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Changelog

All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file. This project adheres to PEP 440 versioning schema, and the changelog itself conforms to Keep A Changelog.

v9.2.0 (2024-04-04)

Feat

  • tasks: add support for skipping tasks (#1561)
  • add support for validating multi-select choice answers

Fix

  • ignore empty YAML documents in copier.yml
  • preserve choices order in answers to multi-select choice questions
  • exclude: apply exclude matcher to rendered path

Refactor

  • drop pyyaml-include dependency and reimplement relevant features

Perf

  • apply PERF lint rules fixes (#1556)

v9.1.1 (2024-01-16)

Fix

  • don't fail in systems with windows 1252 encoding (probably)
  • skip excluded paths before rendering

v9.1.0 (2023-11-27)

Feat

  • Conflicts on updates now appear as git merge conflicts, also on VSCode
  • choices: support questionary checkbox for multiple choices using multiselect: true.

Fix

  • mark package as typed
  • Normalize paths obtained from Git commands output
  • don't crash when update replaces file with symlink (or vice versa) (#1409)
  • keep git-ignored files on update (#1373)
  • address deprecation warning in shutil.rmtree(onerror=...) (#1401)

v9.0.1 (2023-10-30)

Fix

  • don't produce output when imported with $FORCE_COLOR=1 env

v9.0.0 (2023-10-22)

BREAKING CHANGE

  • Changes the return code for unsafe template error from 2 to 4 to avoid return code collision with Plumbum's SwitchError type errors which use return code 2.

Feat

  • allow overriding data file with CLI arguments (#1332)
  • cli: read answers from yaml file (#1325)

Fix

  • vcs: prevent local clone from being stuck by gpg prompts (#1360)
  • pydantic: compatible with 2.4+, solving FieldValidationInfo warning (#1342)
  • fix answer validation for type: str questions
  • version guess from tags that don't start with v, but are still PEP440 compliant (#1048)
  • cli: use return code 4 for unsafe template error
  • nix: detect build version appropriately

v8.3.0 (2023-09-05)

Feat

  • add -A as an alias for --skip-answered, and support it in recopy too
  • add --skip-answered flag to avoid repeating recorded answers

Fix

  • recopy: never clone old template (even less if it's just for cleanup)

v8.2.0 (2023-08-28)

Feat

  • release on FlakeHub.com too
  • add support for pre-update and post-update messages (#1288)
  • add support for pre-copy and post-copy messages

Fix

  • do not immediately fail if git is not available
  • provide more clarification in unsafe error message (#1280)
  • clean up tmp dir
  • don't lie about updated files
  • require default value for secret question
  • fix answer validation against conditional choices with duplicate values

Refactor

  • drop support for Python 3.7 (#1252)

v8.1.0 (2023-07-10)

Feat

  • add support for computed values via skipped questions (#1220)
  • add --trust as a less scary alternative to --UNSAFE (#1179)
  • add OS identifier to render context

Fix

  • pydantic: add upper dependency bound to fix unlocked installations

Refactor

  • request answers imperatively instead of implicitly via impure property

v8.0.0 (2023-06-04)

BREAKING CHANGE

  • Updates will overwrite existing files always. If you need to select only some files, just use git mergetool or git difftool after updating.
  • Flag --overwrite/-w disappeared from copier update. It is now implicit.
  • To update via API, overwrite=True is now required.
  • The default update conflict mode is now inline instead of rej.
  • By default, updates now consider 3 lines of context instead of just 1.
  • All CLI calls to Copier must now include the subcommand as the 1st argument. For example, copier must become now copier update; also copier ./tpl ./dst must become copier copy ./tpl ./dst.
  • All flags must go after the subcommand now. For example, copier -r HEAD update ./dst must now become copier update -r HEAD ./dst or copier update ./dst -r HEAD.
  • Automatic mode removed. Since now subcommands are required, the automatic mode is removed.
  • Deprecated copier.copy function is removed. Use copier.run_copy, copier.run_update or copier.run_recopy explicitly as needed.
  • default values must be of the same type than the question.

