pub run can't run a bin script in a transitive dependencies

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/5479?v=3" align="left" width="96" height="96"hspace="10"> Issue by sethladd
Originally opened as dart-lang/sdk#23426

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Testing out pub run's ability to run scripts. It appears that it's unable to run a script in a dependency's dependency.

Setup:

package A
  depends on package B

package B
  depends on dartdoc

I tried running with pub run dartdoc:dartdoc from package A

Output/error:

Package "dartdoc" is not an immediate dependency.
Cannot run executables in transitive dependencies.

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/5479?v=3" align="left" width="48" height="48"hspace="10"> Comment by sethladd

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See also https://codereview.chromium.org/1136503002/

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/46275?v=3" align="left" width="48" height="48"hspace="10"> Comment by munificent

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As the error message indicates, this is deliberate. Packages don't automatically make their transitive dependencies part of their own public API, and that philosophy extends to binaries. If A depends on B, that's an implementation detail of A, and not something that should be exposed to all consumers. That includes any binaries B may contain.

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cc @nex3.
Added AsDesigned label.

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/5479?v=3" align="left" width="48" height="48"hspace="10"> Comment by sethladd

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Thanks for the detailed explanation. We'll wrap the script from the developer-facing dependency.

[DartBot]

<img src="https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/188?v=3" align="left" width="48" height="48"hspace="10"> Comment by nex3

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Keep in mind that if you're exporting the public API of another package, including its executables, your package should have a very narrow constraint on the package you're exporting. For example, if A exports B and the latest version of B is 1.0.0, A should have the constraint ">=1.0.0 <1.1.0" for B. Otherwise, A is unable to guarantee that its API will be stable in the way its versions indicate.