setuptools_scm does not create a version file after 8.0.0 release

[Mogost]

pyproject.toml

[project]
name = "project"
dynamic = ["version"]

[tool.setuptools_scm]
version_file = "project/version.py". # <- before 8.0.0 was write_to
version_scheme = "calver-by-date"

❯ SETUPTOOLS_SCM_DEBUG=1 python -m setuptools_scm
[10/18/23 15:06:37] DEBUG    dist name: project                                                                                            _overrides.py:40
                    DEBUG    check absolute root=. relative_to=/Users/mogost/work/project/pyproject.toml                       _config.py:60
                    DEBUG    file /Users/mogost/work/project/pyproject.toml                                                    _config.py:79
                    DEBUG    version_from_ep setuptools_scm.parse_scm in /Users/mogost/work/project                       _entrypoints.py:52
                    DEBUG    looking for ep setuptools_scm.parse_scm in /Users/mogost/work/project                            discover.py:59
                    DEBUG    found ep EntryPoint(name='.git', value='setuptools_scm.git:parse', group='setuptools_scm.parse_scm') in       discover.py:67
                             /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                                     
                    DEBUG    at .                                                                                                         _run_cmd.py:143
                                 $ git version                                                                                                           
                    DEBUG    out:                                                                                                         _run_cmd.py:163
                                 git version 2.39.3 (Apple Git-145)                                                                                      
                    DEBUG    at /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                   _run_cmd.py:143
                                 $ git --git-dir /Users/mogost/work/project/.git rev-parse --show-prefix                                    
                    DEBUG    real root /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                  git.py:87
                    DEBUG    at /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                   _run_cmd.py:143
                                 $ git --git-dir /Users/mogost/work/project/.git describe --dirty --tags --long --match                     
                             "*[0-9]*"                                                                                                                   
                    DEBUG    out:                                                                                                         _run_cmd.py:163
                                 v23.9.13.1-232-g5a2e09102c-dirty                                                                                        
                    DEBUG    tag v23.9.13.1                                                                                                 version.py:91
                    DEBUG    'v23.9.13.1' re.compile('^(?:[\\w-]+-)?(?P<version>[vV]?\\d+(?:\\.\\d+){0,2}[^\\+]*)(?:\\+.*)?$') <re.Match    version.py:54
                             object; span=(0, 10), match='v23.9.13.1'>                                                                                   
                    DEBUG    key 1 data {'version': 'v23.9.13.1'}, ('v23.9.13.1',), 'v23.9.13.1'                                            version.py:55
                    DEBUG    tag 'v23.9.13.1' parsed to {'version': 'v23.9.13.1', 'prefix': '', 'suffix': ''}                               version.py:64
                    DEBUG    version pre parse v23.9.13.1                                                                                   version.py:99
                    DEBUG    version=<Version('23.9.13.1')>                                                                                version.py:105
                    INFO     version v23.9.13.1 -> 23.9.13.1                                                                               version.py:211
                    DEBUG    at /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                   _run_cmd.py:143
                                 $ git --git-dir /Users/mogost/work/project/.git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD                                
                    DEBUG    out:                                                                                                         _run_cmd.py:163
                                 dependabot/pip/develop/black-d--23.10.0                                                                                 
                    DEBUG    at /Users/mogost/work/project                                                                   _run_cmd.py:143
                                 $ git --git-dir /Users/mogost/work/project/.git -c log.showSignature=false log -n 1 HEAD                   
                             --format=%cI                                                                                                                
                    DEBUG    out:                                                                                                         _run_cmd.py:163
                                 2023-10-18T13:47:20+06:00                                                                                               
                    DEBUG    EntryPoint(name='.git', value='setuptools_scm.git:parse', group='setuptools_scm.parse_scm') found         _entrypoints.py:56
                             <ScmVersion 23.9.13.1 dist=232 node=g5a2e09102c dirty=True                                                                  
                             branch=dependabot/pip/develop/black-d--23.10.0>                                                                             
                    DEBUG    scm version <ScmVersion 23.9.13.1 dist=232 node=g5a2e09102c dirty=True                                        version.py:426
                             branch=dependabot/pip/develop/black-d--23.10.0>                                                                             
                    DEBUG    config Configuration(relative_to='/Users/mogost/work/project/pyproject.toml', root='.',          version.py:427
                             version_scheme='calver-by-date', local_scheme='node-and-date',                                                              
                             tag_regex=re.compile('^(?:[\\w-]+-)?(?P<version>[vV]?\\d+(?:\\.\\d+){0,2}[^\\+]*)(?:\\+.*)?$'),                             
                             parentdir_prefix_version=None, fallback_version=None, fallback_root='.', write_to=None,                                     
                             write_to_template=None, version_file='project/version.py', version_file_template=None, parse=None,                            
                             git_describe_command=None, dist_name='project', version_cls=<class 'packaging.version.Version'>,                              
                             search_parent_directories=False, parent=PosixPath('/Users/mogost/work/project'))                               
                    DEBUG    ep found: calver-by-date                                                                                  _entrypoints.py:71
[10/18/23 15:06:38] DEBUG    version 23.10.18.0.dev232                                                                                     version.py:434
                    DEBUG    ep found: node-and-date                                                                                   _entrypoints.py:71
                    DEBUG    local_version +g5a2e09102c.d20231018                                                                          version.py:439
23.10.18.0.dev232+g5a2e09102c.d20231018

❯ ls -la project/version.py
ls: project/version.py: No such file or directory

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

The cli is no longer accidentally overwriting files

Long term the intent is to put this into a build backend in general

[Mogost]

What should I do to make this file appear?

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

Editable installation or building a wheel make it happen

What's your use case?

[Mogost]

I actually use setuptools_scm not really for setuptools.
I just have a project on Django that is not packaged and before that setuptools_scm worked fine for me and helped versioning. I was getting this file and further, it worked fine for me.
Right now it looks like the best I can get is to redirect the output to a file, which doesn't look like a good solution.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

In that case a opt in flag is needed

[Mogost]

Do I understand correctly that currently there is no such flag in setuptools_scm?

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

correct, the way you use it was never a officially supported way before
that's why removing the writing to version files on command running was considered a bugfix, not a breakage

[Mogost]

Truth be told I was very pleased with how setuptools_scm worked in this way.
Essentially inside setuptools_scm the logic is conveniently described, you can customize the output and the tool is universal rather than exclusively for packaging with setuptools.
and I don't think my use of it was unique.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

i understand the sentiment on the usage, but the behavior you used as a feature was a artifact of having to work around design issues in setuptools

now that we have the use-case known explicitly, a proper command to write a version file can be added

[MHendricks]

I just ran into this issue. I definitely would like to see this added as a cli command/argument. I often find myself wanting to make sure that my version.py file is updated but don't want to spend a long time fully building a wheel, when updating the version info is much faster.

I was using python -m build --version to accomplish this when using setuptools_scm<8. I never actually read the docs for --version, and having read them I understand why this was considered a bug, but definitely would like to see a way to force it to happen.