Clarify --strict flag usage #337
Conversation
| The `-S` or `--strict` flag runs schema validations on dbt objects at runtime. This flag may incur a performance penalty, but it is useful for catching logic errors in development of the dbt project. | ||
| The `-S` or `--strict` flag runs schema validations on dbt python objects at runtime. This flag may incur a performance penalty, but it is useful for catching logic errors in development of the dbt project. | ||
|
|
||
| **N.B.** In versions >=0.15.0, dbt uses [hologram](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/hologram) and [mypy](http://mypy-lang.org/) for object type declaration, validation, and testing. The `--strict` flag has no functional use except as an alias for `--warn-error`. We may choose to someday repurpose it. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I think if it truly is functionally the same as --warn-error we should use that as the entire description, ya know?
The
-Sor--strictflag is equivalent to the--warn-errorflag. We may choose to someday repurpose it.
| The `-S` or `--strict` flag runs schema validations on dbt objects at runtime. This flag may incur a performance penalty, but it is useful for catching logic errors in development of the dbt project. | ||
| The `-S` or `--strict` flag runs schema validations on dbt python objects at runtime. This flag may incur a performance penalty, but it is useful for catching logic errors in development of the dbt project. | ||
|
|
||
| **N.B.** In versions >=0.15.0, dbt uses [hologram](https://github.com/fishtown-analytics/hologram) and [mypy](http://mypy-lang.org/) for object type declaration, validation, and testing. The `--strict` flag has no functional use except as an alias for `--warn-error`. We may choose to someday repurpose it. |
There was a problem hiding this comment.
There are a couple things strict does:
- we do an extra
validatecall in some paths when you set--strict. This can be really slow as it requires serializing the object to json to validate it. - Connections type checks
- some internal consistency checks during compilation
There's still no reason users should use --strict over --warn-error. We should rename the flags so --strict is just an alias for --warn-error and --strict becomes --strict-development-checks or something similarly verbose and obnoxious. You should only run it automatically via integration tests anyway.
|
Thanks for the comments, both! @beckjake I think that re-aliasing makes sense. For now, I made this a bit more concise, with the basic message of "don't use this." |
REPO SYNC - Public to Private
Description & motivation
I've seen this question crop up a few times in dbt Slack. Based on the current language in the docs, it sounds like
--strictdoes strict field validation (dbt-labs/dbt-core#1570), rather than what it really does, which is nothing special since v0.15.0.Let me know if I'm missing a technical piece of this.
Pre-release docs
Is this change related to an unreleased version of dbt?