Feat

  • disable unsafe features by default and add --UNSAFE switch (#1171)
  • basic nixpkgs overlay
  • add recopy command and function
  • support conditional choices (#1010)
  • validate default values (#1075)

Fix

  • explain better why an answer casting fails
  • cli: display subcommand args meaning
  • preserver recursive symlinks
  • work around Pydantic bug when parsing choices
  • skip validating question and generating its default value when its skip condition is met

Refactor

  • overwrite always on updates
  • update: default to inline markers and 3 lines of context
  • remove unused local overrides to answers

v7.2.0 (2023-04-19)

Feat

  • customizable update accuracy

Fix

  • fix using a branch name as VCS ref
  • answer validation for question with complex choices (#1110)

v7.1.0 (2023-04-07)

Feat

  • include git in flake app
  • support preserving symlinks when copying templates (#938)
  • allow imports in inline templates (#986)
  • properly support update in repo subdirectory (#1069)
  • allow templating _answers_file setting (#1027)
  • let answers file exist in a subdirectory
  • validate answers given via CLI/API
  • exclude nothing by default when using subdirectory
  • add native OS directory separator variable in _copier_conf.sep to allow generating dynamic directory structures
  • nix support

Fix

  • include dirty local changes when copying HEAD
  • require answer for questions without default value (#958)
  • cleanup: don't clean up local template in parent folder
  • delete conditionally created file when answer changes (#982)
  • properly support diffs over updates with new interactive answers
  • ignore Git hooks during project update (#1066)
  • properly support diffs over updates with new answers
  • skip tasks in pretend mode (#970)
  • parse CLI data using question's answer parser
  • don't set YAML !include constructor globally (#947)
  • cli: use --conflict flag only in copier update subcommand
  • ignore template repo tags that aren't valid PEP 440 versions
  • --skip option was ignored (#966)
  • Remove useless is_dir check
  • don't attempt to render a file if its name is empty
  • warn users against using shallow clones as template source

Refactor

  • tests: remove unknown timeout marker
  • deduplicate code
  • remove unused method argument
  • simplify casting boolean question settings
  • remove useless code related to not asking a question
  • typing: use Mapping instead of ChainMap type
  • move unrelated code out of try-except block
  • inline: smarter inline conflict markers algorithm

v7.1.0a0 (2022-12-29)

Feat

  • experimental inline conflict markers when updating
  • merge copier settings from multiple documents

Fix

  • remove dependency on iteration_utilities

v7.0.1 (2022-10-14)

Fix

  • remove deprecated code scheduled for removal in Copier v7 (#843)

v7.0.0 (2022-10-12)

Feat

  • expand tilde in template source path (#835)

Fix

  • delete temporary clones after execution automatically (#802)
  • typing: remove invalid migration task stage "task"

Refactor

  • typing: use abstract container types where possible (#832)
  • use dict constructor as default factory
  • typing: remove unused types
  • remove unreachable code (#826)
  • model a task to execute using a dataclass
  • reduce module imports

v6.2.0 (2022-09-18)

Feat

  • add validator field to Question (#719)
  • support passing github or gitlab urls without the .git suffix (#677)

Fix

  • compatibility with pydantic 1.10
  • git bundle support breaks with relative paths
  • prevent name collision for question var name "value"

Refactor

  • add "flake8-simplify" plugin and simplify code

v6.1.0 (2022-06-13)

Feat

  • support getting template commit hash with {{ _copier_conf.vcs_ref_hash }}
  • simplify the format of the question prompt (#689)

Fix

  • ignore non-PEP-440-compliant tags (#676)

[6.0.0] - 2022-05-15

All changes here. Summary:

