@import (once) breaks with indirection

[seriema]

Frankly I'm not sure if this is a bug or a feature, but it's not behaving as I'd expect from reading the docs.

Doc's on import-once:

The default behavior of @import statements. It means the file is imported only once and subsequent import statements for that file will be ignored.

So if I include a file twice, it's included the first time and ignored subsequent times. Ok. But if I include that file indirectly and then directly then it's using the last import and not the first that's used.

I have lessc 2.3.1 (Less Compiler) [JavaScript].

The files

style.less

span:before {
  content: 'stylefile';
}

wrapper.less

@import "style";

Use case 1, where it works

main1.less

@import "style"; // Including the file directly.

span:before {
  content: 'mainfile';
}

@import "style";

main1.css

span:before {
  content: 'stylefile';
}
span:before {
  content: 'mainfile';
}

Use case 2, where it's wrong

main2.less

@import "wrapper";  // Including style.less indirectly.

span:before {
  content: 'mainfile';
}

@import "style";

main2.css

span:before {
  content: 'mainfile';
}
span:before {
  content: 'stylefile';
}

Is this a bug or is there something I've missed? Because now my stuff gets overwritten.

[seven-phases-max]

I suppose this is because of #1617 (comment).

[lukeapage]

as I said there

because imports work as a breadth first tree search, not a depth first tree search.. It doesn't execute them asyncronously, it puts them in the order it finds them (but searching and honouring imports at a lower level, not a deeper level). its always been that way and changing it now would fix this example and break another.

If someone has put the 2nd import in the top level file because the specificity demands it go later then fixing this would mean it is put earlier, not later. So my thoughts are that its less likely to cause a problem with the current technique.

Also IMO if you are importing files multiple times and relying on ordering, you are doing something wrong!

[seriema]

I deleted my previous comment =)

I agree that our LESS is pretty crazy, but I'd expect it to generate unnecessarily large CSS with duplicate selectors and that's completely our own fault. I'm hoping that reference might be a better option for us. Still though, based on the documentation and any use case I can think of I don't see how the current behavior would be expected by anyone.

[patricklx]

also, multiple namespace import wont work anymore. e.g.:
.foo {@import 'special'}
.bar {@import 'special'} <-- not done

[seven-phases-max]

@patricklx

For your example you need to use multiple option and it's been this way since version 1.4.0.

[syuilo]

For your example you need to use multiple option and it's been this way since version 1.4.0.

Great! I solved similar problem. thanks.

[stale]

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