‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This base is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is software processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket (not S3), ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-BASE!!

Every few years, five to be more precise, an LTS release of Ubuntu goes out of the main support and into the extended support. Effectively, what this means for developers using Snapcraft is that snaps built using an older base may now be in a delicate state. Core18 is a base aligned to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which has just recently met its Parrot Sketch demise. In this blog post, we’d like to tell more about what happens now.

Snapcraft 8.0 will not have core18, but worry not!

For those of you keen of memory, you will recall that a similar thing happened in the past. In essence:

  • Much like we did when we deprecated i386, we will branch off the development of Snapcraft. A legacy track of Snapcraft will be created and will support and provide core18 for those of you who need to build their snaps using this base. This will allow developers and publishers who require core18 and cannot migrate to the newer bases to be able to work without interruptions.
  • The legacy track will not receive any future improvements and developments in Snapcraft, and will remain frozen in time. 
  • The latest track will feature Snapcraft 8.x and newer releases, and development will continue there.

If your projects use core18, please review them and see whether you can migrate them to a new base, e.g.: core20 or core22. If not, please consider amending your development setup so that you use the right version of Snapcraft, especially if you have automated, unattended builds. Likewise, much as we did with the ESM base (core), Launchpad will retain the ability to dispatch core18 jobs.

Summary

The end of core18 isn’t really the end after all. The base will remain around, you will be able to use it, and even build new snaps with it, if required. The only thing you will need is to perhaps slightly adjust your development setup so that your work continues uninterrupted. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us via the forum. Take care, and may the parrot be with you.

Photo by Ilona Frey on Unsplash.

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