Release notes: Snapcraft 4.2

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The team behind Snapcraft is pleased to announce the release of Snapcraft 4.2.

Highlights for this release include:

  • new ROS 2 (Foxy Fitzroy) support
  • cmake Ninja generator with core20
  • improved track and channel listing

For general details, including installation instructions, see Snapcraft overview, or take a look at Snapcraft release notes for other Snapcraft releases.

Special thanks to the contributors that helped to make this release happen: @GamePad64, @Saviq, @cjp256, @igorljubuncic and @sergiusens.

New Features

ROS 2 Foxy Fitzroy extension and updated colcon plugin

Snapcraft 4.2 includes experimental support for Robot Operating System (ROS 2) Foxy Fitzroy LTS with a new extension and colcon plugin when used with core20.

For example, ROS 2 applications can now be built with a snapcraft.yaml as simple as:

name: ros2-talker-listener
version: '0.1'
summary: ROS2 Talker/Listener Example
description: |
  This example launches a ROS2 talker and listener.

grade: devel
confinement: strict
base: core20

parts:
  ros-demos:
    plugin: colcon
    source: https://github.com/ros2/demos.git
    source-branch: foxy
    source-subdir: demo_nodes_cpp
    build-packages: [make, gcc, g++]
    stage-packages: [ros-foxy-ros2launch]

apps:
  ros2-talker-listener:
    command: opt/ros/foxy/bin/ros2 launch demo_nodes_cpp talker_listener.launch.py
    plugs: [network, network-bind]
    extensions: [ros2-foxy]

For a walkthrough on how to work with the plugin and extension, see https://snapcraft.io/blog/how-to-build-a-snap-using-ros-2-foxy.

Ninja file generation with cmake

By default, the cmake plugin creates a Makefile when used with with core20 . This release adds the cmake-generator plugin property to optionally generate of a Ninja file:

hello:
    source: .
    plugin: cmake
    cmake-parameters:
      - -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
    cmake-generator: Ninja

List channel tracks from Snapcraft

You can now view the available channel tracks for a given snap with the new snapcraft list-tracks <snap-name> command (or with its alias, tracks).

The command output shows a list of tracks together with their status, creation date, and assigned version pattern, which is required by a given snap revision to be able to release to a given track:

Name    Status    Creation-Date    Version-Pattern
latest  default   -                -

Status can be one of the following:

  • default (implicit active)
  • active
  • hidden
  • closed

Bug Fixes

  • meta: detailed warnings for resolution of commands @cjp256 (#3219)
  • file utils: introduce get_host_tool_path() to find commands on host @cjp256 (#3244)
  • plugins v2: use repo.Repo not repo.Ubuntu in colcon @cjp256 (#3257)
  • remote-build: use requests.get() instead of urlopen() @cjp256 (#3255)
  • spread tests: fix classic patchelf linker regex to match all arches @cjp256 (#3247)
  • tests: restrict colcon / ros2-foxy test to amd64 & arm64 @cjp256 (#3254)
  • extensions: prepend the snapd glvnd path @Saviq (#3253)
  • build providers: honour http proxy settings for snapd @cjp256 (#3251)
  • snapcraft: use system certificates by default for https requests @cjp256 (#3252)

Specification and documentation changes