Can main contain globs?

[donaldpipowitch]

I know that main shouldn't be a directory, but can it be a glob to files?

Say instead of

"main": [
  "dist/template1.html",
  "dist/template2.html",
  "dist/app.js"
]

a shorter

"main": [
  "dist/*.html",
  "dist/app.js"
]

?

The question would be what $ bower list --path would return? The glob or the expanded paths? (Maybe it could be configured like $ bower list --path --expand-glob.)

[sheerun]

@donaldpipowitch Main should only include main css and javascript endpoint.

Please don't include templates there.

[donaldpipowitch]

?

No templates? Why that? Any why just CSS and JavaScript? I would like to use Bower for all reusable assets - that shouldn't be to uncommon. Bootstrap includes Fonts as well.

[sheerun]

Main specifies only endpoints, not all files that you want to use with bower.

If you want to use those files, just don't ignore them.

[donaldpipowitch]

So Bootstrap misuses the main property in this case? And every non-ignored file inside a Bower package is declared as a reusable asset by default?

[sheerun]

Yes, I think bootstrap misuses main. They use relative paths in css anyway: https://github.com/twbs/bootstrap/blob/master/dist/css/bootstrap.css#L266

I don't know what you mean by reusable asset, but all assets that are not ignored can be used in build process by grunt, gulp etc.

I wonder what other @bower developers think.

[desandro]

I don't think globs in main are a good pattern, but I can see its utility. It should work with bower list --path.

This is part of a larger discussion around what main really is.

[benschwarz]

I tend to think that any time a collection of paths is acceptable, that a glob should be able to be used.

[danielpetisme]

IMO, it's a bad practice https://github.com/webux/ux-angularjs-datagrid use glob in its bower's main. As consequence, the integration with grunt wiredep doesn't work...

[donaldpipowitch]

I agree with you that it is a bad practice right now, because it isn't officially specified. However, if it would be part of the bower spec it would be no problem to add this feature to wiredep. I wouldn't say its bad per se.

[williamboman]

@donaldpipowitch +1

[blai]

I think on one hand we need to point out the main entries for js/css, on the other hand there's definitely a need to have a list of assets for packaging purpose. It'd be nice for future version of Bower to spec this up. Glob support might be a nice fit for the list of assets.

[DataTables]

I would also be interested in an official line on this in the specification. Globs can be useful for including a bunch of images, although I can also see that not supporting globs might make a developer think a bit more about what is being included.

[cvrebert]

@desandro Could you close this since #43 has been merged?

[desandro]

Closing as "no." But the general issue is still up for discussion. We'll be evaluating a separate data point to list all files used, like files that could contain globs.