Snapcraft

Prerequisites

1. Install snap

Debian

sudo apt install snapd

Arch

sudo pacman -S --needed git base-devel
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/snapd.git
cd snapd
makepkg -si
sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.socket
sudo systemctl start snapd.socket
sudo systemctl enable --now snapd.apparmor.service

Fedora

sudo dnf install snapd
# Enable classic snap support
sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

Reboot your system afterwards.

2. Install a base snap

sudo snap install core22

3. Install snapcraft

sudo snap install snapcraft --classic

Configuration

1. Create an UbuntuOne account.
2. Go to the Snapcraft website and register an App name.
3. Create a snapcraft.yaml file in your projects root.
4. Adjust the names in the snapcraft.yaml file.

name: appname
base: core22
version: '0.1.0'
summary: Your summary # 79 char long summary
description: |
  Your description

grade: stable
confinement: strict

layout:
  /usr/lib/$SNAPCRAFT_ARCH_TRIPLET/webkit2gtk-4.1:
    bind: $SNAP/usr/lib/$SNAPCRAFT_ARCH_TRIPLET/webkit2gtk-4.1

apps:
  appname:
    command: usr/bin/appname
    desktop: usr/share/applications/appname.desktop
    extensions: [gnome]
    #plugs:
    #  - network
    # Add whatever plugs you need here, see https://snapcraft.io/docs/snapcraft-interfaces for more info.
    # The gnome extension already includes [ desktop, desktop-legacy, gsettings, opengl, wayland, x11, mount-observe, calendar-service ]

package-repositories:
  - type: apt
    components: [main]
    suites: [noble]
    key-id: 78E1918602959B9C59103100F1831DDAFC42E99D
    url: http://ppa.launchpad.net/snappy-dev/snapcraft-daily/ubuntu

parts:
  build-app:
    plugin: dump
    build-snaps:
      - node/20/stable
      - rustup/latest/stable
    build-packages:
      - libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev
      - build-essential
      - curl
      - wget
      - file
      - libxdo-dev
      - libssl-dev
      - libayatana-appindicator3-dev
      - librsvg2-dev
      - dpkg
    stage-packages:
      - libwebkit2gtk-4.1-0
      - libayatana-appindicator3-1
    source: .
    override-build: |
      set -eu
      npm install
      npm run tauri build -- --bundles deb
      dpkg -x src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/*.deb $SNAPCRAFT_PART_INSTALL/
      sed -i -e "s|Icon=appname|Icon=/usr/share/icons/hicolor/32x32/apps/appname.png|g" $SNAPCRAFT_PART_INSTALL/usr/share/applications/appname.desktop

Explanation

• The name variable defines the name of your app and is required to be set to the name that you have registered earlier.
• The base variable defines which core you are using.
• The version variable defines the version, and should be updated with each change to the source repository.
• The apps section allows you to expose the desktop and binary files to allow the user to run your app.
• The package-repositories section allows you to add a package repository to help you satisfy your dependencies.
• build-packages/build-snaps defines the build dependencies for your snap.
• stage-packages/stage-snaps defines the runtime dependencies for your snap.
• The override-pull section runs a series of commands before the sources are pulled.
• craftctl default performs the default pull commands.
• The organize section moves your files to the proper directories so that the binary and desktop file can be exposed to the apps sections.

Building

sudo snapcraft

Testing

snap run your-app

Releasing Manually

snapcraft login # Login with your UbuntuOne credentials
snapcraft upload --release=stable mysnap_latest_amd64.snap

Building automatically

1. On your apps developer page click on the builds tab.
2. Click login with github.
3. Enter in your repository’s details.