Hi there This is maybe a real basic foundational question bu

Question

Hi there This is maybe a real basic foundational question but I m messing around with pants and when I ran ` pants tailor` I noticed it recursed down into my python package to add a `BUILD` file to every level of the Python package Is this required to have all of those `BUILD` files or can you have one for each python package

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

hey Donald

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

while it isn t necessary we definitely recommend a `BUILD` file per relevant directory as it s effectively inevitable that you ll need metadata for some of your files

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

and we ve found that when you do have metadata for files test timeouts extra dependencies etc defining that metadata near next to those files reduces boilerplate significantly and is easiest to reason about

adventurous-island-11048 · Answer

Hrm okay I ll give that a try I m just experimenting right now with turning <https github com pypi warehouse> into a relatively small monorepo that has the main app + a few libs we ve extracted from it over the years that are currently in their own repos + maybe a few isolated services Most of my monorepo experience has been with go and bazel but figured I d try out pants since Bazel s python support is awful

adventurous-island-11048 · Answer

Thanks

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

sure thing

wide-midnight-78598 · Answer

FYI Similar discussion with a lot of comments and replies <https pantsbuild slack com archives C046T6T9U p1652381728327739> Almost feel we need a FAQ for these kinda things

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

mm the first link in that thread referencing the Tip one BUILD file per directory callout is still pretty good <https www pantsbuild org docs targets target generation>

witty-crayon-22786 · Answer

but edits to include counterpoints would be considered wink

adventurous-island-11048 · Answer

cool I ll read through those I don t really have a specific complaint about it it just felt wrong but that may just be myself being weird but I conceptually don t think of it as I need to build some random project but need to build some specific artifact and those files are all inputs to that artifact so I may just need to adjust my thinking

high-yak-85899 · Answer

I m a big fan of many BUILD files The times I tend to avoid it are when I have something like a `testdata` directory for unit tests If you place the `BUILD` file for those resources in that directory you then have to use absolute references in the directory you care about often only one level up which is burdensome Instead I like referencing my testdata files where my test targets live so I can use simpler target syntax when setting dependencies

happy-kitchen-89482 · Answer

To clarify though if you don t want that many BUILD files you can manually create a smaller number of them and use recursive globs e g ` py` in their `sources=` to capture all the subdirs

happy-kitchen-89482 · Answer

We ve found that this may not be ideal but you can definitely do it if you have reason to prefer it

happy-kitchen-89482 · Answer

`tailor` won t help you there though but you could roll your own similar thing or just do it manually since there would be a lot fewer to begin with