Q: what is the cleanest way to "lift" the VERSION out of a txt file (VERSION) , which is in the same directory as the BUILD file, and feed it down, into a target as one or more of the parameters ? I have solved this • for publishing wheels - by a custom plugin, that creates the

python_artifact( )

to the wheel target... but this was clunky • for docker images, by setting the "environment" variable on the outside when package / publishing the image, but lifting the value in through the ENV_VAR (as a tag) - but again - this seems clunky .. Is there a target that can read a file, and provide the contents of that file as a {replacement} variable, or as the setting to command (say arg to a

run_shell_command

or

shell_command

or

adhoc_...

?

I'm not aware of any "non-clunky" way for this yet.. I would probably do something like this to get it across as widely as possible:

# .pants.bootstrap
MY_VERSION=$(cat src/path/to/VERSION)
export MY_VERSION

# macros.py
MY_VERSION = env("MY_VERSION")

# pants.toml
[GLOBAL]
build_file_prelude_globs = ["macros.py"]

# some/BUILD

some_target(version=MY_VERSION, ...)

or, as default:

__defaults__({docker_image: dict(image_tags=[MY_VERSION])})

Sorry @curved-television-6568 - my bad, As this is a monorepo, with many products the extra detail is that there are "many" VERSION files (right next to the BUILD file that publishes a main artifact)

./apps/arc/VERSION
./apps/devolver/VERSION
./apps/log_manager/VERSION
./lib/finder_2000/VERSION
./lib/knohh/VERSION
./tools/containers/cicd-general/VERSION
./tools/python/acme_cicd/VERSION
./tools/python/acme_cicd/VERSION

There are two modes of operation ; •

pants run ... :bump_version

and •

pants package publish //

Ah, gotcha. Yea, that is plugin territory. Perhaps a mix of https://www.pantsbuild.org/2.19/docs/tutorials-coming-soon/create-a-new-goal#reading-the-version-file and https://www.pantsbuild.org/2.19/docs/writing-plugins/common-plugin-tasks/custom-python-artifact-kwargs for python distributions, or leveraging the former along with https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/blob/e9a9322219b5879e7e3f85e9d40a64e369b1ce24/src/python/pants/backend/docker/goals/package_image_test.py#L[…]96 for docker images.

What stops there being a general plugin that reads a file and provides the content ? Generally usable across all targets wherever a string is needed, and could be used in a property="{variable_replacement}-xyz" style ? Is there technical or architectural barriers or challenges the prohibit this ? I wrote a python_artifact(...) extension type plugin that reads the VERSION and the README to the long description, ( was dynamic VERSION AND CHANGELOG when I wrote it, and it was complex - but works) My goal is a pipeline universal way to feed the version into everywhere I need it (adhoc for rust builds, docker, python etc)

I think this is just a feature that has not been high enough on anyones prio list yet..

@curved-television-6568 I will put that together in the next few days and see where I land 😄 this will be my plugin attempt #2 - so I will likely need some assistance (ep)

I would be excited to copy whatever comes out of this, I have a need to improve the versioning situation I have which just involves a lot of hardcoded pants hashes