Interface hooks are hooks that can be executed when an interface is either connected or disconnected via the interface’s plugs and slots mechanism. They can be used to read or write attributes from a connection and, for example, acquire new resources, update internal options or update databases.
An interface consists of a connection between a plug and a slot. The slot is the provider of the interface while the plug is the consumer, and a slot can support multiple plug connections. For more details, see Interface management.
Connect hooks
When a plug connects to a slot, the following hooks are executed sequentially before the interface connection occurs:
prepare-plug-<plugname>for the snap on the plug-sideprepare-slot-<slotname>for the snap on the slot-side
After the interface connection has been created and the security permissions have been updated, the following two hooks are then executed:
connect-slot-<slotname>for the snap on the slot-sideconnect-plug-<plugname>for the snap on the plug-side
If an interface connection fails, all changes are undone and an undo hook is run for any interface hooks executed prior to the failure. These undo hooks are executed in reverse order:
disconnect-plug-<plugname>disconnect-slot-<slotname>unprepare-slot-<slotname>unprepare-plug-<plugname>
Interface hooks can read the attributes of the affected plug and slot by using the snapctl command, as defined by the snap’s snap.yaml file.
When executed by slot hooks:
snapctl get :<slotname> <attribute name>to read attributes of the local slotsnapctl get --plug :<slotname> <attribute name>to read attributes of the plug
When executed by plug hooks:
snapctl get :<plugname> <attribute name>to read attributes of local plugsnapctl get --slot :<plugname> <attribute name>to read attributes of the slot
The plug and slot hooks do not know the corresponding slot and plug names on the other end of the connection. For this reason, the above syntax uses :<slotname> in the slot hooks and :<plugname> in the plug hooks. It’s the --plug or --slot flag that tells snapctl which end of the connection to read attributes from.
In addition to the plug and slot attributes defined in snap.yaml, prepare-plug- and prepare-slot- hooks can create attributes dynamically with the snapctl command:
In the prepare-slot-<slotname> hook:
snapctl set :<slotname> slotattribute=valueto create an attribute for the slot side
In the prepare-plug-<plugname> hook:
snapctl set :<plugname> plugattribute=valueto create an attribute for the plug side
Attributes can only be created in prepare- hooks, and only as long as their names do not clash with attributes already defined statically in snap.yaml for the given plug/slot. This means overwriting or overloading statically defined attributes is not allowed.
Disconnect hooks
Disconnect hooks are executed upon manual disconnection or automatically when a snap on either end of a connection is completely removed from the system.
Disconnect hooks are executed in the following order:
disconnect-slot-<slotname>for the snap on the slot-sidedisconnect-plug-<plugname>for the snap on the plug-side
Disconnect hooks can read the attributes of both the plug and slot side of the connection via the snapctl command, as described in the “Connect hooks” section above.
If an interface disconnection fails, an undo hook is run for any interface hooks executed prior to the failure and the connection is restored. These undo hooks are executed in reverse order:
connect-plug-<plugname>connect-slot-<slotname>
Last updated 1 year, 3 months ago.