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This is how to setup your dev environment with snapcraft

Snappy Ubuntu Core is using snapcraft to assemble and package your great (or other's people) work in a single snap!

However, you might wonder how to develop and test it as Snappy Ubuntu Core is at the heart a read-only system! This is where enters the classic mode.

Classic mode

The classic mode is simply a classic Ubuntu installation, which can live inside a secured container inside your Snappy Ubuntu Core system. In this one, you will find the traditional apt tools, be able to install debs and so on.

What about security and confinement then? This is actually easy: the classic mode is only for developing on your system. It isn't started at boot time, and so, can't contain services you would expect to run. Living in a container, it is isolated from the main system (so what you install there, won't be accessible to Ubuntu Core) and only have few directories like the user's home directory in common to share data.

Enabling classic mode

You just need to download and enable classic mode once on your Snappy Ubuntu Core system. Once you are logged in it, run:

$ sudo snappy enable-classic
84.21 MB / 84.21 MB [======================================] 100.00 % 1.73 MB/s
Classic dimension enabled on this snappy system.
Use “snappy shell classic” to enter the classic dimension.

Entering classic mode

Each time you want to have access to classic mode, run:

ubuntu@localhost$ sudo snappy shell classic
Entering classic dimension


The home directory is shared between snappy and the classic dimension.
Run "exit" to leave the classic shell.

(classic)ubuntu@localhost:~$

You will see that the prompt is changed to something similar than (classic)ubuntu@localhost:~$. You can here run the classic apt commands like apt update && apt dist-upgrade to upgrade your classic environment librairies, apt install <package_name> to install new package names.

As told, the home directory is shared and so you can share data with the base Snappy Ubuntu Core system this way.

Installing snapcraft

Let's install snapcraft now!

$ sudo apt install snapcraft

Congrats! Your system in now setup for developing on Snappy Ubuntu Core!