Command-Line Reference

bazel [<startup options>] <command> [<args>]

bazel [<startup options>] <command> [<args>] -- [<target patterns>]

Option Syntax

Options can be passed to Bazel in different ways. Options that require a value can be passed with either an equals sign or a space:

--<option>=<value>
--<option> <value>

Some options have a single character short form; in that case, the short form has to be passed with a single dash and a space.

-<short_form> <value>

Boolean options can be enabled as follows:

--<option>
--<option>=[true|yes|1]

and disabled as follows:

--no<option>
--<option>=[false|no|0]

Tristate options are usually set to automatic by default, and can be force-enabled as follows:

--<option>=[true|yes|1]

or force-disabled as follows:

--no<option>
--<option>=[false|no|0]

Target Pattern Syntax

A target pattern refers to a single or more targets, which are source files, output files, or rules specified in BUILD files. In addition to plain labels, Bazel also supports working-directory-relative labels, recursive patterns, and target subtraction.

All target patterns starting with '//' are resolved relative to the current workspace.

`//foo/bar:wiz`	Just the single target '//foo/bar:wiz'.
`//foo/bar`	Equivalent to '//foo/bar:bar'.
`//foo/bar:all`	All rules in the package 'foo/bar'.
`//foo/...`	All rules in all packages beneath the directory 'foo'.
`//foo/...:all`	All rules in all packages beneath the directory 'foo'.
`//foo/...:*`	All targets (rules and files) in all packages beneath the directory 'foo'.
`//foo/...:all-targets`	All targets (rules and files) in all packages beneath the directory 'foo'.

Targets with tags=["manual"] are not included in wildcard target patterns (..., :*, :all, etc). Specify such test targets with explicit labels on the command line if you want Bazel to build/test them.

Target patterns which do not begin with '//' are resolved relative to the current working directory. These examples assume a working directory of 'foo':

`:foo`	Equivalent to '//foo:foo'.
`bar:wiz`	Equivalent to '//foo/bar:wiz'.
`bar/wiz`	Equivalent to: '//foo/bar/wiz:wiz' if foo/bar/wiz is a package, '//foo/bar:wiz' if foo/bar is a package, '//foo:bar/wiz' otherwise.
`bar:all`	Equivalent to '//foo/bar:all'.
`:all`	Equivalent to '//foo:all'.
`...:all`	Equivalent to '//foo/...:all'.
`...`	Equivalent to '//foo/...:all'.
`bar/...:all`	Equivalent to '//foo/bar/...:all'.

By default, directory symlinks are followed for recursive target patterns, except those that point to under the output base, such as the convenience symlinks that are created in the root directory of the workspace.

In addition, Bazel does not follow symlinks when evaluating recursive target patterns in any directory that contains a file named as follows:

DONT_FOLLOW_SYMLINKS_WHEN_TRAVERSING_THIS_DIRECTORY_VIA_A_RECURSIVE_TARGET_PATTERN

Target patterns may be preceded by a single dash ('-'), in which case Bazel subtracts them from the set of targets accumulated by preceding patterns. Note that this means order matters. In order to pass negative target patterns, you need to use '--' as an argument to prevent Bazel from interpreting it as an option, e.g.:

bazel build -- foo/... -foo/contrib/...

Note that Bazel may still build targets matched by a negative target pattern due to dependencies, and may also load the corresponding BUILD files, even if the targets are never built.

Commands

`analyze-profile`	Analyzes build profile data.
`aquery`	Analyzes the given targets and queries the action graph.
`build`	Builds the specified targets.
`canonicalize-flags`	Canonicalizes a list of bazel options.
`clean`	Removes output files and optionally stops the server.
`coverage`	Generates code coverage report for specified test targets.
`cquery`	Loads, analyzes, and queries the specified targets w/ configurations.
`dump`	Dumps the internal state of the bazel server process.
`fetch`	Fetches external repositories that are prerequisites to the targets.
`help`	Prints help for commands, or the index.
`info`	Displays runtime info about the bazel server.
`license`	Prints the license of this software.
`mobile-install`	Installs targets to mobile devices.
`print_action`	Prints the command line args for compiling a file.
`query`	Executes a dependency graph query.
`run`	Runs the specified target.
`shutdown`	Stops the bazel server.
`sync`	Syncs all repositories specifed in the workspace file
`test`	Builds and runs the specified test targets.
`version`	Prints version information for bazel.

