Setting up CI/CD for meta-snapd

snapd
1

Hello snapcrafters.

I am one of the people that co-maintain the github.com/snapcore/meta-snapd repository. There you can find a Yocto meta-layer allowing anyone to build snap support into their custom system.

Since inception this repository has lacked CI/CD automation. This is due to a mixture of factors, in no particular order:

  • nobody bothered to do it
  • CI for Yocto is a poor fit for GitHub CI (cache is on the order of 100GB), builds require lots of disk space and RAM
  • nobody wanted to pocket the cost of maintaining a custom runner with special cache and disk space.

During my work at Eclipse Oniro I was responsible for CI across many images and build configurations, based on GitLab runners. I have some experience in GitHub based CI for meta layers I’ve gained by observing the work on meta-raspberrypi.

During the last Ubuntu summit I asked sabdfl about CI for meta-snapd and he expressed support in getting this addressed.

Is there anyone who wants to participate in this effort? Alternatively, is there a way for Canonical to offer a hosted runner that would be able to pick up GitHub actions with access to large local disk as cache?

2 Likes
2

cc @mvo, do you think something could be done here?

3

i know that @rpjday is generally interested in snapd/yocto stuff but IIRC he is on vacation so it might take a while til he sees this ping …

4

I will peruse this … is there actual interest from customers in meta-snapd that would justify the effort in doing this?

5

I think it depends on the breadth of the effort. I would be interested in having kas {checkout, build} for a configuration or two. Nothing deeper at present (certainly not full spread tests that are notoriously broken)

6

I’m certainly interested in such an effort, but approval would have to go through my manager.