Sources to support space seperated list of files

[ameershira]

Description

This feature would allow taskfile to be easier and more intuative to use, and expland its use cases.

I would like to be able to use a space seperated list of files as a "sources" item.

Example 1: Simple.

  task1:
    cmds:
      - <do stuff with FILES>
    sources:
      - ./file1.c ./file2.c

AND

  task1:
    cmds:
      - <do stuff with FILES>
    sources:
      - |
        ./file1.c
        ./file2.c

Example 2: Support task input vars.

  task1:
    requires:
      vars: [FILES]
    cmds:
      - <do stuff with FILES>
    sources:
      - '{{.FILES}}'

And Called like:

  parent-task:
    vars:
       SRC_FILES:
         sh: ls ./src/*.c
    cmds:
      - task: task1
        vars: {
          FILES: {{.SRC_FILES}}
        }

This would also apply to the generates sections as well.

[andreynering]

Hi @ameergituser,

I don't think there is any need for that. It'd make implementation more complex, because files can have spaces as well, and we'd need to treat them.

sources and generates are lists exactly to support multiple files/globs.

[ameershira]

Hi @andreynering,

Thank you for your time!

You're absolutely right — I thought about it too, and it does seem similar to the "looping over variables" example. In that case, we also have to handle filenames that might contain spaces, so I understand the complexity.

That said, maybe there’s another angle I’m missing?

Here’s my use case: I’m building a C library that will be used via CGO. I’m designing a modular generic Taskfile to handle C compilation with fingerprinting to be used in many projects.

I have:

A child task that compiles a single C source file to an object file, using fingerprinting.

A parent task that takes a space- or newline-separated list of C files (from multiple directories that was dynamically created), loops over the list in deps, and concurrently builds the object files.

So far, this works well for parallelism. However, I also want to fingerprint all these source files as a single dependency list in the parent task using the sources: field — and that’s where I’m stuck.

Because sources: is static and expects a proper YAML list, I can’t reuse the same space- or newline-separated list directly.

What I’m wondering is:

Could Task support dynamically converting a space- or newline-separated string into a YAML-style list internally?

Could that allow me to pass one list around and use it in cmds and deps (looping) and sources:?

My goal is:

1. Dynamically generate a list of C file paths (across different directories).

2. Loop over the list in deps and cmds.

3. Use the same list in sources: for correct fingerprinting.

Thanks again for your insights and the awesome tool.

Best regards