Startup Options

--[no]batch default: "false": If set, Bazel will be run as just a client process without a server, instead of in the standard client/server mode. This is deprecated and will be removed, please prefer shutting down the server explicitly if you wish to avoid lingering servers.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, bazel_internal_configuration, deprecated
--[no]batch_cpu_scheduling default: "false": Only on Linux; use 'batch' CPU scheduling for Bazel. This policy is useful for workloads that are non-interactive, but do not want to lower their nice value. See 'man 2 sched_setscheduler'. If false, then Bazel does not perform a system call.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--bazelrc=<path> default: see description: The location of the user .bazelrc file containing default values of Bazel options. If unspecified, Bazel uses the first .bazelrc file it finds in the following two locations: the workspace directory, then the user's home directory. Use /dev/null to disable the search for a user rc file, e.g. in release builds.
Tags: changes_inputs
--[no]block_for_lock default: "true": When --noblock_for_lock is passed, Bazel does not wait for a running command to complete, but instead exits immediately.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit
--[no]client_debug default: "false": If true, log debug information from the client to stderr. Changing this option will not cause the server to restart.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--connect_timeout_secs=<an integer> default: "30": The amount of time the client waits for each attempt to connect to the server
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]deep_execroot default: "true": If set, the execution root will be under $OUTPUT_BASE/execroot instead of $OUTPUT_BASE.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, execution
--[no]expand_configs_in_place default: "true": Changed the expansion of --config flags to be done in-place, as opposed to in a fixed point expansion between normal rc options and command-line specified options.
Tags: no_op, deprecated
--[no]experimental_oom_more_eagerly default: "false": If set, attempt to detect Java heap OOM conditions and exit before thrashing. Only honored when --batch is also passed. In some cases, builds that previously succeeded may OOM if they were close to OOMing before. Deprecated: Use the command argument --experimental_oom_more_eagerly_threshold instead.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, eagerness_to_exit
--experimental_oom_more_eagerly_threshold=<an integer> default: "100": If this flag is set, Bazel will OOM if, after two full GC's, more than this percentage of the (old gen) heap is still occupied. Deprecated: Use the command argument --experimental_oom_more_eagerly_threshold instead.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, eagerness_to_exit
--[no]idle_server_tasks default: "true": Run System.gc() when the server is idle
Tags: loses_incremental_state, host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]ignore_all_rc_files default: "false": Disables all rc files, regardless of the values of other rc-modifying flags, even if these flags come later in the list of startup options.
Tags: changes_inputs
--io_nice_level={-1,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7} default: "-1": Only on Linux; set a level from 0-7 for best-effort IO scheduling using the sys_ioprio_set system call. 0 is highest priority, 7 is lowest. The anticipatory scheduler may only honor up to priority 4. If set to a negative value, then Bazel does not perform a system call.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]master_bazelrc default: "true": If this option is false, the master bazelrcs are not read. Otherwise, Bazel looks for master rcs in three locations, reading them all, in order: $workspace/tools/bazel.rc, a .bazelrc file near the bazel binary, and the global rc, /etc/bazel.bazelrc.
Tags: changes_inputs
--max_idle_secs=<integer> default: "10800": The number of seconds the build server will wait idling before shutting down. Zero means that the server will never shutdown.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loses_incremental_state
--output_base=<path> default: see description: If set, specifies the output location to which all build output will be written. Otherwise, the location will be ${OUTPUT_ROOT}/_bazel_${USER} /${MD5_OF_WORKSPACE_ROOT}. Note: If you specify a different option from one to the next Bazel invocation for this value, you'll likely start up a new, additional Bazel server. Bazel starts exactly one server per specified output base. Typically there is one output base per workspace - however, with this option you may have multiple output bases per workspace and thereby run multiple builds for the same client on the same machine concurrently. See ' bazel help shutdown' on how to shutdown a Bazel server.
Tags: affects_outputs, loses_incremental_state
--output_user_root=<path> default: see description: The user-specific directory beneath which all build outputs are written; by default, this is a function of $USER, but by specifying a constant, build outputs can be shared between collaborating users.
Tags: affects_outputs, loses_incremental_state
--server_jvm_out=<path> default: see description: The location to write the server's JVM's output. If unset then defaults to a location in output_base.
Tags: affects_outputs, loses_incremental_state
--[no]watchfs default: "false": If true, bazel tries to use the operating system's file watch service for local changes instead of scanning every file for a change.
Tags: deprecated

