`--project=@script` is broken or NEWS entry is incorrect (Julia 1.11.0-rc3)

[StevenWhitaker]

This issue has two parts.

EDIT: Note that Issue 1 is a duplicate of #55069, but Issue 2 is not.

Issue 1

The following NEWS entry is incorrect:

If no path is given after (i.e. --project=@script) then (like --project=@.) the directory and its parents are searched for a Project.toml

In particular, it appears --project=@script has the same behavior as --project=@., which doesn't seem intended (though maybe I'm reading the NEWS entry incorrectly).

MWE

In <current_directory>/script_test/test.jl:

println("Current directory: ", pwd())
println("Active project: ", Base.active_project())

Result:

$ julia +1.11 --project=@script script_test/test.jl
Current directory: <current_directory>
Active project: <current_directory>/Project.toml # Expected: <current_directory>/script_test/Project.toml

See #55069 for more details.

Issue 2

The previous part of the same NEWS entry is also incorrect:

The --project argument now accepts @script to give a path to a directory with a Project.toml relative to the passed script file. --project=@script/foo for the foo subdirectory.

In particular, --project=@script/script_test activates /script_test/Project.toml. (Note this is an absolute path, not a relative path!)

MWE

Same test.jl file as above.

Result:

$ julia +1.11 --project=@script/foo script_test/test.jl
Current directory: <current_directory>
Active project: /script_test/Project.toml # Expected: <current_directory>/script_test/foo/Project.toml

[tecosaur]

Thanks for reporting! Let's focus on #55069 though 🙂

[StevenWhitaker]

@tecosaur I agree that Issue 1 above is a dupe of #55069. However, #55069 doesn't mention anything about the --project=@script/sub_dir functionality (what I call Issue 2 above). So this issue isn't a complete duplicate. Would it be better to open a new issue with just Issue 2 above?

[tecosaur]

At a glance, I suspect that Issue 2 might be solved by fixing Issue 1 (if the base path is determined incorrectly, paths relative to it will be incorrect too).

[StevenWhitaker]

I am slightly doubtful the same fix will apply to both issues because in Issue 2 above an absolute path somehow gets introduced. In other words, if Issue 2 did just depend on Issue 1 getting the correct base path, then the Issue 2 result should be

Active project: <current_directory>/foo/Project.toml

which isn't the case, as I report above (foo doesn't even show up in the active project).

But I guess we'll see.

[tecosaur]

Ah right, I think I just missed that nuance in a skim-read. I'll reopen the issue 🙂