This Starlark library makes it easy to create new rules that are variants of existing rules with modified Bazel settings, applied to both the rule itself and its (transitive) dependencies via transitions.

Add the following to your MODULE.bazel file, substituting ... with the latest release version:

bazel_dep(name = "with_cfg.bzl", version = "...")

All functionality is provided by the with_cfg function defined in @with_cfg.bzl, which accepts an existing rule (or macro) as an argument and returns a builder for a new rule with modified Bazel settings.

The following example creates an opt_filegroup rule that behaves like a filegroup but builds all its files with --compilation_mode=opt:

# opt_filegroup.bzl
load("@with_cfg.bzl", "with_cfg")

opt_filegroup, _opt_filegroup_internal = with_cfg(native.filegroup).set("compilation_mode", "opt").build()

Since the filegroup rule is used in a .bzl file, not a BUILD file, it has to be qualified with native.. The second return value of build() has to be assigned to a variable, here called _opt_filegroup_internal, due to restrictions on rule definitions enforced by Bazel, but can otherwise be ignored. The opt_filegroup rule can now be used just like filegroup.

See examples/opt_filegroup for the complete example.

with_cfg also supports resetting the modified settings to their original values for specific dependencies or entire attributes, which can help reduce build times by preventing unnecessary rebuilds of dependencies in different configurations.

The following example creates a cc_asan_test rule that behaves like a cc_test, but instruments the test and all its dependencies with AddressSanitizer. It also comes with a "reset" rule cc_asan_test_reset that can be used to disable instrumentation for specific dependencies and also automatically doesn't apply the instrumentation to data dependencies and (generated) source files.

# cc_asan_test.bzl
load("@with_cfg.bzl", "with_cfg")

_builder = with_cfg(native.cc_test)
_builder.extend("copt", ["-fsanitize=address"])
_builder.extend("linkopt", select({
    # link.exe doesn't require or recognize -fsanitize=address and would emit a warning.
    "@rules_cc//cc/compiler:msvc-cl": [],
    "//conditions:default": ["-fsanitize=address"],
}))
_builder.resettable(Label(":cc_asan_test_original_settings"))
_builder.reset_on_attrs("data", "srcs")
cc_asan_test, cc_asan_test_reset = _builder.build()

# BUILD.bazel
load("@with_cfg.bzl", "original_settings")

original_settings(
    name = "cc_asan_test_original_settings",
)

See examples/cc_asan_test_with_reset for the complete example.

The symbols exported from @with_cfg.bzl are documented here.

See examples for more examples.