--host_jvm_args=<jvm_arg> multiple uses are accumulated: Flags to pass to the JVM executing Bazel.
--host_jvm_debug: Convenience option to add some additional JVM startup flags, which cause the JVM to wait during startup until you connect from a JDWP-compliant debugger (like Eclipse) to port 5005.
Expands to:
--host_jvm_args=-Xdebug
--host_jvm_args=-Xrunjdwp:transport=dt_socket,server=y,address=5005
--host_jvm_profile=<profiler_name> default: "": Convenience option to add some profiler/debugger-specific JVM startup flags. Bazel has a list of known values that it maps to hard-coded JVM startup flags, possibly searching some hardcoded paths for certain files.
--server_javabase=<jvm path> default: "": Path to the JVM used to execute Bazel itself.

Options Common to all Commands

--experimental_oom_more_eagerly_threshold=<an integer> default: "100": If this flag is set to a value less than 100, Bazel will OOM if, after two full GC's, more than this percentage of the (old gen) heap is still occupied.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations

--[no]incompatible_bzl_disallow_load_after_statement default: "false": If set to true, all `load` must be called at the top of .bzl files, before any other statement.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_depset_is_not_iterable default: "false": If set to true, depset type is not iterable. For loops and functions expecting an iterable will reject depset objects. Use the `.to_list` method to explicitly convert to a list.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_depset_union default: "false": If set to true, depset union using `+`, `|` or `.union` are forbidden. Use the `depset` constructor instead.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disable_deprecated_attr_params default: "false": If set to true, disable the deprecated parameters 'single_file' and 'non_empty' on skylark attribute definition methods, such as attr. label().
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disable_objc_provider_resources default: "false": If set to true, disallow use of deprecated resource fields on the Objc provider.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_conflicting_providers default: "false": If set to true, disallow rule implementation functions from returning multiple instances of the same type of provider. (If false, only the last in the list will be used.)
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_data_transition default: "false": If set to true, rule attributes cannot set 'cfg = "data"', which is a noop.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_dict_plus default: "false": If set to true, the `+` becomes disabled for dicts.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_filetype default: "false": If set to true, function `FileType` is not available.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_legacy_javainfo default: "false": If set to true, old-style JavaInfo provider construction is disallowed.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_old_style_args_add default: "false": If set to true, vectorized calls to Args#add are disallowed.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_disallow_slash_operator default: "false": If set to true, the `/` operator is disabled. Use `//` for integer division.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_generate_javacommon_source_jar default: "false": If set to true, java_common.compile will always generate an output source jar.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_new_actions_api default: "false": If set to true, the API to create actions is only available on `ctx.actions`, not on `ctx`.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_no_support_tools_in_action_inputs default: "false": If set to true, tools should be passed to `ctx.actions.run()` and `ctx.actions. run_shell()` using the `tools` parameter instead of the `inputs` parameter. Furthermore, if this flag is set and a `tools` parameter is not passed to the action, it is an error for any tools to appear in the `inputs`.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_package_name_is_a_function default: "false": If set to true, the values PACKAGE_NAME and REPOSITORY_NAME are not available. Use the package_name() or repository_name() functions instead.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_range_type default: "false": If set to true, range() will use the 'range' type instead of ' list'.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_remove_native_git_repository default: "false": If set to true, the native git_repository rules are disabled; only the skylark version will be available
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_remove_native_http_archive default: "false": If set to true, the native http_archive rules are disabled; only the skylark version will be available
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]incompatible_string_is_not_iterable default: "false": If set to true, iterating over a string will throw an error. String indexing and `len` are still allowed.
Tags: build_file_semantics, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes

--[no]keep_state_after_build default: "true": If false, Bazel will discard the inmemory state from this build when the build finishes. Subsequent builds will not have any incrementality with respect to this one.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]track_incremental_state default: "true": If false, Bazel will not persist data that allows for invalidation and re- evaluation on incremental builds in order to save memory on this build. Subsequent builds will not have any incrementality with respect to this one. Usually you will want to specify --batch when setting this to false.
Tags: loses_incremental_state

