Snapcraft authentication options

Snapcraft’s login credentials can be exported and subsequently used on a system where login is not possible or desired, such as on a system that’s offline. For cases when the system does not have a functioning or compatible keyring, Snapcraft will fall back to a file based backend.

Export snapcraft's login credentials

To export snapcraft’s login credentials, use the export-login command with the name of a file to store the credentials. On any system where Snapcraft is supported, run:

snapcraft export-login <credentials-filename>

You will be asked for your email, password and second-factor authentication.

Credentials exported with Snapcraft 7 can only be used with Snapcraft 7 or greater

Using exported snapcraft credentials

Previously exported credentials can be used to authenticate Snapcraft with an environment variable, or on older versions of Snapcraft, by using login --with and an external file.

SNAPCRAFT_STORE_CREDENTIALS environment variable

On the system you wish to use previously exported credentials, the contents of the credentials file needs to be placed into an environment variable called SNAPCRAFT_STORE_CREDENTIALS. This can be accomplished in many ways, but the following is a good solution:

export SNAPCRAFT_STORE_CREDENTIALS=$(cat <credentials-filename>)

Verifying accepted credentials

Use snapcraft whoami to verify login credentials are working:

$ snapcraft whoami
email: <account-email>
username: <account-name>
id: <account-id>
permissions: package_access, package_manage, package_metrics, 
package_push, package_register, package_release, package_update
channels: no restrictions
expires: 2023-06-15T14:49:49.000Z
Legacy

Using exported snapcraft credentials

Deprecated:

Only supported for the migration from Snapcraft 6 to 7 when using credentials generated with Snapcraft 6

In addition to what is described in Using exported snapcraft credentials, the snapcraft login command accepts an additional --with argument to reference a login credentials file.

snapcraft login --with <credentials-filename>

Using a keyring on a headless Linux system

Deprecated:

Not required from Snapcraft 7.5.4 and onwards, Snapcraft will fallback to a file based backend in the absence of a working system keyring.

A Linux desktop will typically include an integrated keyring utility to store and retrieve passwords. This process can also be made to work on a headless system with no display connected or accessible desktop.

First, make sure gnome-keyring is installed:

apt install gnome-keyring

Now start a dbus session:

dbus-run-session -- sh

To unlock the keyring from the command-line, run the following. You will be asked to enter a passphrase, type ctrl+d when done:

gnome-keyring-daemon --unlock

Now you can login as usual:

snapcraft login

Last updated 19 hours ago.

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