document that repository_ctx.template requires text files

[guibou]

Description of the problem / feature request:

repository_ctx.template seems to corrupt binaries files. For example:

repository_ctx.template(outPath, binaryFilePath)

Will results in a corrupted file in outPath. Tested with sha256sum.

Feature requests: what underlying problem are you trying to solve with this feature?

Using repository_ctx.template as a way to copy file. I do realize that it is an abuse of the API, but there is no repository_ctx.copy.

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

Replace this line with your answer.

What operating system are you running Bazel on?

Linux

What's the output of bazel info release?

release 3.2.0- (@non-git)

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

nixpkgs

Have you found anything relevant by searching the web?

no.

[alandonovan]

As I commented at #11858 (comment), yes, template will indeed not work for binary files. Strings, in the Java implementation of Starlark used by Bazel, are intended to be strings of UTF-16 codes (chars), like strings in Java, and are thus incapable of representing binary files. A copy function seems like a better approach.

So the code is working as in intended, but the documentation is not.

[github-actions]

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[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically closed due to inactivity. If you're still interested in pursuing this, please reach out to the triage team (@bazelbuild/triage). Thanks!