Snapcraft

[casperdcl]

Provide a snap package

https://snapcraft.io

I can be assigned if needed

• related to consider getting rid of packages/binaries built by pyinstaller (windows exe and mac pkg) #2760

[casperdcl]

I just registered https://snapcraft.io/dvc just in case :)

Thanks, @casperdcl !

By the way, what do you think about #2760 ?

[efiop]

@casperdcl I remember installing skype from snap many years ago, and that is about the only time i've heard about it or used it :) Not quite sure I understand the purpose of creating a package for it, could you elaborate? I'm a bit worried about creating the package for it, because it might result in a situation we have with our AUR package, where no one was using it, so it just got abandoned.

[n3hrox]

@efiop snap is now bundled with the newest ubuntu distros so it easier to install a lot of packages, though I have to agree I don't see many users actually downloading it from there at is is more designed for casual linux users and dvc is kind of niche software (unlike skype / spotify etc.)

[casperdcl]

@efiop

snap install dvc would differ from apt install python3-pip && pip3 install dvc in these ways:

• would not rely on system python/conda/libffi/lib*.so etc (the snap would bundle its own dependencies, https://snapcraft.io/docs/python-apps)
• would update automatically on-the-fly (same as apps on your phone set to auto-update)
• dvc would be running in a somewhat sandboxed env which may make it more likely for security-conscious users to install

For example, https://snapcraft.io/tqdm surprisingly has about 170 users despite the fact that

1. the vast majority of users don't know about its CLI usage, and
2. snap python packages are not importable in any scripts, which is the main use of tqdm

[efiop]

@n3hrox @casperdcl Thanks for clarifying guys! So can it be considered a replacement for our deb and rpm packages that we already have? Or should we think about it as a more of an addition? I've also seen some mentions about homebrew for linux, which is, I guess, a similar thing, right? Maybe less newbie frendly, but still, kinda an idea of a package manager for all linux-es?

[casperdcl]

@efiop yes I think so. I prefer snap install over apt install when available. Note that the Ubuntu Software Centre installs packages via snap too, so dvc would show up there...

[efiop]

Oh, nice! I agree, this would be nice to have. 🙂