Added

  • Allow using additional Jinja 2 extensions.
  • Major version mismatch warning. If your Copier version is too new, you'll be warned.
  • Specific exceptions, which will help on error detection for API usages.
  • Multiline questions.
  • Conditional questions.
  • Placeholders.
  • Interactive TUI for questionaries. Prompts are way cooler now. 😎
  • Python 3.9 support.
  • Python 3.10 support.
  • Support empty templates suffix, telling Copier to render every file.
  • Added --defaults flag to use default answers to questions, which might be null if not specified.
  • Added --overwrite flag to overwrite files that already exist, without asking.
  • In migration scripts, we have the new environment variables $VERSION_PEP440_FROM, $VERSION_PEP440_CURRENT and $VERSION_PEP440_TO, which will always get a valid PEP440 version identifier, without the v prefix, allowing your migration scripts to have a valid standard where to base their logic.
  • Raise a CopierAnswersInterrupt instead of a bare KeyboardInterrupt to provide callers with additional context - such as the partially completed AnswersMap.
  • Support for user_defaults, which take precedence over template defaults.
  • Copy dirty changes from a Git-tracked template to the project by default, to make testing easier.
  • Advertise clearly which version is being copied or updated in the CLI.
  • Add jinja variable _copier_python to provide Python sys.executable.

Changed

  • Fully refactored core.
  • Running copier copy on a preexisting project now recopies the project instead of updating it. That means that it respects old answers, but ignores history diff.
  • We use Jinja 2 defaults now. {{ }} instead of [[ ]] and similar.
  • We keep trailing newlines by default for Jinja 2 templates.
  • Copier will never ask for overwriting the answers file.
  • Multi-typed choices follow the same type-casting logic as any other question, so it's easier to reason about them. However, if you were using this feature, you might be surprised about its side effects if you don't specify the type explicitly. Just add type: yaml to make it behave mostly as before. Or just don't use that, it's complicated anyway (warn added to docs).
  • Changed --force to be the same as --defaults --overwrite.
  • Copied files will reflect permissions on the same files in the template.
  • Copier now uses git clone --filter=blob:none when cloning, to be faster.
  • Removing files from templates will remove them too from the subprojects when they get updated.

Deprecated

  • Deprecated now and make_secret functions. If your template used those, Copier will emit warnings leading you on how to upgrade it.
  • Templates marked with _min_copier_version below 6 will still default to use bracket-based Jinja defaults, but that will disappear soon. If you want your template to work on Copier 5 and 6, make sure to declare _envops explicitly in your copier.yaml.
  • copier.copy() is confusing, now that actually copying and updating are 2 completely different actions (before, you were actually always updating if possible). Its direct equivalent is now copier.run_auto(), and copier.copy() will disappear in the future.

Removed

  • Minimal supported Python version is now 3.7 (dropped Python 3.6 support).
  • Removed the json method on _copier_conf. Where you would previously use _copier_conf.json() in your templates, please now use _copier_conf|to_json instead.
  • --subdirectory flag, which was confusing... and probably useless.
  • Lots of dead code.

Fixed

  • A directory that gets an empty name works as expected: not copied (nor its contents).
  • When comparing versions to update, PEP 440 is always used now. This way, we avoid fake ordering when Git commit descriptions happen to be ordered in a non-predictable way.
  • Answers file will only remember answers to questions specified in the questionary.

[5.1.0] - 2020-08-17

All changes here. Summary:

  • Forbid downgrades.
  • Print all logs to STDERR.

[5.0.0] - 2020-08-13

All changes here. Summary:

  • Add --prerelease flag, which will be False by default. This is a behavioral change and that's basically why I'm doing a new major release. All other changes are minor here.
  • Better docs.

[4.1.0] - 2020-08-10

All changes here. Summary:

  • Make Copier work fine with Git 2.28.
  • We have docs!
  • Polish docs a little bit.
  • We now run tests on macOS and Windows!

[4.0.2] - 2020-07-21

All changes here. Summary:

  • Fix wrong templated default answers classification, which produced some questions being ignored.

