Validate that action mnemonics are string literals - makes allowing custom mnemonics safer
- Dominant language
- Java
- Stars
- 25.8k
- Forks
- 4.6k
- Avg merge
- 2d 20h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 72
Description
### Description of the feature request:
Customizing mnemonic for actions is a useful feature that improves the output for users and also allows build engineers to use features such as `--modify_execution_info` more effectively.
However, to avoid issues related to an explosion of mnemonics (which may cause problems) it was suggested that a safeguard should be added to Bazel to ensure that mnemonics are literals. This prevents users from creating a large number of actions named eg. `"some-name-" + i` in a loop or list comprehension.
Related issue: https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel-skylib/pull/491
### Which category does this issue belong to?
Starlark Integration
### What underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?
Trying to improve safety.
### Which operating system are you running Bazel on?
_No response_
### What is the output of `bazel info release`?
_No response_
### If `bazel info release` returns `development version` or `(@non-git)`, tell us how you built Bazel.
_No response_
### What's the output of `git remote get-url origin; git rev-parse HEAD` ?
_No response_
### Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?
_No response_
### Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?
_No response_
Contributor guide
Research direction
Review Bazel's Starlark Integration handling of custom action mnemonics; the issue names no specific files, tests, or entry points. Define validation that accepts string literals while rejecting computed or loop-generated mnemonic values, then add coverage for both cases.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Domain
- build-system
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100