--[no]announce_rc default: "false": Whether to announce rc options.
Tags: affects_outputs
--bes_backend=<a string> default: "": Specifies the build event service (BES) backend endpoint as HOST or HOST:PORT. Disabled by default.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]bes_best_effort default: "false": BES best effort upload has been removed. The flag has no more functionality attached to it and will be removed in a future release.
Tags: affects_outputs
--bes_keywords=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies a list of notification keywords to be added the default set of keywords published to BES ("command_name=<command_name> ", "protocol_name=BEP"). Defaults to none.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]bes_lifecycle_events default: "true": Specifies whether to publish BES lifecycle events. (defaults to 'true').
Tags: affects_outputs
--bes_outerr_buffer_size=<a long integer> default: "10240": Specifies the maximal size of stdout or stderr to be buffered in BEP, before it is reported as a progress event. Individual writes are still reported in a single event, even if larger than the specified value.
Tags: affects_outputs
--bes_results_url=<a string> default: "": Specifies the base URL where a user can view the information streamed to the BES backend. Bazel will output the URL appended by the invocation id to the terminal.
Tags: terminal_output
--bes_timeout=<An immutable length of time.> default: "0s": Specifies how long bazel should wait for the BES/BEP upload to complete after the build and tests have finished. A valid timeout is a natural number followed by a unit: Days (d), hours (h), minutes (m), seconds (s), and milliseconds (ms). The default value is '0' which means that there is no timeout and that the upload will continue in the background after a build has finished.
Tags: affects_outputs
--build_event_binary_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a varint delimited binary representation of representation of the build event protocol to that file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_event_binary_file_path_conversion default: "true": Convert paths in the binary file representation of the build event protocol to more globally valid URIs whenever possible; if disabled, the file:// uri scheme will always be used
Tags: affects_outputs
--build_event_json_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a JSON serialisation of the build event protocol to that file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--build_event_max_named_set_of_file_entries=<an integer> default: "-1": The maximum number of entries for a single named_set_of_files event; values smaller than 2 are ignored and no event splitting is performed. This is intended for limiting the maximum event size in the build event protocol, although it does not directly control event size. The total event size is a function of the structure of the set as well as the file and uri lengths, which may in turn depend on the hash function.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_event_publish_all_actions default: "false": Whether all actions should be published.
Tags: affects_outputs
--build_event_text_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a textual representation of the build event protocol to that file
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_event_text_file_path_conversion default: "true": Convert paths in the text file representation of the build event protocol to more globally valid URIs whenever possible; if disabled, the file:// uri scheme will always be used
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]experimental_build_event_json_file_path_conversion default: "true": Convert paths in the json file representation of the build event protocol to more globally valid URIs whenever possible; if disabled, the file:// uri scheme will always be used
Tags: affects_outputs
--experimental_build_event_upload_strategy=<a string> default: see description: Selects how to upload artifacts referenced in the build event protocol.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]experimental_generate_json_trace_profile default: "false": If enabled, Bazel profiles the build and writes a JSON-format profile into a file in the output base.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--[no]experimental_json_trace_compression default: "false": If enabled, Bazel compresses the JSON-format profile with gzip.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--[no]experimental_post_profile_started_event default: "false": If set, Bazel will post the ProfilerStartedEvent including the path to the profile.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--[no]experimental_profile_cpu_usage default: "false": If set, Bazel will measure cpu usage and add it to the JSON profile.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--experimental_workspace_rules_logging=<a string> default: see description: Log certain Workspace Rules events
--[no]legacy_important_outputs default: "true": Use this to suppress generation of the legacy important_outputs field in the TargetComplete event.
Tags: affects_outputs
--logging=<0 <= an integer <= 6> default: "3": The logging level.
Tags: affects_outputs
--memory_profile_stable_heap_parameters=<two integers, separated by a comma> default: "1,0": Tune memory profile's computation of stable heap at end of build. Should be two integers separated by a comma. First parameter is the number of GCs to perform. Second parameter is the number of seconds to wait between GCs.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--profile=<a path> default: see description: If set, profile Bazel and write data to the specified file. Use bazel analyze- profile to analyze the profile.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring
--project_id=<a string> default: see description: Specifies the BES project identifier. Defaults to null.
Tags: affects_outputs
--tool_tag=<a string> default: "": A tool name to attribute this Bazel invocation to.
Tags: affects_outputs, bazel_monitoring

