All answers in the same .copier-answers.yml file

[drewoldag]

My apologies if this topic has already been discussed, but I wasn't able to stumble across it in my initial search. But I was curious if there was a strong reason why the .copier-answers.yml file doesn't exist as a digest of answers for all the applied templates?

I understand that the current paradigm is to have a single answers.yml file for each template that has been applied to a project. When it comes to updating a project with a new version of a template, the burden is then on the user to know which answer file to pass to the -a flag in copier update -a <answer-file>.

So the question is, is it conceivable that copier could support multiple template answers in a single .copier-answers.yml file. For instance:

template_a:  # "template_a" is defined by the template, perhaps as a new template setting, `_template_name`?
  _commit: 0c4105a
  _src_path: ./template_aaa/
  project_name: drewtonian

template_b:
  _commit: f566260
  _src_path: ./template_bbb/
  output_path: ./output/

Ideally the end user would be able to run copier update and expect that updates from both templates would be applied. Or alternatively, they could run copier update --template template_b and expect that just updates for template_b would be applied.

And of course, I'm sure there are many subtleties that I'm overlooking, but this seems much more intuitive for the end user of a rendered project. The obvious downside is the potential for name collisions, but that seems like a problem that could be addressed.

[yajo]

You know what? This makes total sense.

Regarding your question about why this is done like it is... well, nobody thought about this other option, honestly. 😆

My guess is that we could get this to be totally backwards-compatible by splitting the answers in yaml sections instead:

_commit: 0c4105a
_src_path: ./template_aaa/
project_name: drewtonian
---
_commit: f566260
_src_path: ./template_bbb/
output_path: ./output/

We could use the src path to select the template. WDYT? cc @copier-org/maintainers

[sisp]

Agreed, this is a fantastic idea, @drewoldag! I'd love to have this feature added to Copier! 🤩

[pawamoy]

Sounds good indeed 🚀

[drewoldag]

I'm glad to hear that this idea isn't completely foolish!