It would be nice to be able to provide a brief (length limited - maybe only 500 characters?) post-install message for a snap.
Example issue:
Some snaps with third-party packaging have functionality that requires manual plugs. However, an unaware user may not know that manual plugs are required, leading to a confusing user experience. For example, here is a potential user experience for a github CLI user on a new Ubuntu machine:
lengau@hyperion:~$ gh auth login
Command 'gh' not found, but can be installed with:
sudo snap install gh # version 2.6.0-15-g1a10fd5a, or
sudo apt install gh # version 2.4.0+dfsg1-2
sudo apt install gitsome # version 0.8.0+ds-6ubuntu1
See 'snap info gh' for additional versions.
lengau@hyperion:~$ sudo snap install gh
gh 2.6.0-15-g1a10fd5a from Casper (casper-dcl) installed
lengau@hyperion:~$ gh auth login
? What account do you want to log into? GitHub.com
? What is your preferred protocol for Git operations? SSH
? Generate a new SSH key to add to your GitHub account? No
? How would you like to authenticate GitHub CLI? Login with a web browser
! First copy your one-time code: 0000-0000
Press Enter to open github.com in your browser...
âś“ Authentication complete.
- gh config set -h github.com git_protocol ssh
âś“ Configured git protocol
âś“ Logged in as lengau
So far so good. But:
lengau@hyperion:~$ gh repo clone casperdcl/cli
Cloning into 'cli'...
warning: templates not found /usr/share/git-core/templates
The authenticity of host 'github.com (140.82.113.3)' can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:p2QAMXNIC1TJYWeIOttrVc98/R1BUFWu3/LiyKgUfQM.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Failed to add the host to the list of known hosts (/home/lengau/.ssh/known_hosts).
Load key "/home/lengau/.ssh/id_rsa": Permission denied
git@github.com: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.
Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
exit status 128
At this point, a user who’s unaware of the details of snap confinement may not know that it’s a confinement-related issue and may raise it as a bug in the original application.
While a knowledgeable snap user may recognise the correct command to fix this to be snap connect gh:ssh-keys, this isn’t knowledge we can assume.
By providing the snap maintainer with a way to provide post-install messages, we can reduce the likelihood of this. For example:
lengau@hyperion:~$ sudo snap install gh
gh 2.6.0-15-g1a10fd5a from Casper (casper-dcl) installed
If you plan to use SSH to connect to GitHub, please manually connect the
ssh-keys interface with the command: snap connect gh:ssh-keys
While this isn’t providing any new information that isn’t already available to the user, it is providing that information in a more user-friendly manner.
Potential for abuse
This does of course have the potential for abuse (npm being a good example). This can be worked around the with the same process as auto-connect requests (in other words, the developer has to make a #store-requests forum post and be approved by the policy-reviewers team). This could also become a “third way” when handling auto-connect requests. As it currently stands, the possible answers are “yes” and “no,” but this would provide an option for “no, but here’s a compromise.”
Other use cases
Other positive use cases for post-install messages could include:
- Notifying users that a snap is unofficial and directing them towards the correct bug reporting channel. (This could potentially even be automated for groups such as
snapcrafters) - Providing other snap-specific information, especially for unofficial snaps (e.g. “please don’t update this Windows app through the help menu”)