--all_incompatible_changes: Enables all options of the form --incompatible_*. Use this option to find places where your build may break in the future due to deprecations or other changes.
Expands to:
  --incompatible_bzl_disallow_load_after_statement
  --incompatible_depset_is_not_iterable
  --incompatible_depset_union
  --incompatible_disable_deprecated_attr_params
  --incompatible_disable_objc_provider_resources
  --incompatible_disallow_conflicting_providers
  --incompatible_disallow_data_transition
  --incompatible_disallow_dict_plus
  --incompatible_disallow_filetype
  --incompatible_disallow_legacy_javainfo
  --incompatible_disallow_old_style_args_add
  --incompatible_disallow_slash_operator
  --incompatible_generate_javacommon_source_jar
  --incompatible_new_actions_api
  --incompatible_no_support_tools_in_action_inputs
  --incompatible_package_name_is_a_function
  --incompatible_range_type
  --incompatible_remove_native_git_repository
  --incompatible_remove_native_http_archive
  --incompatible_string_is_not_iterable

Tags: incompatible_change
--color=<yes, no or auto> default: "auto": Use terminal controls to colorize output.
--config=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Selects additional config sections from the rc files; for every < command>, it also pulls in the options from <command>:<config> if such a section exists; if the section does not exist, this flag is ignored. Note that it is currently only possible to provide these options on the command line, not in the rc files. The config sections and flag combinations they are equivalent to are located in the tools/*.bazelrc config files.
--curses=<yes, no or auto> default: "auto": Use terminal cursor controls to minimize scrolling output
--[no]experimental_external_repositories default: "false": Use external repositories for improved stability and speed when available.
--[no]experimental_multi_threaded_digest default: "false": Whether to always compute MD5 digests of files with multiple threads. Might improve performance when using an SSD.
--[no]experimental_ui default: "true": Switches to an alternative progress bar that more explicitly shows progress, such as loaded packages and executed actions.
--experimental_ui_actions_shown=<an integer> default: "8": Number of concurrent actions shown in the alternative progress bar; each action is shown on a separate line. The alternative progress bar always shows at least one one, all numbers less than 1 are mapped to 1. This option has no effect unless --experimental_ui is set.
--experimental_ui_limit_console_output=<an integer> default: "0": Number of bytes to which the experimental UI will limit its output (non- positive values indicate unlimited). Once the limit is approaching, the experimental UI will try hard to limit in a meaningful way, but will ultimately just drop all output.
--[no]force_experimental_external_repositories default: "false": Forces --experimental_external_repositories.
--google_auth_scopes=<comma-separated list of options> default: "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform": A comma-separated list of Google Cloud authentication scopes.
--google_credentials=<a string> default: see description: Specifies the file to get authentication credentials from. See https://cloud. google.com/docs/authentication for details.
--[no]google_default_credentials default: "false": Whether to use 'Google Application Default Credentials' for authentication. See https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication for details. Disabled by default.
--[no]progress_in_terminal_title default: "false": Show the command progress in the terminal title. Useful to see what bazel is doing when having multiple terminal tabs.
--[no]show_progress default: "true": Display progress messages during a build.
--show_progress_rate_limit=<a double> default: "0.2": Minimum number of seconds between progress messages in the output.
--[no]show_task_finish default: "false": Display progress messages when tasks complete, not just when they start.
--[no]show_timestamps default: "false": Include timestamps in messages
--tls_certificate=<a string> default: see description: Specify the TLS client certificate to use.
--[no]tls_enabled default: "false": Specifies whether to use TLS for remote execution/caching and the build event service (BES).
--[no]watchfs default: "false": If true, bazel tries to use the operating system's file watch service for local changes instead of scanning every file for a change.

Analyze-profile Options

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--[no]chart default: "true": If --nochart is present, do not include the task chart with --html_details. The default is --chart.
Tags: affects_outputs
--combine=<a string> default: see description: If present, the statistics of all given profile files will be combined and output in text/--html format to the file named in the argument. Does not output HTML task charts.
Tags: affects_outputs
--dump=<text, raw, text-unsorted or raw-unsorted> [-d] default: see description: output full profile data dump either in human-readable 'text' format or script-friendly 'raw' format, either sorted or unsorted.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]html default: "false": If present, an HTML file visualizing the tasks of the profiled build is created. The name of the html file is the name of the profile file plus '. html'.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]html_details default: "false": If --html_details is present, the task diagram contains all tasks of the profile and performance statistics on user-defined and built-in Skylark functions. If --nohtml_details is present, an aggregated diagram is generated. The default is to generate an aggregated diagram.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]html_histograms default: "false": If --html_histograms and --html_details is present, the HTML output will display histograms for Skylark functions clicked in the statistics table. This will increase file size massively.
Tags: affects_outputs
--html_pixels_per_second=<an integer> default: "50": Defines the scale of the time axis of the task diagram. The unit is pixels per second. Default is 50 pixels per second.
Tags: affects_outputs
--task_tree=<a valid Java regular expression> default: see description: Print the tree of profiler tasks from all tasks matching the given regular expression.
Tags: affects_outputs
--task_tree_threshold=<a long integer> default: "50": When printing a task tree, will skip tasks with a duration that is less than the given threshold in milliseconds.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]vfs_stats default: "false": If present, include VFS path statistics.
Tags: affects_outputs
--vfs_stats_limit=<an integer> default: "-1": Maximum number of VFS path statistics to print.
Tags: affects_outputs

