snapcraft doesn't run store checks locally, causing disappointment at upload time

[Robie Basak]

I spent considerable time preparing a snap, thought it was all good, only to get this at store upload time:

The store was unable to accept this snap.
  - package contains external symlinks: etc/rmt

Expected: snapcraft runs the same checks locally as the store does
Actual: I think it's going to work, and then it doesn't

[Sergio Schvezov (sergiusens)]

There is a warning during upload to install the review-tools for these checks to happen, is that not enough?

[Robie Basak (racb)]

On Thu, Mar 18, 2021 at 01:09:43PM -0000, Sergio Schvezov wrote:
> There is a warning during upload to install the review-tools for these
> checks to happen, is that not enough?

I don't recall seeing that. I'd expect everything required to be bundled
into the snapcraft snap.

[Sergio Schvezov (sergiusens)]

We don't enforce it as the rules are different for each store.

[Sergio Schvezov (sergiusens)]

we can run the tool and warn the results, set a local option to enforce

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> we can run the tool and warn the results, set a local option to enforce

This sounds good. Reopening then, to track this.

[Sergio Schvezov (sergiusens)]

Is solving this through documentation a better option? Review tools are very taxing and we already run it if it is installed.

[Robie Basak (racb)]

> Is solving this through documentation a better option?

IMHO, no. My point in filing this bug is that it's inconvenient for any special action to even be necessary.

snapcraft being a snap, I expect it to have its dependencies bundled, including the automated review tool.

If you don't want to do this, then feel free to Won't Fix it, but I would only consider this bug resolved if it's impossible to inadvertently build a snap that the public store will reject unless the user is promptly told that it'll be unacceptable for the store.

> We don't enforce it as the rules are different for each store.

That's something that IMHO you need to figure out. For example, default to behaving correctly for the public store, and allow configuration to relax the rules (or turn off the checker) to match a private store if the developer is targetting that.