Bazel 'test' options not clearly findable #5290
Labels
P3
We're not considering working on this, but happy to review a PR. (No assignee)
team-Documentation
Documentation improvements that cannot be directly linked to other team labels
team-OSS
Issues for the Bazel OSS team: installation, release processBazel packaging, website
type: documentation (cleanup)
Description of the problem / feature request:
Bazel 'test' behaviour and options are not clearly documented. Specifically, the fact that bazel test builds all non-test targets by default is only documented under a 'miscellaneous' flag.
Feature requests: what underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?
Categorize 'Miscellaneous options' so that they show up in appropriate sections. Namely, https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/command-line-reference.html#test should include --[no]build_tests_only , --flaky_test_attempts, and other such test-specific flags. Most of the rest should be categorized as well.
A page about tests might also be appropriate. https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/test-encyclopedia.html has the technical specifications, but I cannot find a page that clearly documents the basics - when you'll run
bazel test
and what it does. Nothing linked off of https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/getting-started.html appears to talk about testing.Bugs: what's the simplest, easiest way to reproduce this bug? Please provide a minimal example if possible.
N/A
What operating system are you running Bazel on?
N/A
What's the output of
bazel info release
?N/A
Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?
Searching the web finds misleading answers, e.g. a cursory read of #4257 (first link from "bazel build all targets") implies that "bazel test //... && bazel build //..." is a reasonable pattern, when it's actually an antipattern.
This would presumably be mitigated if there were clear answers in bazel documentation proper.
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