Aquery Options

Inherits all options from build.

--aspect_deps=<off, conservative or precise> default: "conservative": How to resolve aspect dependencies when the output format is one of {xml,proto, record}. 'off' means no aspect dependencies are resolved, ' conservative' (the default) means all declared aspect dependencies are added regardless of whether they are given the rule class of direct dependencies, 'precise' means that only those aspects are added that are possibly active given the rule class of the direct dependencies. Note that precise mode requires loading other packages to evaluate a single target thus making it slower than the other modes. Also note that even precise mode is not completely precise: the decision whether to compute an aspect is decided in the analysis phase, which is not run during 'bazel query'.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]host_deps default: "true": Query: If disabled, dependencies on 'host configuration' targets will not be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. A ' host configuration' dependency edge, such as the one from any ' proto_library' rule to the Protocol Compiler, usually points to a tool executed during the build (on the host machine) rather than a part of the same 'target' program. Cquery: If disabled, filters out all configured targets which cross a host transition from the top-level target that discovered this configured target. That means if the top-level target is in the target configuration, only configured targets also in the target configuration will be returned. If the top-level target is in the host configuration, only host configured targets will be returned.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]implicit_deps default: "true": If enabled, implicit dependencies will be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. An implicit dependency is one that is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file but added by bazel.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--output=<a string> default: "proto": The format in which the aquery results should be printed.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:default_values default: "true": If true, attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are included; otherwise they are omitted. This option is applicable to -- output=proto
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:flatten_selects default: "true": If enabled, configurable attributes created by select() are flattened. For list types the flattened representation is a list containing each value of the select map exactly once. Scalar types are flattened to null.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--proto:output_rule_attrs=<comma-separated list of options> default: "all": Comma separated list of attributes to include in output. Defaults to all attributes. Set to empty string to not output any attribute. This option is applicable to --output=proto.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]relative_locations default: "false": If true, the location of BUILD files in xml and proto outputs will be relative. By default, the location output is an absolute path and will not be consistent across machines. You can set this option to true to have a consistent result across machines.
Tags: terminal_output
--universe_scope=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": A comma-separated set of target patterns (additive and subtractive). The query may be performed in the universe defined by the transitive closure of the specified targets. This option is used for the query and cquery commands. For cquery, the input to this option is the targets all answers are built under and so this option may affect configurations and transitions. If this option is not specified, the top-level targets are assumed to be the targets parsed from the query expression. Note: For cquery, not specifying this option may cause the build to break if targets parsed from the query expression are not buildable with top-level options.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

--[no]experimental_strict_fileset_output default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets will treat all output artifacts as regular files. They will not traverse directories or be sensitive to symlinks.
Tags: execution

