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SnapCraft + Python

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On 7-2-20 I gave a talk at the Akron Linux User’s Group on Snapcraft basics.

Here is the repo: https://github.com/shawnmcgraw/get-weather

Here are the notes:

Snapcraft Basics ALUG 7-2-20

Build a snap package from a small Python module, creating a simple command line weather application

Presented by Shawn McGraw

Meta

  • What is a snap
    • Snapd – runs in the background and manages the snap environment
    • Snap packages – install-able package, kinda like a .deb or .rpm but with deps and assets
  • Why Snaps? What problem does it solve?
    • Tries to solve the problem of developing/packaging/maintaining for different distros and environments such as apt, dnf, yum, packman… even eopkg on Solus
    • Runs on any Linux distro (MacOS too)
    • Provides app confinement and permissions control
    • Bundle assets and dependencies
    • Not getting into Snap vs Flatpak… too deep a rabbit hole

The project – What we’re building

  • get-weather cli app, written in Python
  • Objective was to improve Python coding, learn a bit about a few libraries, setuptools and snaps

Requirements to get started

  • snapd
  • Python 3
  • git
  • Openweathermap.org api key
  • text editor/IDE
  • Clone Github repo: git clone https://github.com/shawnmcgraw/get-weather

Building the app

  • Following the snapcraft docs
  • Install snapcraft and multipass: sudo snap install snapcraft --classic
  • Look at the cliw.py module
  • Create env file and add api_key variable
  • snapcraft.yml
    • Metadata
    • Base
    • Parts
    • Dependencies
    • Commands
  • setup.py
    • py_modules
    • entry_points
  • Run snapcraft command
  • What is Multipass? – Creates a vm in which the snap is built
  • Install the snap: sudo snap install *.snap --devmode
  • Test the app: get-weather 44221

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