#20621 `pants help-all` isn't deterministic Issue created by huonw Describe the bug The output of

pants help-all

appears to not be deterministic, when run with different pantsd instances (it is deterministic if run with the same pantsd running). Determinstism is good in general, but this specifically leads to spurious diffs in the documentation sync PRs, which check in the output of

pants help-all

to the https://github.com/pantsbuild/pantsbuild.org repo (via the

sync_docs.yml

workflow). I think this may be (partly) related to the use of `set`s in the code below (and potentially other places in that file): pants/src/python/pants/engine/target.py Lines 441 to 452 in </pantsbuild/pants/commit/8481389512cc1563ef08077838503769d8e4a4ae|8481389> These potentially lead to non-deterministic order in

class_field_types

in that file, which is what is called to fill out a target's field in

TargetTypeHelpInfo

in

help_info_extractor.py

. Reproducer:

cd $(mktemp -d)

cat > pants.toml <<EOF
[GLOBAL]
pants_version = "2.19.0"
EOF

pants --no-pantsd help-all > first.json
pants --no-pantsd help-all > second.json

diff -U3 first.json second.json

Running that gives output like (truncated):

--- first.json	2024-02-27 12:28:23.000000000 +1100
+++ second.json	2024-02-27 12:28:26.000000000 +1100
@@ -13895,8 +13895,12 @@
       "used_in_rules": []
     },
     "pants.core.goals.lint.Batch": {
-      "consumed_by_rules": [],
-      "dependencies": [],
+      "consumed_by_rules": [
+        "pants.backend.project_info.regex_lint.lint_with_regex_patterns"
+      ],
+      "dependencies": [
+        "pants.core"
+      ],
       "dependents": [
         "pants.backend.project_info"
       ],
@@ -13904,15 +13908,11 @@
       "is_union": true,
       "module": "pants.core.goals.lint",
       "name": "Batch",
-      "provider": "pants.core",
+      "provider": "pants.backend.project_info",
       "returned_by_rules": [],
-      "union_members": [
-        "Batch"
-      ],
-      "union_type": null,
-      "used_in_rules": [
-        "pants.core.goals.lint.lint"
-      ]
+      "union_members": [],
+      "union_type": "Batch",
+      "used_in_rules": []
     },
     "pants.core.goals.lint.Lint": {
       "consumed_by_rules": [],
@@ -21164,25 +21164,25 @@
           "type_hint": "str | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "subprocess_environment_env_vars",
+          "alias": "pex_executable_search_paths",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[subprocess-environment].env_vars` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[pex].executable_search_paths` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "python_native_code_cpp_flags",
+          "alias": "subprocess_environment_env_vars",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-native-code].cpp_flags` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[subprocess-environment].env_vars` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "pex_executable_search_paths",
+          "alias": "system_binaries_system_binary_paths",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[pex].executable_search_paths` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[system-binaries].system_binary_paths` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
@@ -21196,33 +21196,33 @@
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "test_extra_env_vars",
+          "alias": "python_native_code_ld_flags",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[test].extra_env_vars` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-native-code].ld_flags` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "python_native_code_ld_flags",
+          "alias": "python_bootstrap_search_path",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-native-code].ld_flags` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-bootstrap].search_path` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "python_bootstrap_search_path",
+          "alias": "python_native_code_cpp_flags",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-bootstrap].search_path` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[python-native-code].cpp_flags` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"
         },
         {
-          "alias": "system_binaries_system_binary_paths",
+          "alias": "test_extra_env_vars",
           "default": null,
-          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[system-binaries].system_binary_paths` when this environment target is active.",
+          "description": "Overrides the default value from the option `[test].extra_env_vars` when this environment target is active.",
           "provider": "pants.core",
           "required": false,
           "type_hint": "Iterable[str] | None"

Pants version 2.19.0, 2.20.0a0 OS macOS Additional info N/A pantsbuild/pants