Bazel: Bazel not a fan of git branch named "build"

[girving]

Please provide the following information. The more we know about your system and use case, the more easily and likely we can help.

Description of the problem / feature request / question:

Bazel explodes if you have a git branch named "build", even if you're not on the branch at the time:

bazel build ...
ERROR: /Users/geoffreyi/deepmath/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:81: invalid base-10 integer constant: 5e074e001f956f5d5c7abd3d137c13be1bc8fe82.
ERROR: /Users/geoffreyi/deepmath/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:109: invalid character: '@'.
ERROR: /Users/geoffreyi/deepmath/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:137: invalid base-8 integer constant: 0800.
ERROR: /Users/geoffreyi/deepmath/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:42: syntax error at '0': expected newline.
ERROR: package contains errors: .git/logs/refs/heads.
ERROR: /Users/geoffreyi/deepmath/.git/refs/heads/BUILD:1:40: invalid base-10 integer constant: 5e074e001f956f5d5c7abd3d137c13be1bc8fe82.
ERROR: package contains errors: .git/refs/heads.
ERROR: package contains errors: tensorflow/tensorflow/core/distributed_runtime/rpc.
ERROR: error loading package 'tensorflow/tensorflow/core/distributed_runtime/rpc': Extension file not found. Unable to load file '//tensorflow:tensorflow.bzl': file doesn't exist or isn't a file.

If possible, provide a minimal example to reproduce the problem:

1. Clone a git repo that uses bazel, such as bazel itself.
2. git checkout -b build
3. bazel build ...

Environment info

• Operating System:

Darwin.

• Bazel version (output of bazel info release):

release-0.4.0-homebrew

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web? (e.g. GitHub issues, email threads in the [email protected] archive)

Hard to search for bazel problems involving the keyword "build". :)

[iirina]

Hi Geoffrey,

I have tried to create a small project and build it in a branch named build and found no problem. I also had no problem to build various bazel sub-packages the way you described. Can you please provide more context and maybe a small example/project where the build fails with a build branch but not without it? I would also like to know what differences you are seeing between building with and without a build branch. Thanks.

Cheers,
Irina

[kchodorow]

You have to name the branch "BUILD" on Linux, OS X is case-insensitive. It creates a BUILD file in .git for the branch, which of course isn't a Bazel-format BUILD file.

[girving]

@iirina Yep, I should have clarified: "build" == "BUILD" on Mac. I just confirmed that on linux a "BUILD" branch gives the same error. Here's tensorflow on Linux:

(master) beltrami:tensorflow% git checkout -b BUILD
Switched to a new branch 'BUILD'
(BUILD) beltrami:tensorflow% bazel build ...
ERROR: /usr/local/google/home/geoffreyi/tensorflow/.git/refs/heads/BUILD:1:1: name 'dfc5cd48a095b133ece9caff663e3cc512e8a268' is not defined.
ERROR: package contains errors: .git/refs/heads.
ERROR: /usr/local/google/home/geoffreyi/tensorflow/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:109: invalid character: '@'.
ERROR: /usr/local/google/home/geoffreyi/tensorflow/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:137: invalid base-8 integer constant: 0800.
ERROR: /usr/local/google/home/geoffreyi/tensorflow/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:42: syntax error at 'dfc5cd48a095b133ece9caff663e3cc512e8a268': expected newline.
ERROR: /usr/local/google/home/geoffreyi/tensorflow/.git/logs/refs/heads/BUILD:1:155: keyword 'from' not supported.
ERROR: package contains errors: .git/logs/refs/heads.
ERROR: error loading package '.git/logs/refs/heads': Package '.git/logs/refs/heads' contains errors.
INFO: Elapsed time: 0.418s

[damienmg]

Ok this is not a Bazel issue per se. The correct way to support that is to do the following:

cat <<EOF >.bazelrc
build --deleted_packages .git
EOF

to ignore the .git package.

We cannot fix all corner case for all version system so using custom .bazelrc file is the way to go.