bazelbuild / bazelbuild/bazel

target_compatible_with targets silently skipped when explicitly passed with shorthand labels

Open
#26,761 7 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
P2 team-Configurability type: bug
Dominant language
Java
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Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Description of the bug:

With this project in the root BUILD.bazel file:

```bzl
constraint_setting(name = "something")

constraint_value(
name = "never_matched",
constraint_setting = ":something",
)

cc_test(
name = "foo",
srcs = ["foo.cc"],
target_compatible_with = [":never_matched"],
)
```

If you run `bazel test //:foo` it correctly fails:

```
% bazel test //:foo
Target //:foo failed to build
Use --verbose_failures to see the command lines of failed build steps.
ERROR: Analysis of target '//:foo' failed; build aborted: Target //:foo is incompatible and cannot be built, but was explicitly requested.
Dependency chain:
//:foo (f0d937) <-- target platform (@@platforms//host:host) didn't satisfy constraint //:never_matched
INFO: Elapsed time: 0.523s, Critical Path: 0.02s
INFO: 1 process: 1 internal.
ERROR: Build did NOT complete successfully
ERROR: No test targets were found, yet testing was requested
```

But if you use any shorthand label syntax it does not fail and is skipped like if you did `bazel test //...`:

```
% bazel test foo
INFO: Analyzed target //:foo (0 packages loaded, 0 targets configured).
INFO: Found 1 test target...
Target //:foo was skipped
INFO: Elapsed time: 0.123s, Critical Path: 0.00s
INFO: 1 process: 1 internal.
INFO: Build completed successfully, 1 total action
//:foo SKIPPED

Executed 0 out of 1 test: 1 was skipped.
```

In this case where I still specify it directly, I would expect it to fail and not skip.

More confusingly if you do this in a nested BUILD file and use `/` instead of `:` it will also skip.

### Which category does this issue belong to?

_No response_

### What's the simplest, easiest way to reproduce this bug? Please provide a minimal example if possible.

_No response_

### Which operating system are you running Bazel on?

_No response_

### What is the output of `bazel info release`?

055e80c00569e7f41646f809abd8bee2bea56d2a

### 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` ?

```text

```

### If this is a regression, please try to identify the Bazel commit where the bug was introduced with bazelisk --bisect.

_No response_

### Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

_No response_

### Any other information, logs, or outputs that you want to share?

[repro.zip](https://github.com/user-attachments/files/21760121/repro.zip)

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by unpacking repro.zip and running the root BUILD.bazel example with the explicit and shorthand bazel test commands shown in the issue; compare the nested BUILD-file case using '/'. Trace the target-selection and label-resolution entry points involved in those commands, then verify that explicitly requested incompatible targets fail while shorthand-selected targets retain their intended behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
build-system
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
48/100

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