--android_aapt=<aapt, aapt2 or auto> default: "aapt": Selects the version of androidAaptVersion to use for android_binary rules.Flag to help the test and transition to aapt2.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_compiler=<a string> default: see description: The Android target compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "//external:android/crosstool": The location of the C++ compiler used for Android builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: The Android target grte_top.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_manifest_merger=<legacy or android> default: "android": Selects the manifest merger to use for android_binary rules. Flag to help thetransition to the Android manifest merger from the legacy merger.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_sdk=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/android:sdk": Specifies Android SDK/platform that is used to build Android applications.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--apple_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used in Apple and Objc rules and their dependencies.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, changes_inputs
--apple_sdk=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of target that will provide the appropriate Apple SDK for the current build configuration.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_output_directory_tag=<a string> default: "": Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compiler=<a string> default: see description: The C++ compiler to use for compiling the target.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution
--coverage_report_generator=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_report_generator": Location of the binary that is used to generate coverage reports. This must currently be a filegroup that contains a single file, the binary. Defaults to '//tools/test:coverage_report_generator'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--coverage_support=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_support": Location of support files that are required on the inputs of every test action that collects code coverage. Defaults to '//tools/test: coverage_support'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used for compiling C++ code.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--custom_malloc=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies a custom malloc implementation. This setting overrides malloc attributes in build rules.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--enabled_toolchain_types=<a build target label> default: "": Enable toolchain resolution for the given toolchain type, if the rules used support that. This does not directly change the core Bazel machinery, but is a signal to participating rule implementations that toolchain resolution should be used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_disable_compilation_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from compilation_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_compilation_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing compilation flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_linking_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing linking flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_crosstool_fields default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from legacy crosstool fields (see #5187.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_linking_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from linking_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_cc_toolchain_config_info default: "false": If true, Bazel will allow creating a CcToolchainConfigInfo.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_objc_cc_deps default: "true": Allows objc_* rules to depend on cc_library and causes any objc dependencies to be built with --cpu set to "ios_<--ios_cpu>" for any values in --ios_multi_cpu.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change
--experimental_stl=<a build target label> default: see description: If set, use this label instead of the default STL implementation. This option is EXPERIMENTAL and may go away in a future release.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines, experimental
--extra_execution_platforms=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The platforms that are available as execution platforms to run actions. Platforms can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These platforms will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_execution_platforms().
Tags: execution
--extra_toolchains=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The toolchain rules to be considered during toolchain resolution. Toolchains can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These toolchains will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_toolchains().
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--grte_top=<a label> default: see description: A label to a checked-in libc library. The default value is selected by the crosstool toolchain, and you almost never need to override it.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: see description: By default, the --crosstool_top and --compiler options are also used for the host configuration. If this flag is provided, Bazel uses the default libc and compiler for the given crosstool_top.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: If specified, this setting overrides the libc top-level directory (--grte_top) for the host configuration.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_platform=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:host_platform": The label of a platform rule that describes the host system.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]incompatible_strict_objc_module_maps default: "false": Propagates Objective-C module maps only to direct dependencies in the ' objc' provider, not to all transitive dependencies.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]interface_shared_objects default: "true": Use interface shared objects if supported by the toolchain. All ELF toolchains currently support this setting.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, affects_outputs
--ios_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the iOS SDK to use to build iOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--macos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the macOS SDK to use to build macOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--minimum_os_version=<a string> default: see description: The minimum OS version which your compilation targets.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--objc_header_scanner_tool=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/objc:header_scanner": Location of tool to scan Objective-C code for inclusions and output a . headers_list file.
Tags: changes_inputs
--platforms=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:target_platform": The labels of the platform rules describing the target platforms for the current command.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--python2_path=<a string> default: "python": Local path to the Python2 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python3_path=<An option for python3 path> default: "auto": Local path to the Python3 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python_path=<a string> default: "python": The absolute path of the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--python_top=<a build target label> default: see description: The label of py_runtime rule used for the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--tvos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the tvOS SDK to use to build tvOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the watchOS SDK to use to build watchOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version=<a string> default: see description: If specified, uses Xcode of the given version for relevant build actions. If unspecified, uses the executor default version of Xcode.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version_config=<a build target label> default: "@local_config_xcode//:host_xcodes": The label of the xcode_config rule to be used for selecting the Xcode version in the build configuration.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis

--[no]apple_enable_auto_dsym_dbg default: "false": Whether to force enable generating debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s) for dbg builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]apple_generate_dsym default: "false": Whether to generate debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s).
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]build_runfile_links default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for all targets. If false, write only manifests when possible.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_runfile_manifests default: "true": If true, write runfiles manifests for all targets. If false, omit them.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_test_dwp default: "false": If enabled, when building C++ tests statically and with fission the .dwp file for the test binary will be automatically built as well.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--cc_proto_library_header_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.h": Sets the prefixes of header files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_proto_library_source_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.cc": Sets the prefixes of source files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]enable_apple_binary_native_protos default: "true": If set, apple_binary will generate and link objc protos into the output binary.
Tags: affects_outputs, incompatible_change
--[no]experimental_objc_enable_module_maps default: "false": Enables module map generation and interpretation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_proto_extra_actions default: "false": Run extra actions for alternative Java api versions in a proto_library.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fission=<a set of compilation modes> default: "no": Specifies which compilation modes use fission for C++ compilations and links. May be any combination of {'fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'} or the special values 'yes' to enable all modes and 'no' to disable all modes.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]legacy_external_runfiles default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for external repositories under . runfiles/wsname/external/repo (in addition to .runfiles/repo).
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]objc_generate_linkmap default: "false": Specifies whether to generate a linkmap file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]output_symbol_counts default: "false": If enabled, for every C++ binary linked with gold, the number of defined symbols and the number of used symbols per input file is stored in a .sc file.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]save_temps default: "false": If set, temporary outputs from gcc will be saved. These include .s files (assembler code), .i files (preprocessed C) and .ii files (preprocessed C++).
Tags: affects_outputs

