pub run can't run a bin script in a transitive dependencies

[sethladd]

Testing out pub run's ability to run scripts. It appears that it's unable to run a script in a dependency's dependency.

Setup:

package A
  depends on package B

package B
  depends on dartdoc

I tried running with pub run dartdoc:dartdoc from package A

Output/error:

Package "dartdoc" is not an immediate dependency.
Cannot run executables in transitive dependencies.

[sethladd]

See also https://codereview.chromium.org/1136503002/

[munificent]

As the error message indicates, this is deliberate. Packages don't automatically make their transitive dependencies part of their own public API, and that philosophy extends to binaries. If A depends on B, that's an implementation detail of A, and not something that should be exposed to all consumers. That includes any binaries B may contain.

---

cc @nex3.
Added AsDesigned label.

[sethladd]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. We'll wrap the script from the developer-facing dependency.

[nex3]

Keep in mind that if you're exporting the public API of another package, including its executables, your package should have a very narrow constraint on the package you're exporting. For example, if A exports B and the latest version of B is 1.0.0, A should have the constraint ">=1.0.0 <1.1.0" for B. Otherwise, A is unable to guarantee that its API will be stable in the way its versions indicate.

[DartBot]

This issue has been moved to dart-lang/pub#21.