file

---

A single loose file that lives outside of code packages.

Files are placed directly in archives, outside of code artifacts such as Python wheels or JVM JARs. The sources of a file target are accessed via filesystem APIs, such as Python's open(), via paths relative to the repository root.

Backend: ``

---

source

str

required

A single file that belongs to this target.

Path is relative to the BUILD file's directory, e.g. source='example.ext'.

dependencies

Iterable[str] | None

default: None

Addresses to other targets that this target depends on, e.g. ['helloworld/subdir:lib', 'helloworld/main.py:lib', '3rdparty:reqs#django'].

This augments any dependencies inferred by Pants, such as by analyzing your imports. Use ./pants dependencies or ./pants peek on this target to get the final result.

See https://www.pantsbuild.org/v2.9/docs/targets#target-addresses and https://www.pantsbuild.org/v2.9/docs/targets#target-generation for more about how addresses are formed, including for generated targets. You can also run ./pants list :: to find all addresses in your project, or ./pants list dir: to find all addresses defined in that directory.

If the target is in the same BUILD file, you can leave off the BUILD file path, e.g. :tgt instead of helloworld/subdir:tgt. For generated first-party addresses, use ./ for the file path, e.g. ./main.py:tgt; for all other generated targets, use :tgt#generated_name.

You may exclude dependencies by prefixing with !, e.g. ['!helloworld/subdir:lib', '!./sibling.txt']. Ignores are intended for false positives with dependency inference; otherwise, simply leave off the dependency from the BUILD file.

description

str | None

default: None

A human-readable description of the target.

Use ./pants list --documented :: to see all targets with descriptions.

tags

Iterable[str] | None

default: None

Arbitrary strings to describe a target.

For example, you may tag some test targets with 'integration_test' so that you could run ./pants --tag='integration_test' test :: to only run on targets with that tag.