Update created project with different answer location

[nilsdebruin]

Hi all!

I ran into the following (as a further iteration on another discussion: #714):

I have created a copier template which can be found here:

https://github.com/nilsdebruin/copier-template-report

In this repository, I created a copier.yml with an answer-file settings, like so:

_subdirectory: copier-template
_answers_file: .copier-answers-copier-template-4afc07a0-63f3-4e21-af38-3ccbb3e92ffe.yml

The template has the following structure for the answer file:

copier-template/copier-instances/{{ _copier_conf.answers_file }}.jinja

When I create a new instance of the template with the following command:

copier gh:nilsdebruin/copier-template-report test

a new directory is created with the files from this template and the answer file is stored in:

test/copier-instances/.copier-answers-copier-template-4afc07a0-63f3-4e21-af38-3ccbb3e92ffe.yml

as I would expect.

If I now go to the test folder and run the following command:

copier -a ./copier-instances/.copier-answers-copier-template-4afc07a0-63f3-4e21-af38-3ccbb3e92ffe.yml update

I get the following error message:

FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/folders/3_/ly7vn0c50l9c84dv4p82yfzw0000gn/T/copier.main.update_diff.g8os_1_e/copier-instances/copier-instances/.copier-answers-copier-template-4afc07a0-63f3-4e21-af38-3ccbb3e92ffe.yml'

If I move the answer file to the root of the test folder and run the following command it works:

copier -a .copier-answers-copier-template-4afc07a0-63f3-4e21-af38-3ccbb3e92ffe.yml update

I would like to be able to store the answer files in a sub-directory of the created test folder.

Is this possible and if not, what would be needed to make this possible?

[yajo]

I'd love that to work if it doesn't. This way, we could follow https://dot-config.github.io/ standard. However, if it doesn't work, then somebody has to do it. Would you like to volunteer on that?

If so, just make sure to add test and docs to the PR, so the feature gets stable just like almost any other Copier feature.

[nilsdebruin]

I have now first created a test which indicates what is not working currently, is this a better start to approach the problem?

#927

Let me know!

[nilsdebruin]

During debugging the code, I can see that in the function: def _render_path the path gets extended with an extra part.

This results in a rendered path list of: ['.config', '.config/altered-answers.yml.jinja']

In the end this results in the fact that the path cannot be resolved, as the answers file is looked for in: .config/.config/altered-answers.yml

Where do you think would be the best place to fix this in the code? Thanks in advance and thanks for your time!

[nilsdebruin]

I took a first shot at it, hopefully, it makes sense, the pull request has been updated!

[nilsdebruin]

@yajo thanks for all the effort, great that the changes could be merged! I will mark this discussion as answered!

[yajo]

Thank you for your patience! You did the hard work. 😊