package(default_visibility=X) differs from visibility=X

[dmivankov]

Description of the problem / feature request:

package(default_visibility = X) works differently from explicitly setting visibility = X
Namely visibility= can refer to other @repository//some:__pkg__, but default_visibility ignores such entries.

Bugs: what's the simplest, easiest way to reproduce this bug? Please provide a minimal example if possible.

A/WORKSPACE

workspace(name = "A")

new_local_repository(
  name = "B",
  path = "../B",
  build_file_content = """
package(default_visibility = ["@A//:__pkg__"]) # line 1
genrule(
  name = "b.gen",
  outs = ["b"],
  cmd = "echo >$@",
#  visibility = ["@A//:__pkg__"], # line 2
)
  """
)

A/BUILD

alias(
  name = "a",
  actual = "@B//:b",
)

genrule( # to also test non-trivial targets
  cmd = "echo >$@",
  name = "aa",
  outs = ["aaa"],
  srcs = ["@B//:b"],
)

B - empty directory

$ cd A
$ bazel build @B//:b
# ok

$ bazel build @A//:a
A/BUILD:1:6: in alias rule //:a: target '@B//:b' is not visible from target '//:a'. Check the visibility declaration of the former target if you think the dependency is legitimate
ERROR: Analysis of target '//:a' failed; build aborted: Analysis of target '//:a' failed

$ bazel build @A//:aaa
A/BUILD:6:8: in genrule rule //:aa: target '@B//:b' is not visible from target '//:aa'. Check the visibility declaration of the former target if you think the dependency is legitimate
ERROR: Analysis of target '//:aaa' failed; build aborted: Analysis of target '//:aa' failed

but if line 1 is commented out in A/WORKSPACE and line 2 uncommented all 3 build commands suddenly start to work

What operating system are you running Bazel on?

NixOS

What's the output of bazel info release?

release 4.1.0- (@non-git)

If bazel info release returns "development version" or "(@non-git)", tell us how you built Bazel.

via NixPkgs

[brandjon]

default_visibility is parsed using PackageUtils.getVisibility, which dispatches to PackageGroupsRuleVisibility, which tries to process the arg as a package_group package path string, and failing that considers the arg to be a label of a package_group target.

So the problem is that default_visibility does not recognize the same cases that visibility does. It's instead a bizarre mix of package_group and visibility syntax, that allows //pkg/... and //visibility:public, but not //pkg:__subpackages__.

[github-actions]

Thank you for contributing to the Bazel repository! This issue has been marked as stale since it has not had any activity in the last 1+ years. It will be closed in the next 90 days unless any other activity occurs or one of the following labels is added: "not stale", "awaiting-bazeler". Please reach out to the triage team (@bazelbuild/triage) if you think this issue is still relevant or you are interested in getting the issue resolved.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed due to inactivity. If you're still interested in pursuing this, please post @bazelbuild/triage in a comment here and we'll take a look. Thanks!