Error when Description in meta.yaml contains string package:

[verdimrc]

conda build breaks when the description in meta.yaml contains string "package:". I encountered this issue when building module versionfinder with its skeleton generated from pypi.

#File meta.yaml:
...
about:
    description: "test package: test"
...

Then conda build produces error:

$ conda build --output-folder /tmp/python /tmp/versionfinder/
Adding in variants from internal_defaults
INFO:conda_build.variants:Adding in variants from internal_defaults
Attempting to finalize metadata for versionfinder
INFO:conda_build.metadata:Attempting to finalize metadata for versionfinder
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/bin/conda-build", line 11, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/cli/main_build.py", line 399, in main
    execute(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/cli/main_build.py", line 390, in execute
    verify=args.verify)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/api.py", line 188, in build
    need_source_download=need_source_download, config=config, variants=variants)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/build.py", line 1916, in build_tree
    notest=notest,
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/build.py", line 974, in build
    output_metas = expand_outputs([(m, need_source_download, need_reparse_in_env)])
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/render.py", line 574, in expand_outputs
    for (output_dict, m) in _m.get_output_metadata_set(permit_unsatisfiable_variants=False):
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/metadata.py", line 1808, in get_output_metadata_set
    permit_unsatisfiable_variants=permit_unsatisfiable_variants)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/metadata.py", line 659, in finalize_outputs_pass
    output_d = om.get_rendered_output(metadata.name()) or {'name': metadata.name()}
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/metadata.py", line 1853, in get_rendered_output
    for output_ in self.get_rendered_outputs_section():
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/conda_build/metadata.py", line 1843, in get_rendered_outputs_section
    template_string=template_string)) or {}).get('outputs', [])
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/__init__.py", line 94, in safe_load
    return load(stream, SafeLoader)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/__init__.py", line 72, in load
    return loader.get_single_data()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/constructor.py", line 35, in get_single_data
    node = self.get_single_node()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 36, in get_single_node
    document = self.compose_document()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 55, in compose_document
    node = self.compose_node(None, None)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 84, in compose_node
    node = self.compose_mapping_node(anchor)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 133, in compose_mapping_node
    item_value = self.compose_node(node, item_key)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 84, in compose_node
    node = self.compose_mapping_node(anchor)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 133, in compose_mapping_node
    item_value = self.compose_node(node, item_key)
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/composer.py", line 64, in compose_node
    if self.check_event(AliasEvent):
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/parser.py", line 98, in check_event
    self.current_event = self.state()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/parser.py", line 449, in parse_block_mapping_value
    if not self.check_token(KeyToken, ValueToken, BlockEndToken):
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 116, in check_token
    self.fetch_more_tokens()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 248, in fetch_more_tokens
    return self.fetch_double()
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 652, in fetch_double
    self.fetch_flow_scalar(style='"')
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 663, in fetch_flow_scalar
    self.tokens.append(self.scan_flow_scalar(style))
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 1148, in scan_flow_scalar
    chunks.extend(self.scan_flow_scalar_spaces(double, start_mark))
  File "/home/ec2-user/miniconda3/lib/python3.6/site-packages/yaml/scanner.py", line 1235, in scan_flow_scalar_spaces
    "found unexpected end of stream", self.get_mark())
yaml.scanner.ScannerError: while scanning a quoted scalar
  in "<unicode string>", line 40, column 16:
      description: "test
                   ^
found unexpected end of stream
  in "<unicode string>", line 40, column 21:
      description: "test
                        ^

[msarahan]

Yep, that's a limitation of yaml. Sorry, but I don't think there's a good way for conda-build to fix this. If you change your recipe to be formatted a little differently, it might work:

#File meta.yaml:
...
about:
    description: |
        test package: test
...

[mbargull]

Since @verdimrc used a double quoted string, that is a valid YAML flow scalar, so no issue there. The problem is

extract_pattern = r'(.*)package:'

from https://github.com/conda/conda-build/blob/3.2.2/conda_build/metadata.py#L1835 that is used for

match = re.search(extract_pattern, text, flags=re.MULTILINE | re.DOTALL)
text = match.group(1) if match else ""

at in https://github.com/conda/conda-build/blob/3.2.2/conda_build/metadata.py#L699-L700.

@verdimrc: As a workaround you could escape any character of package:, e.g., use

about:
    description: "test package\x3a test"

[msarahan]

Ah, thanks for straightening me out on that @mbargull. That may actually be something I can fix by refining the regex.

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