Anyway to avoid a specific target from being cached? 🧵

pex_binary(
    name="nltk",
    entry_point="nltk.downloader",
    dependencies=[":poetry#nltk"],
)

adhoc_tool(
    name="generate_nltk_data",
    runnable=":nltk",
    args=[
        "-d",
        "nltk_data",
        "punkt",
    ],
    output_directories=["nltk_data/"],
)

I don’t think that’s supported well in build files; there might be feature requests for it. A custom plugin might be what’s required unless you can tolerate a hack like: set an environment variable to

$(date)

and refer to that env variable in some way in the target (one way to set it would be via `.pants.bootstrap`; https://www.pantsbuild.org/2.20/docs/using-pants/key-concepts/options#pantsbootstrap-file)

bummer. Is there a way to wire in a fake dependency based on something like $(date)?

That one will be cached too 🙃

ohhhh hah

I think something like

extra_env_vars=[”HACK_INVALIDATE_OFTEN”]

with that env var set via the bootstrap file above might work

I'll give that a shot. Thanks

oh nice, env var for a date like-string would be good for: https://github.com/pantsbuild/pants/discussions/20368