How to include extra files in a charm

To add extra configuration files and/or binaries/libraries in your charm (e.g., to support more functions), in your charmcraft.yaml, under the parts key, define a part and, in the part properties, set the plugin key to dump or nil. For example:

parts:
  libs:
    plugin: dump
    source: /usr/local/lib/
    organize:
      "libxxx.so*": lib/
    prime:
      - lib/

This libs part will copy the locally built libxxx to the charm lib directory.

If your charm currently uses the prime key in a charm part to include extra files:

Note that, starting with Charmcraft 3.0, the behaviour of this keyword changes, with changes affecting existing bases.

An example of how to change an existing charm to work may be found here.

While in Charmcraft 2.x this was valid:

parts:
  my-charm:
    plugin: charm
    source: .
    prime:
      - charm_version
      - charm_internal_version
      - workload_version

Starting in Charmcraft 3.0, these additional files must be primed using the dump plugin:

parts:
  my-charm:
    plugin: charm
    source: .
  version_data:
    plugin: dump
    source: .
    prime:
      - charm_version
      - charm_internal_version
      - workload_version

Why did this change?

The behaviour in Charmcraft 3 is the intended behaviour of all craft applications. snapcraft and rockcraft both use the behaviour in Charmcraft 3. As Charmcraft 3 contained a major rewrite, the decision was made to change this behaviour.

See more: File charmcraft.yaml > parts

Contributors: @lengau, @syu-w , @tmihoc

Last updated 3 months ago. Help improve this document in the forum or File an issue .