Auto-connection request for the winscp snap (wine-platform content interfaces and removable-media)

store-requests
1

Hello,

I have published winscp, a snap of WinSCP, a GPL-3.0 SFTP/FTP/WebDAV/S3/SCP client. It runs the official WinSCP Portable build on WINE, using the wine-platform content snaps and the sommelier-core launcher, in the same way as e.g existing notepad-plus-plus, irfanview and acrordrdc snaps.

Packaging: GitHub - skjerns/winscp-snap: Snap package for WinSCP (WINE), auto-tracking upstream releases · GitHub

I would like to request auto-connection for the following:

Content interfaces

  • plug wine-base-devel to slot wine-platform:wine-base-devel
  • plug wine-runtime-c24 to slot wine-platform-runtime-core24:wine-runtime-c24

These provide the WINE build and its runtime. They are published by another developer (mmtrt), so they do not auto-connect on publisher identity, and without them the snap cannot start at all: sommelier exits with a message asking the user to run snap connect by hand. There is precedent in the earlier auto-connection requests for the wine-platform-* snaps.

removable-media

WinSCP is a file transfer client, so transferring to and from a mounted USB disk or a second drive is a core use of the application, not an incidental one. Without this the file browser only sees $HOME.

I am not requesting auto-connection for ssh-keys. The snap plugs it so that users who keep OpenSSH keys in ~/.ssh can import them, but that should stay a deliberate manual connection.

Thank you.

2

This request has been added to the queue for review by the @reviewers team.

3

Hello @skjerns,

As removable-media is often used to store sensitive data, auto-connection requires successful publisher vetting. This in turn requires the publisher of the snap to have an official relationship with the upstream project. As such, this is a -1 from me for granting auto-connect for removable-media as I do not believe this request meets that criteria. I am glad to see you already have documentation and built-in prompting to guide users who want this feature through the manual-connection process!

In regards to the content interface requests, given that previous versions of the wine-platform-runtime-coreXX snap have been granted global auto-connect, this is a +1 from me for granting auto-connect for the wine-runtime-c24 plug.

Lastly, given that the winscp snap is considered stable, I would encourage relying on wine-base-stable instead of wine-base-devel. This would be a +1 from me for auto-connection of wine-base-stable, but please let me know if there are specific reasons you have chosen wine-base-devel.

Thank you!

2 Likes
4

dear @elisehdy, thank you very much for your review.

Indeed, `removable-media` can be an opt-in that can be added manually. I’m fine with that approach and it seems a sensible default.

I switched the wine runtime to stable as suggested.

Thank you for taking care of this!

1 Like
5

Hi @skjerns,

+1 for granting global auto-connection to wine-platform:wine-base-stable and wine-platform-runtime-core24:wine-runtime-c24 using content interface.

6

Hello @skjern,

+2 votes for, 0 votes against, granting auto-connect of interfaces wine-base-stable and wine-runtime-c24 to snap winscp. This is now live.

As a small note, we highly encourage snaps unofficially packaging other software to highlight in their description or summary that the snap is not associated with the upstream project and is an unofficially supported snap, for user awareness. I see that you already make sure to direct bug reports and contacts to your github, which is great! But adding an extra statement to your description helps ensure the upstream project does not receive unwanted support requests. Thank you!

Please let me know if you have any questions or any issue.