---
layout: documentation
title: Execution groups
---

# Execution groups


Execution groups allow for multiple execution platforms within a single target.
Each execution group has its own [toolchain](toolchains.md) dependencies and
performs its own [toolchain resolution](toolchains.md#toolchain-resolution).

## Current status
To use Starlark rules that create execution groups, set
`--experimental_exec_groups=true` on your command line or in a .bazelrc:

```
$ bazel build //target/with/exec/group --experimental_exec_groups
```

## Background

Execution groups allow the rule author to define sets of actions, each with a
potentially different execution platform. Multiple execution platforms can allow
actions to execution differently, for example compiling an iOS app on a remote
(linux) worker and then linking/code signing on a local mac worker.

Being able to define groups of actions also helps alleviate the usage of action
mnemonics as a proxy for specifying actions. Mnemonics are not guaranteed to be
unique and can only reference a single action. This is especially helpful in
allocating extra resources to specific memory and processing intensive actions
like linking in c++ builds without over-allocating to less demanding tasks.

## Defining execution groups

During rule definition, rule authors can
[declare](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/lib/globals.html#exec_group)
a set of execution groups. On each execution group, the rule author can specify
everything needed to select an execution platform for that execution group,
namely any constraints via `exec_compatible_with` and toolchain types via
`toolchain`.

```python
# foo.bzl
my_rule = rule(
    _impl,
    exec_groups = {
        “link”: exec_group(
            exec_compatible_with = [ "@platforms//os:linux" ]
            toolchains = ["//foo:toolchain_type"],
        ),
        “test”: exec_group(
            toolchains = ["//foo_tools:toolchain_type"],
        ),
    },
    attrs = {
        "_compiler": attr.label(cfg = config.exec("link"))
    },
)
```

In the code snippet above, you can see that tool dependencies can also specify
transition for an exec group using the
[`cfg`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/lib/attr.html#label)
attribute param and the
[`config`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/lib/config.html)
module. The module exposes an `exec` function which takes a single string
parameter which is the name of the exec group for which the dependency should be
built.

## Accessing execution groups

In the rule implementation, you can declare that actions should be run on the
execution platform of an execution group. You can do this by using the `exec_group`
param of action generating methods, specifically [`ctx.actions.run`]
(https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/lib/actions.html#run) and
[`ctx.actions.run_shell`](https://docs.bazel.build/versions/master/skylark/lib/actions.html#run_shell).

```python
# foo.bzl
def _impl(ctx):
  ctx.actions.run(
     inputs = [ctx.attr._some_tool, ctx.srcs[0]]
     exec_group = "compile",
     # ...
  )
```

Rule authors will also be able to access the [resolved toolchains]
(toolchains.md#toolchain-resolution) of execution groups, similarly to how you
can access the resolved toolchain of a target:

```python
# foo.bzl
def _impl(ctx):
  foo_info = ctx.exec_groups["link"].toolchains["//foo:toolchain_type"].fooinfo
  ctx.actions.run(
     inputs = [foo_info, ctx.srcs[0]]
     exec_group = "link",
     # ...
  )
```

Note: If an action uses a toolchain from an execution group, but doesn't specify
that execution group in the action declaration, that may potentially cause
issues. A mismatch like this may not immediately cause failures, but is a latent
problem.

## Using execution groups to set execution properties

Execution groups are integrated with the
[`exec_properties`](be/common-definitions.html#common-attributes)
attribute that exists on every rule and allows the target writer to specify a
string dict of properties that is then passed to the execution machinery. For
example, if you wanted to set some property, say memory, for the target and give
certain actions a higher memory allocation, you would write an `exec_properties`
entry with an execution-group-augmented key, e.g.:

```python
# BUILD
my_rule(
    name = 'my_target',
    exec_properties = {
        'mem': '12g',
        'link.mem': '16g'
    }
    …
)
```

All actions with `exec_group = "link"` would see the exec properties
dictionary as `{"mem": "16g"}`. As you see here, execution-group-level
settings override target-level settings.

### Execution groups for native rules

The following execution groups are available for actions defined by native rules:

* `test`: Test runner actions.
* `cpp_link`: C++ linking actions.

### Creating exec groups to set exec properties

Sometimes you want to use an exec group to give specific actions different exec
properties but don't actually want different toolchains or constraints than the
rule. For these situations, you can create exec groups using the `copy_from_rule`
parameter:

```python
# foo.bzl

# Creating an exec group with `copy_from_rule=True` is the same as explicitly
# setting the exec group's toolchains and constraints to the same values as the
# rule's respective parameters.
my_rule = rule(
    _impl,
    exec_compatible_with = [ "@platforms//os:linux" ],
    toolchains = ["//foo:toolchain_type"],
    exec_groups = {
        # The following two groups have the same toolchains and constraints:
        “foo”: exec_group(copy_from_rule = True),
        "bar": exec_group(
            exec_compatible_with = [ "@platforms//os:linux" ],
            toolchains = ["//foo:toolchain_type"],
        ),
    },
)

#
```

### Execution groups and platform execution properties

It is possible to define `exec_properties` for arbitrary execution groups on
platform targets (unlike `exec_properties` set directly on a target, where
properties for unknown execution groups are rejected). Targets then inherit the
execution platform's `exec_properties` that affect the default execution group
and any other relevant execution groups.

For example, suppose running a C++ test requires some resource to be available,
but it isn't required for compiling and linking; this can be modelled as
follows:

```python
constraint_setting(name = "resource")
constraint_value(name = "has_resource", constraint_setting = ":resource")

platform(
    name = "platform_with_resource",
    constraint_values = [":has_resource"],
    exec_properties = {
        "test.resource": "...",
    },
)

cc_test(
    name = "my_test",
    srcs = ["my_test.cc"],
    exec_compatible_with = [":has_resource"],
)
```

`exec_properties` defined directly on targets take precedence over those that
are inherited from the execution platform.