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Fabr

Release notes

Notable changes in each release of fabr. The CLI (@fabr-build/cli), the engine (@fabr-build/core), the JavaScript plugin (@fabr-build/js), its tools (@fabr-build/js-tools) and the Sass importer (@fabr-build/sass-pnp-importer) are released together and share a version number.

Fabr 0.4.0

@fabr-build/core:

  • Introduce fabr_plugin target + move rule/repository decls out to spec.
  • Make the actual working dir a subdir, with the tree pool link (if present) outside - fixes excessive tree scanning.
  • Add TEST_NAME_PATTERN / -t support for running specific tests.
  • Add zip target.
  • Add bash-style string edit patterns.
  • Re-check version lists and other mutable downloads at most once a day; add –refresh to re-check them now.
  • Add @host search-path as the ‘authorised’ hermetic escape route.
  • Add targetdef inheritance: derived targets inherit their base’s rules but can extend and override.
  • Add support for map splices in target properties.
  • Breaking: Cache failed test runs like passing ones; add –retry-failed to run failed tests again.
  • Test targets now complete normally whether or not tests fail; top-level ‘fabr test’ still reports non-zero exit code with failures.
  • Add fabr test --report FILE [--format ctrf|junit]: every tested target’s results in one CTRF or JUnit XML file
  • Write a failing test run’s coverage report too.
  • Add vulnerability audit via osv.
  • Add –trace[=FILE] to build, test and run: a trace of the run’s work for Perfetto or chrome://tracing.
  • Allow ‘fabr build’ of run-only targets, and cat/ls of run and test only targets.
  • list-targets shows each target’s operations, takes globs over target names, and lists only one operation’s targets with –operation.
  • Add private declarations: a target or global property only its own build file sees.
  • Test output is now reported the same way as other build steps.
  • patched now takes an optional run command to modify files in place (after any patches).
  • Fix joint resolution of catalog + non-catalog deps.
  • fabr test of a name listing several test targets summarises all of their tests, not only the first target’s.
  • Fix: A test whose sources import a JSON file listed among its deps no longer fails on the compiled copy conflicting with it.
  • Negative extglobs can now match multiple paths eg !(foo/bar)/**
  • Add support for separate build + runtime resolution.
  • Fix: a tool (a command’s runnable, a *_DRIVER global, Java’s annotation processors and JaCoCo) is resolved for run, so it gets its runtime-only dependencies.
  • Fix: a build whose configuration names a reference holding an @ (-Dchai=@npm:chai:5.0.0) no longer loses its dependencies in resolution.
  • Fix: two catalogs whose selections of one package differ are refused when the consumer uses two members of each.
  • Fix: a tar archive whose directory entry states a size no longer loses the entries after it.
  • Fix: a name holding an extglob group (@(a|b), +(…), !(…)) is read as a pattern, in a reference and on the command line.
  • Fix: a failed write into the cache (a full disk) fails the download or unpack rather than leaving it waiting.
  • An environment entry with no = is an error naming it.
  • Fix: fabr audit and fabr sbom of a target under another operation (app<BUILD_OPERATION=run>) report what its build requires, as fabr deps shows it.
  • Fix: a bill of materials names a licence by its SPDX id only where the SPDX licence list has it (UNLICENSED is a name).
  • Fix: fabr audit reads fixed versions from an advisory’s version ranges only, not its commit ranges, and warns of a fixes on a target made from no registry package.
  • Fix: --trace is accepted after the target too (fabr app --trace); under watch each cycle is added to the trace rather than the file rewritten.
  • Fix: fabr shell opens the sandbox of a patched target, its patches applied; a run capture named like a file it leaves is reported naming the redirect.
  • list-targets of a private name says which file it is private to.
  • default private … and default repository …, a rule guard naming no property (pkg<pkg.=x>) and a target-body splice of anything but a plain name are errors.
  • Restructure command-line help.

@fabr-build/aws:

  • Add s3 download support.

@fabr-build/container:

  • New container image support.
  • Add container_program, to run an image with its environment, ports, network and host names.

@fabr-build/migration:

  • New: fabr-migrate converts an npm, Yarn or pnpm project to fabr.

@fabr-build/java:

  • New Java support.