[4.0.1] - 2020-06-23

All changes here. Summary:

  • Fix wrong prompt regression when updating.
  • Remove redundant dst fixture in tests.

[4.0.0] - 2020-06

All changes here. Summary:

  • Remove semver to avoid having 2 different versioning systems. We stick to PEP 440 now.
  • Remember where an answer comes from.
  • Do not re-ask to the user if already answer via --data.
  • Support pre-migration scripts that modify the answers file.

[3.2.0] - 2020-06

All changes here. Summary:

  • Templates can now use a subdirectory instead of always the template root.

[3.1.0] - 2020-05

All changes here. Summary:

  • Assert minimum Copier version.
  • Prettier prompts.
  • Prompt self-templating.
  • Better README.

[3.0.0] - 2020-03

This is a big release with many new features added and improved. The code base also received a lot of love and hardening.

Features

  • Minimal supported Python version is now 3.6.
  • Dropped support for deprecated voodoo.json.
  • Introduced gitignore-style patterns for exclude und skip-if-exists.
  • Dropped support for include option.
  • Added support for extending content of config files via content of other files via pyaml-include.
  • Customizable template extension.
  • Ability to remember last answers.
  • Ability to choose where to remember them.
  • Template upgrades support, (based on the previous points) with migration tasks specification.
  • Extended questions format, supporting help, format, choices and secrets.
  • More beautiful prompts.
  • New CLI experience.

Other

  • Moved to poetry for package management.
  • Type annotated entire code base.
  • Increased test coverage.
  • Ditched ruamel.yaml for PyYaml.
  • Ditched Travis CI for GitHub Actions.
  • Added pre-commit for enforced linting.
  • Added prettier, black and isort for code formatting.
  • Added pytest for running tests.
  • Use plumbum as CLI and subprocess engine.

[2.5.0] - 2019-06-16

  • Expanduser on all paths (so "~/foo/bar" is expanded to "/foo/bar").
  • Improve the output when running tasks.
  • Remove the destination folder if the copy process or one of the tasks fail.
  • Add a cleanup_on_error flag to optionally disable the cleanup feature.
  • Add the skip_if_exists option to skip files, without asking, if they already exists in the destination folder.

[2.4.2] - 2019-06-09

  • Fix MAJOR bug that was preventing the _exclude, _include and _tasks keys from copier.yml (or alternatives) to be used at all. It also interpreted _tasks as a user-provided variable.

[2.4.0] - 2019-06-08

  • Empty folders are now copied. The folders are also displayed in the console output instead of just the files.
  • prompt_bool can now have an undefined default (and answer is mandatory in that case).
  • Reactivates the copier.yml and copier.yaml as configuration files.
  • The new extra_paths argument specifies additional paths to find templates to inherit from.

[2.3.0] - 2019-04-17

  • Back to using a setup.py instead of a pyproject.toml.
  • The recommended configuration file is now copier.toml.

[2.2.3] - 2019-04-13

  • The copier command-line script now accepts "help" and "version" as commands.

[2.1.0] - 2019-02-08

  • Task runner 🎉.
  • Use _exclude, _include, and _tasks keys in copier.yml as the default values for the .copy() arguments exclude, include, and tasks.

[2.0.0] - 2019-02-07

  • Rebranded from Voodoo to Copier!
  • Dropped support for Python 2.x, the minimal version is now Python 3.5.
  • Cleanup and 100% test coverage.
  • The recommended configuration file is now copier.yaml, but a copier.json can be used as well. The old voodoo.json is also supported for now but is deprecated and will be removed in version 2.2.
  • Python package format updated to the latest standard (no setup.py 😵).
  • Renamed the render_skeleton() function to copy(). The function signature remains almost the same, the only changes are:
    • filter_this parameter is now called exclude.
    • ignore_this parameter is now called just ignore.
  • Dropped the idea of storing the templates in a hidden $HOME folder.