Toolchain Resolution Implementation Details

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Note: This section is intended for Bazel developers, and is not needed by rule authors.

Several SkyFunction classes implement the toolchain resolution process:

  1. RegisteredToolchainsFunction and RegisteredExecutionPlatformsFunction find available toolchains and execution platforms, based on the current configuration and WORKSPACE file.

  2. SingleToolchainResolutionFunction resolves a single toolchain type for every execution platform. That is, for every execution platform it finds the best registered toolchain to use based on the following criteria:

    1. Make sure the toolchain and target platform are compatible, by checking the target_compatible_with attribute.
    2. Make sure the toolchain and execution platform are compatible, by checking the exec_compatible_with attribute.
    3. If multiple toolchains are left, choose the highest-priority one (the one that was registered first).

  3. ToolchainResolutionFunction calls SingleToolchainResolutionFunction for each requested toolchain type, and then determines the best execution platform to use.

    1. First, remove any execution platform that does not have a valid toolchain for each requested toolchain type.
    2. If multiple execution platforms are left, choose the highest-priority one (the one that was registered first).
      1. If the execution platform is already set by the toolchain transition, it will be selected first as described below.

As discussed in Toolchains and Configurations, the dependency from a target to a toolchain uses a special configuration that forces the execution platform to be the same for both. Despite the name "toolchain transition", this is not implemented as a configuration transition, but instead as a special subclass of ConfiguredTargetKey, called ToolchainDependencyConfiguredTargetKey. In addition to the other data in ConfiguredTargetKey, this subclass also holds the label of the execution platform. When ToolchainResolutionFunction is considering which execution platform to use, if the forced execution platform from the ToolchainDependencyConfiguredTargetKey is valid, it will be used even if it is not the highest-priority.

Note: If the forced execution platform is not valid (because there are no valid toolchains, or because of execution constraints from the rule or target), then the highest-priority valid execution platform will be used instead.