@fabr-build/js:

  • js_package now takes a compile_deps property for compile-only inputs.
  • Load only the browser table from caniuse-lite, not every feature’s data.
  • js_script takes env, the environment variables its program is launched with.
  • A package’s dependency on a dist-tag (latest) is read as *, so the build’s own requirement on the package selects it.
  • Add sources operation.
  • Allow any version of a package with eg @npm:debug? (instead of specific versions)
  • Move bundling format out to a new property JS_BUNDLE_FORMAT (with target defaults)
  • Add bundle splitting + metafile support.
  • Support renaming bundled chunks + assets.
  • Breaking: Name bundle entries by their content, <stem>-[hash].js (so bundle:main.js becomes bundle:main-*.js); rename them with output, eg *-'[hash]'.js -> $1.js to drop the hash.
  • dom dependency includes dom.iterator as well (for TS5.x, no effect on TS6.x)
  • Handle node: imports in browser bundling (strip off the node:)
  • Fix packages in both srcs + deps being left unbundled.
  • Fix bundling cjs files with __dirname/etc.
  • Fix bundles ignoring a package’s module export condition (its build for bundlers), which esbuild otherwise honours.
  • Fix resources not being mounted during package tests.
  • js_package tests compile against the package’s own build, checking and emitting only the tests.
  • Run again only the test files a change can reach, coverage included.
  • Add layout/pnp flag to run tests through a PnP table instead of node_modules.
  • js_test takes compile_deps; dom there type-checks against the DOM and runs the tests under node.
  • Fix setImmediate/MessageChannel being visible to jsdom tests (as under jest).
  • Test processes end once their report is written, rather than waiting on what the tests left running.
  • Incremental test compilation and execution.
  • Support pnp for test execution.
  • Fix jest’s resetModules/isolateModules not reloading packages under layout/pnp, and never reloading jest’s own libraries.
  • Fix a {virtual: true} jest mock of a relative path not answering an import() of it.
  • Fix enableAutomock automocking node:-prefixed core modules.
  • Fix a test file reading a package that imports itself by name being run again on every change.

VS Code extension (fabr-build.fabr):

  • New VSCode extension.

Fabr 0.3.1

@fabr-build/core:

  • Resolve dependencies separately from fetching and building them, so a version conflict fails before anything is downloaded and fabr deps needs no package contents.
  • Find dependency cycles in the computation graph itself, fixing some cycles that went unreported.
  • Circular dependency errors list the written references making up the cycle, closing one first.
  • Built packages now participate normally in dependency resolution, including ? and ! marks.
  • Add the PACKAGES property type, for properties that take packages rather than plain files.
  • A repository named on its own (deps = @npm;) is now an error rather than silently naming nothing.
  • Generalize fabr_home to the whole installed tree (@fabr-home:<package>), with @fabr-build/* falling back to the installed packages.
  • Allow - in property names.
  • Optimize package downloading, and stop re-reading metadata for cached packages.
  • Fix handling of constraints in variable substitutions and string lookups.
  • Keep fabr run installs between runs, updating only what changed; run -w swaps between two.
  • Add incremental and changes to the generate target.
  • Rename the plugin API’s packageLibFile to getPackageLibFile.

@fabr-build/cli:

  • Add fabr deps: print the dependency tree of targets or packages, marking conflicting versions (!).
  • Add fabr test --coverage[=DIR], writing an lcov report.
  • fabr ls lists a namespace where its repository can enumerate one (fabr ls @npm:glob).
  • fabr build and fabr test check every name before building anything, and refuse a path or a file selection.

@fabr-build/js:

  • A sibling package depended on under a rename (deps = mylib -> foo;) is declared in npm’s alias form ("foo": "npm:mylib@1.2.3").
  • Move the drivers and test runners into their own package, @fabr-build/js-tools, installed with fabr.
  • Add optional_provided_deps (written as optional peerDependencies).
  • Source maps name each source as a fabr: reference, by its path in the project where it has one.
  • Sass and postcss steps recompile only when a stylesheet they read changes.
  • postcss resolves composes from packages through the PnP table.
  • Add test coverage reporting (COVERAGE=on).
  • Add node distribution repository to download node.js.

