Choosing what runs

A command line can name several targets. They run in the order they are named, and a dependency they share runs once:

./build.cs lint test --filter Unit pack

Each target takes the arguments up to the next target's name: test gets --filter Unit. A word stays with the target before it when it is the value of an option, as in test --filter pack, or when that target takes positional arguments. Everything after -- stays with the target before it.

The make wrapper starts the script once per target: make test pack runs it twice.

-s / --single-target skips the gates of the named target: its dependencies, or a command's requires.

--skip <target> leaves one target out of the plan, wherever it appears, with the dependencies that only it needed:

./build.cs release --skip docs
./build.cs release --skip "pkg validate",docs
./build.cs release --skip pkg/validate

1. several, separated by commas
2. pkg/validate and pkg:validate work too

--skip takes a target's name, not a value, so it leaves the target out whatever value it would run with. It exits 2 for a name that is not a target, with a suggestion, and for a target the command line names itself.

--graph shows what both leave out: skipped: -s and skipped: --skip.