How to access the package version passed to xrepo install "name version" inside on_config of a rule?

[romeoxbm]

I'm creating an xmake package and need to retrieve the version string specified by the user in this command:

xrepo install "mypkg 1.2.3"

This version should be accessible inside the rule definition, specifically during the on_config phase:

rule("myrule.versioning")
    on_config(function (target)
        -- I need to access "1.2.3" here
    end)

I would need this for the following reasons:

• The version is used to generate header files and platform-specific metadata (.rc on Windows, soname on Unix, etc.).
• I'm using a custom tool that generates a version from Git history (e.g. based on commit count), but this tool fails during xrepo install because only a shallow clone of a single commit is performed.
• Therefore, during regular xmake builds, I use the generated version from Git (using my custom tool to generate it).
• During xrepo install, I need to fall back to the version passed on the command line, like:

xrepo install "mypkg 1.2.3"

and use "1.2.3" instead.

Is there an official way to access the version passed to xrepo install "mypkg 1.2.3" inside the on_config stage of a rule or xmake.lua?
If not, would you happen to have any suggestions?
Any pointers would be hugely appreciated!

[romeoxbm]

Hi again!

Over the past few days, I've continued experimenting and digging deeper into both the Xmake codebase and my setup to better understand the issue.

I believe I've partially answered my question: it seems there's currently no way to directly access the version passed via xrepo install mypkg 1.2.3 during the on_config phase of a rule or xmake.lua.

However, while investigating further, I also realized that the root cause of my issue could be addressed more simply: the problem arises because Git clones performed during xrepo install are shallow (--depth=1). This prevents my custom versioning tool (which depends on commit history) from working correctly.

I noticed that the --depth=1 behavior is hardcoded in several places within the codebase, and there doesn't seem to be a way to override or disable it.

If there were a way to customize the Git clone depth (e.g., pass a different value, or remove --depth entirely), this would likely solve my problem without requiring access to the xrepo version string inside build scripts.

Would it be possible to introduce such an option? Even exposing it as part of add_urls/add_versions, via a configuration setting or via a command line option, would help greatly.

Thanks again for your support and all the work on Xmake — it's a fantastic tool.