets

#4

I found this universe deb package with the name nap. It is present in trusty and xenial, also I discovered this package on xenial is ESM supported. So giving the alias nap to this snap might conflict with this package on older releases.

#5

This is the last date I see for that package: 2016-02-07

#6

If the package was dropped as early as 18.04 it’s fair to think it’s not hugely popular or well-known (I for one had never heard of it) , and so the potential name conflict should not be an issue.

Keep in mind that we don’t look for “no conflicts at all”, just for a reasonable certainty that the snap doesn’t stomp on a very well-known or popular binary utility. Even in that case, the preference is given to the already-installed package; if someone has the nap deb package and installs the snap, snapd will notice the existing nap binary and will not create the “symlink” to invoke nap-snippets.nap as nap.

I went digging, this is the description for the nap deb package:

Nap is a linux console napster client written by Kevin Sullivan and
improved by Peter Selinger and others. The advantage of nap over other
graphical clients like gnome-napster is that you can run it under
screen(1) on a remote host and disconnect from your session while nap
continues the downloads. You can later reconnect to your running
client even from another host and do more commands.
 
Napping is a helper application required by nap to send and reveive
ping packets. For napping to work it should be installed suid root.
 
For more information, please see the HTML documentation at
http://nap.sourceforge.net/userguide.html.

And looking at the page noted there, Updated November 4, 2006 for nap version 1.5.4. - so for one, I’m fairly certain this deb is rather irrelevant at this point.

  • Daniel
1 Like
#7

+2 for, 0 against

alias nap granted to this snap

1 Like
#8

Thanks all!

So, I have a dumb question…what do I need to do now? I’ve never applied for an alias - do I insert something into the snapcraft.yaml?

#9

No there is nothing required on your side @kz6fittycent - this is part of the snap declaration within the store and so snapd should automatically create this alias when the snap is installed/refreshed.

1 Like