Do not create plugins from dev_dependencies

[jonahwilliams]

Currently the flutter tool creates a plugin for all package dependencies, even though in the dev_dependencies section. We'd like to remove this behavior, since it can lead to plugins used for testing accidentally getting included in released builds. This will be a breaking change, so we can proceed in several steps.

1. Compute both the current and dependencies-only plugin list and use the current strategy. If discrepancies are found, print a warning that this will be disabled in a future release and how to fix.

2. Compute both the current and dependencies-only plugin list and use the dependencies only strategy. If discrepancies are found, print a warning/notification that certain plugins have been disabled and include how to fix.

3. Remove the current strategy, remove the warning.

[dnfield]

I think, ideally, it would be possible to include or not include a plugin based on a build flag or somesuch.

for integration_test (formerly known as e2e), we need some way to include the plugin in builds that need it, and strip it out for builds that do not.

[dnfield]

IOW, it seems like it'd be very nice if the tool could do something like this: if a plugin is in dev_dependencies, ignore it unless building for a test target (do not add it to any generated files for "regular" builds).

We'd need some meaningful way to discriminate between test builds and non.

[dnfield]

/cc @blasten @jmagman who probably know a lot more about how or if this could work on Android and iOS.

[jmagman]

Is this different from #49101 or #45714?

On the iOS side this would be easy to do if .flutter-plugins-dependencies indicated which were dev-only.

[dnfield]

It's very similar, although I guess this one is proposing a specific solution to it that's a bit different from what I'm suggesting.

[blasten]

yeah, that can be added to .flutter-plugins-dependencies.

IOW, it seems like it'd be very nice if the tool could do something like this: if a plugin is in dev_dependencies, ignore it unless building for a test target (do not add it to any generated files for "regular" builds).

That probably requires generating a new plugin registrant based on which target the user is running. In Objective-C you could use compile-time constants passed to Xcode, right @jmagman ?

[dnfield]

When do we re-generate the GeneratedPluginRegistrant code?

[blasten]

pub get, currently

[jmagman]

flutter/packages/flutter_tools/lib/src/plugins.dart

Lines 1172 to 1183 in bb29c88

	if (androidPlatform) {
	await _writeAndroidPluginRegistrant(project, plugins);
	}
	if (iosPlatform) {
	await _writeIOSPluginRegistrant(project, plugins);
	}
	if (linuxPlatform) {
	await _writeLinuxPluginFiles(project, plugins);
	}
	if (macOSPlatform) {
	await _writeMacOSPluginRegistrant(project, plugins);
	}

That probably requires generating a new plugin registrant based on which target the user is running

Why would the native-side app ever need to register dev_dependencies?

[dnfield]

Why would the native-side app ever need to register dev_dependencies?

Because for integration_test, it has to report test results up to the native side test harness - e.g. to XCTest or JUnit.

[jmagman]

Then shouldn't the test target be handling the registration?

[dnfield]

I guess that makes sense, then we would just need to exclude it from the generated plugin registrant

[jmagman]

With the addition of integration_test in every pubspec this opts every app into a dependency on CocoaPods. pod install will always run immediately after a flutter create with no additional plugins added to the app and without any integration_test usage.

[dnfield]

Raising priority on this.

[jmagman]

I filed #74274 separately in case there's an integration_test-specific work-around, like hard-coding its exclusion, that doesn't involve all the plumbing of dev_dependencies.

[blasten]

@jonahwilliams any progress on this issue?

The change below is affected by this issue:

https://github.com/flutter/flutter/pull/84472/files#diff-26e4c3cfa0a0d5f8e7e2d23bc6060691407d635f0f21c4a965fcbeb1e840d5abR50