#19403 Allow `run`ing multiple targets from CLI or aliases Issue created by huonw Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

pants run ...

allows running various types of scripts/tools/..., which is great. Unfortunately, one can only run one target at a time, e.g. various incantations like

pants run foo.py bar.py

or

pants run foo.py run bar.py

give

TooManyTargetsException: The

run

goal only works with one valid target, but was given multiple valid targets

. This restricts the ability to use pants as a orchestrator, e.g. I might want to do

pants run prepare_database.py run web_server.py

to first prepare the database that's used by a web server. Currently, users are forced to use external orchestrators, e.g.: • npm • make • shell scripts: https://github.com/komprenilo/liga/tree/89f925fbd2db34d30433abd5f6f5802619beb7f5/bin This leads to a bunch of adhoc error checking (if it exists...), hacks around concurrency, more requirements what's installed on each user's system, and just general frustration of having to interact with those external system. Describe the solution you'd like Proposed requirements: 1. Allow running multiple commands in succession, including via aliases. (Some equivalent of

pants run prepare_database.py && pants run web_server.py

) 2. Allow passing arguments to those commands (Some equivalent of

pants run prepare_database.py -- foo --bar && pants run web_server.py -- baz

) 3. Allow running a command in addition to other goals (Some equivalent of

pants run some_adhoc_formatting.py && pants fmt ::

) 4. Potentially: allow running commands in concurrently (Some equivalent of

pants run foo.py & pants run bar.py

) For example

pants prep-db web

or

pants do-it-all

would first run

prepare_database.py

and then run

web_server.py

, equivalent to

pants run prepare_database.py && pants run web_server.py

.

[cli.alias]
prep-db = "run prepare_database.py"
web = "run web_server.py"
do-it-all = "prep-db web"

Describe alternatives you've considered An alternative would be being able to express this adhoc relationship via explicit dependencies "run

prepare_database.py

for its side effects before running `web_server.py`" (somewhat along the lines of #16362 or #17860).

python_source(source="./prepare_database.py")

adhoc_tool(
    name="run-prepare-database",
    runnable="./prepare_database.py",
    cache=False, # NEW: indicates side effects
)

python_source(
    source="./web_server.py", 
    dependencies_for_run_goal=[":run-prepare-database"] # NEW
)

But: being able to run multiple things adhoc in addition to explicit dependencies seems useful. As in, both multiple-

run

and better modelling of side-effect/preparation processes seems good. (This alternative also likely wants #12794, because running

run-prepare-database

only makes sense when actually running `web_server.py`: packaging

web_server.py

into a

pex_binary

doesn't need to run that command.) Additional context Somewhat related issues: • #10542 • #17729 (supporting

run

like this would reduce the need for this one, because adhoc tools could be run as part of a "goal" by just creating an alias that includes running the adhoc tool) pantsbuild/pants