Make variable substitution in local_defines in C++ rule does not accept labels from `data`

[joelwilliamson]

Description of the problem / feature request:

In C++ rules, local_defines allow "Make" variable substitution, including execpath: List of defines to add to the compile line. Subject to "Make" variable substitution and Bourne shell tokenization. (https://docs.bazel.build/versions/main/be/c-cpp.html#cc_binary.local_defines)

In "Make" variable substitution, C++ rules are documented to be able to use labels referenced in the data attribute: All referenced labels must appear in the consuming rule's srcs, output files, or deps. Otherwise the build fails. C++ rules can also reference labels in data. (https://docs.bazel.build/versions/main/be/make-variables.html)

However, if a local_defines rule tries to do "VAR=\"$(execpath :data_label)\"", the expansion fails with the error "label ':data_label' in $(location) expression is not a declared prerequisite of this rule."

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

filegroup(
  name = "data_label",
  srcs  = ["data_file"],
)

cc_library(
  name = "lib",
  srcs = ["lib.cc"],
  hdrs = ["lib.hh"],
  data = [":data_label"],
  local_defines = ["VAR=\"$(execpath :data_label)\""],
)

What operating system are you running Bazel on?

Linux

What's the output of bazel info release?

2021/08/31 23:23:18 Using unreleased version at commit 662cf54de7a103db30e04ebae2d2b919437c4846 development version

What's the output of git remote get-url origin ; git rev-parse master ; git rev-parse HEAD ?

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/commit/cfb6989621c698890eca189e423ddb82ae89e3e0#diff-dded2426bd501014f754eeb69f0eb986a5db2a8908ff219106af4c76a5da09e2R531

    ImmutableMap.Builder<Label, ImmutableCollection<Artifact>> builder = ImmutableMap.builder();

    if (ruleContext.attributes().has("deps", LABEL_LIST)) {
      for (TransitiveInfoCollection current : ruleContext.getPrerequisites("deps")) {
        builder.put(
            AliasProvider.getDependencyLabel(current),
            current.getProvider(FileProvider.class).getFilesToBuild().toList());
      }
    }

I think this should also get do getPrerequisites("data")

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

[garymm]

Is there a work-around available for this?

If not, can this be pack-ported to bazel 5? https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/pull/13938

I'm still seeing this on bazel 5.3.1.

[garymm]

This seems fixed on Bazel 6. I think it should be closed.

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