Can not pass @glob ITEMs to other @glob goals

[koljakube]

I have, not for the first time, encountered the following situation:

A directory contains a set of similar files, lets call them definitions.

./
- definitions/
  - def1
  - def2
- Makesurefile
- makesure

A Makesurefile contains glob goals for these definitions.

@goal make-foo @glob 'definitions/*'
  process "$ITEM" "$(target_name_for "$ITEM")"

@goal upload-foo @glob 'definitions/*'
  upload "$(target_name_for "$ITEM")"

Now upload-foo cannot depend on make-foo by forwarding its ITEM. I tried:

• @depends_on 'make-foo@$ITEM'
• @depends_on "make-foo@$ITEM"
• @depends_on 'make-foo' @args ITEM
• @depends_on 'make-foo' @glob
• @depends_on 'make-foo' @glob ITEM
• @depends_on 'make-foo' @args "$ITEM"
• @depends_on 'make-foo' @args '$ITEM'

(I know not all are legal)

I also can not build a hybrid @param-@glob solution, since @globs are not callable (outside of calling makesure recursively), and @globs also can not forward their item.

I have two suggested solutions, in order of preference:

1. Allow using ITEM like any other parameter, without any restrictions; and also allow calling @glob goals (with unmatched globbed items simply resulting in "goal not found" errors).
2. Allow forwarding between @glob goals with identical glob strings by appending @glob to the @depends_on (here, a more descriptive error message might be appropriate).

I can't think of really evil ways of abusing the first proposal, but the second one would of course be a lot more restricted and declarative. What do you think? I might even try contributing a patch if I find the time.

[koljakube]

On further reflection, I underestimated the problem, since parameterized goals do not get instantiated without a dependency on them and the specific argument list. That makes even recursive makesure calls a non-viable workaround. I could still call @glob goals recursively, but then I need to implement the globbing in shell scripts as well.

I still think a lot would be gained by glob-forwarding and allowing ITEM after @args.

[xonixx]

Thank you for this case. Indeed this looks like a useful feature to have. I’ll try to assess a viable implementation strategy.