I am trying to read options from a

.json

file into my

pants.toml

file but it doesn't seem to be working. For example:

# pants.toml
[python.resolves]
pants-plugins = "@?pantsbuild/pants-plugins-config.json"

[python.resolves_to_interpreter_constraints]
pants-plugins = "@?pantsbuild/pants-plugins-config.json"

# pants-plugins-config.json
{
    "resolves.pants-plugins": "SOME_PATH/pants-plugins.lock",
    "resolves_to_interpreter_constraints.pants-plugins": ["==3.9.*"]
}

This creates the

pants-plugins

resolve in

@?pantsbuild/...

meaning is it not parsing the file and it is just taking the string literally. Same issue with

resolves_to_interpreter_constraints.pants-plugins

Reference: https://www.pantsbuild.org/2.21/docs/using-pants/key-concepts/options#reading-individual-option-values-from-files

Hm, that's a bit peculiar. Can you create a reduced/standalone reproducer of the problem? In any case, even if we work out how to get it to read a file correctly... I think the file is expected to contain the option value itself, not some repeat of the

pants.toml

option structure. I think this means it would need to be something like: `pants.toml`:

# pants.toml
[python.resolves]
pants-plugins = "@?pantsbuild/pants-plugins-resolves.txt"

[python.resolves_to_interpreter_constraints]
pants-plugins = "@?pantsbuild/pants-plugins-interpreter-constraints.json"

`pantsbuild/pants-plugins-resolves.txt`:

SOME_PATH/pants-plugins.lock

pantsbuild/pants-plugins-interpreter-constraints.json

["==3.9.*"]

However, it seems a bit strange to use files for such small options, instead of just putting them in

pants.toml

directly. Can you give more background on what you're trying to achieve?

Hi, my team wanted to move the pants-plugins config settings to a separate file and not keep it in the main pants.toml file. I will try the change you suggested and let you know if it works! thank you!

Do you have more background on why it's useful to have it in a separate file? I'm asking because maybe there's either (a) a better way to achieve the same goal, (b) some improvements we can make to pants to make it easier.