Fabr 0.3.0

@fabr-build/core:

  • Add support for guarded properties.
  • Add xz archive support.
  • Add positional backrefs in rename templates.
  • Add backtick command expressions.
  • Add 2>&1 stream duplication to command pipelines (and its 1>&2 mirror).
  • General optimizations, especially for cache-hits.
  • Fix package aliases not working in catalogs.
  • Add discovered dependencies + incremental state support.
  • Add source index to reduce startup hashing.
  • Add first cut of cache garbage collection (30-day)
  • Fix strict resolution checking to apply at the collection point.
  • Fix build file reloading orphaning running processes.
  • Add env property to generate + serve targets.
  • Fix rule selection ignoring default and declared globals (only explicit overrides counted).
  • Add targetProperties to rule registrations, selecting a rule on the target’s own properties.
  • Fix a dependency cycle through something a rule reads (a tool global naming a target that needs the reader) hanging the build instead of being reported.
  • “required by” chains now name the target whose rule read a global (a tool setting), in start lines and in error notes; they used to stop at the global.
  • Fix local packages added to a catalog.
  • Fix aliased package resolution.
  • Add the patched target: a published package (or plain files) with a patch applied, retaining its shape.

@fabr-build/cli:

  • Live progress display on terminal with progress bars and test status (suppressed with -q)

@fabr-build/js:

  • BREAKING: TSC property has changed to TYPESCRIPT without the bin; TSC=@npm:typescript:5.4.5:tsc becomes TYPESCRIPT=@npm:typescript:5.4.5.
  • BREAKING: the test runner is chosen by a test_framework / framework property instead of test_runner.
  • Add Yarn PnP resolution support, enabled currently for our owned tools.
  • Rewrite module-specifiers for ESM targets where required.
  • js_bundle now requests ESM format inputs regardless of target.
  • Add exports option for js_package.
  • Add support for dual-format js package output.
  • Add incremental TSC support.
  • Add js/node_globals flag for bundling w/ node process/Buffer globals.
  • Add postcss for more correct css-module processing.
  • Rewrite __dirname/__filename globals for ESM targets and vice-versa for import.meta in CJS targets.
  • Rewrite self-package imports into relative imports.
  • Split css_compile into separate sass_compile (lowering) + css_postcss steps.
  • Add sass-pnp-importer
  • Add yarn’s package extensions.
  • Fix provided package resolution to avoid forking.
  • Node_modules (when used) now follows pnpm tree conventions
  • Add vitest as a supported test framework (JS_TEST_FRAMEWORK = vitest)
  • Add support for Jest environment docblock declarations.
  • Add snapshot assertions (t.assert.snapshot) to the native test runner, updated with fabr test -u.

Fabr 0.2.1

@fabr-build/core:

  • include paths may now glob (include lib/**/*.fabr;).
  • Cap maximum concurrent connections + executing processes.
  • New ‘fetch’ download source for arbitrary http/https fetching.
  • Enable automatic extraction and traversal of archive files.
  • Add support for bash extended globs (eg !(expr) ).
  • Add support for default targets and default target properties.
  • Add support for package renaming using -> rename syntax.
  • Add repository_group target for adding multiple scoped repositories and package overrides.
  • Detect a plugin that loads its own nested copy of @fabr-build/core (a broken install) and report it clearly.
  • Allow rename from wildcard to fixed name (if matched once only)
  • Fix: generate command names resolved incorrectly.
  • Fix: remove excessive synchronous mkdirs
  • Fix: sync targets being unavailable to other build steps.

@fabr-build/js:

  • Add a jest compatibility test runner (JS_TEST_RUNNER = @fabr-build/js-tools/jest-runner;)
  • Generated package.json now strips build-only fields (devDependencies, scripts, …) from an imported manifest, and emits array metadata (keywords, os, cpu) as JSON arrays.
  • Add support for package aliases in external dependencies.
  • Add resources (copied as-is) inputs to js_package.
  • Add ability to use package members as bundle entry points (like scripts)
  • Add ts/experimental_decorators + ts/emit_decorator_metadata flags and cover the rest of the strict flags.
  • Emitting below es2015 now also automatically enables downlevelIteration
  • Handle package resolution edge cases with missing specified versions.
  • Make esModuleInterop: true by default; ts/no_es_module_interop to disable.
  • Revise MVS resolution to drop the ‘independent major versions’ concept we accidentally imported from Go.
  • Generate resolution repair lists on resolution failures.
  • Readd es* flags as source version dependency flags.
  • Drop lightningcss; esbuild now handles css modules directly.
  • Fix TS source importing local references using full package path.
  • Fix esbuild resolver erroring on survivable misses.
  • Fix sass errors to report positions in the original sources via source maps.
  • Fix assorted dependency resolution issues.
  • Fix creating hardlinks in NPM publish tarballs (rejected by NPM)

Fabr 0.1.0

  • First release - fully self hosting, with general support for JavaScript and TypeScript.