[Bug]: installing the snap for sublime text on an x86-64 desktop installs the aarch64 (ARM) binary

[biblicabeebli]

What happened?

• turned on computer
  • it was turned off ~10pm yesterday
  • almost definitely had sublime text open at the time, certainly used within the last 30 minutes before shutdown
  • turned on ~2pm the next day
• opened my programs
• sublime text wouldn't open

On the command line (as subl) it prints

cannot snap-exec: cannot exec "/snap/sublime-text/215/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text": exec format error

running file /snap/sublime-text/215/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text yields:

/snap/sublime-text/215/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text: ELF 64-bit LSB pie executable, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, stripped

I found a post online with directions where I could specify the target architecture beforehand via

UBUNTU_STORE_ARCH=xxxxx snap download sublime-text

I have tried amd64 and x86-64, and x86_64 - it downloaded fine for amd64, but now because that is downloaded I don't seem able to test the x86-64s? I tried the various arm aarch options and it downloaded and installed the aarch version 215 (uh, 4200?) as the aarch binary.

What should have happened?

It should install the correct architecture.

Output of snap info $snap_name

name:      sublime-text
summary:   A sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose.
publisher: Snapcrafters*
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/sublime-text
contact:   https://github.com/snapcrafters/sublime-text/issues
license:   Proprietary
description: |
  Sublime Text is a powerful multi-platform text editor with a clean, modern
  user interface.
  Bringing wide support for programming languages, extensions, syntax-based
  features and many other useful features alongside low resource usage,
  Sublime Text proves itself to be a very competent solution for a vast set
  of environments and applications.
  The software may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license
  must be purchased for continued use.
  
    **Authors**
  
  This snap is maintained by the Snapcrafters community, and is not
  necessarily endorsed or officially maintained by the upstream developers.
commands:
  - sublime-text.subl
snap-id:      2kOIsSRmQ7zjpIxzZDpoXaZOVejqaGOT
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: today at 14:35 EDT
channels:
  latest/stable:    4200 2025-09-19 (215) 67MB classic
  latest/candidate: 4200 2025-09-19 (215) 67MB classic
  latest/beta:      ^                          
  latest/edge:      4200 2025-05-22 (212) 67MB classic
  dev/stable:       4199 2025-05-21 (208) 67MB classic
  dev/candidate:    4199 2025-05-21 (208) 67MB classic
  dev/beta:         ^                          
  dev/edge:         ^                          
installed:          4200            (215) 67MB classic

Output of snap connections $snap_name

(it's empty)

Output of snap version

(I'm on ubuntu 24.04

snap    2.71
snapd   2.71
series  16
ubuntu  24.04
kernel  6.14.0-29-generic

Relevant log output

N/A

Teminal output of app

cannot snap-exec: cannot exec "/snap/sublime-text/215/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text": exec format error

[biblicabeebli]

used the apt repo at https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/linux_repositories.html and version 4200 installs correctly.

other snap installs do not have this issue.

[elcste]

I saw it reported on the Sublime Text forum as well.

@jnsgruk The most recent commit does relate to architectures…

[totymedli]

I can confirm this issue. Broken after the update. Removed and installed the snap again, and I still get an ARM version of the app even tho I'm on X86. Same erroneous output for file:

file /snap/sublime-text/current/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text
/snap/sublime-text/current/opt/sublime_text/sublime_text: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, ARM aarch64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1, for GNU/Linux 3.7.0, stripped

[biblicabeebli]

Regarding the most recent commit 965f60a changing to using the shorthand

https://documentation.ubuntu.com/snapcraft/stable/reference/project-file/snapcraft-yaml/#architectures - doesn't... really clear it up with explicit language. I guess it could be construed to mean that two bare architectures A and B in list will be interpreted as "build on: architecture A, for architecture B" instead of two instances of "build on".

(But really, in my humble and correct opinion, the language isn't written carefully enough to explain what the shorthand is a shorthand for. It is presented within the construct of having two options that appear to be ... partially optional? and without commentary on what the three examples individually do. It looks like Architecture is sorta-kinda deprecated and the newer Platform option is... more specific.)

[jnsgruk]

Hmm, I’m away from my keyboard today so I can’t revert this (unless @merlijn-sebrechts can?)

In the mean time, you should be able to sudo snap revert sublime-text.

[jnsgruk]

Opened #87 from my phone - if the build passes I’ll merge to get a new release into candidate we can test.

I’m a bit confused how this happened since the automated testing seemed to work fine 🤷‍♂️

[jnsgruk]

Hmm. I’m still confused about this, in the build run I can see it pulled the right file: https://github.com/snapcrafters/sublime-text/actions/runs/17862672831/job/50797521406#step:2:1799

[jnsgruk]

Aha! It’s not a problem with the snap recipe, it’s an issue with core20 builds more generally after this commit: snapcrafters/ci@c84df7c

I’ll see what I can do to revert that and will close this out once the right version of sublime text is back in the store

[jnsgruk]

After a somewhat painful experience with GitHub Codespaces in Safari on my iPhone, I’ve reverted the CI commit and new builds are on their way to candidate!

I’ll double check the details and promote them to stable as soon as they’re cooked and we should be back in shape!

Apologies for the disruption folks!

[jnsgruk]

Okay there is a broader issue with core20 builds I won’t be able to solve today, but the snaps are now reverted in the store so if you run

sudo snap refresh sublime-text —channel latest/stable you should be good.

[om26er]

Confirmed it works.