--action_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies the set of environment variables available to actions. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case the value will be taken from the invocation environment, or by the name=value pair which sets the value independent of the invocation environment. This option can be used multiple times; for options given for the same variable, the latest wins, options for different variables accumulate.
Tags: action_command_lines
--android_cpu=<a string> default: "armeabi-v7a": The Android target CPU.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "off": Determines whether C++ deps of Android rules will be linked dynamically when a cc_binary does not explicitly create a shared library. 'default' means bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--apple_bitcode=<none, embedded_markers or embedded> default: "none": Specify the Apple bitcode mode for compile steps. Values: 'none', ' embedded_markers', 'embedded'.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]build_python_zip default: "auto": Build python executable zip; on on Windows, off on other platforms
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]collect_code_coverage default: "false": If specified, Bazel will instrument code (using offline instrumentation where possible) and will collect coverage information during tests. Only targets that match --instrumentation_filter will be affected. Usually this option should not be specified directly - 'bazel coverage' command should be used instead.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> [-c] default: "fastbuild": Specify the mode the binary will be built in. Values: 'fastbuild', ' dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--cpu=<a string> default: "": The target CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C++ source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--define=<a 'name=value' assignment> multiple uses are accumulated: Each --define option specifies an assignment for a build variable.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "default": Determines whether C++ binaries will be linked dynamically. 'default' means Bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]enable_fdo_profile_absolute_path default: "true": If set, use of fdo_absolute_profile_path will raise an error.
Tags: affects_outputs
--experimental_action_listener=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Use action_listener to attach an extra_action to existing build actions.
Tags: execution, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_compress_java_resources default: "false": Compress Java resources in APKs
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_databinding_v2 default: "false": Use android databinding v2
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_rewrite_dexes_with_rex default: "false": use rex tool to rewrite dex files
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_java_coverage default: "false": If true Bazel will use a new way of computing code coverage for java targets.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]experimental_link_compile_output_separately default: "false": This flag is experimental and may go away at any time. If true, dynamically linked binary targets will build and link their own srcs as a dynamic library instead of directly linking it in.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_objc_fastbuild_options=<comma-separated list of options> default: "-O0,-DDEBUG=1": Uses these strings as objc fastbuild compiler options.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_omitfp default: "false": If true, use libunwind for stack unwinding, and compile with -fomit-frame- pointer and -fasynchronous-unwind-tables.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_use_llvm_covmap default: "false": If specified, Bazel will generate llvm-cov coverage map information rather than gcov when collect_code_coverage is enabled.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fat_apk_cpu=<comma-separated list of options> default: "armeabi-v7a": Setting this option enables fat APKs, which contain native binaries for all specified target architectures, e.g., --fat_apk_cpu=x86,armeabi-v7a. If this flag is specified, then --android_cpu is ignored for dependencies of android_binary rules.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--fdo_instrument=<a string> default: see description: Generate binaries with FDO instrumentation. With Clang/LLVM compiler, it also accepts the directory name under which the raw profile file(s) will be dumped at runtime.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_optimize=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Use FDO profile information to optimize compilation. Specify the name of the zip file containing the .gcda file tree, an afdo file containing an auto profile or an xfdo file containing a default cross binary profile. If the multiple profiles passed through the option include xfdo file and other types of profiles, the last profile other than xfdo file will prevail. If the multiple profiles include only xfdo files or don't include any xfdo file, the last profile will prevail. This flag also accepts files specified as labels, for example //foo/bar:file.afdo. Such labels must refer to input files; you may need to add an exports_files directive to the corresponding package to make the file visible to Bazel. It also accepts a raw or an indexed LLVM profile file. This flag will be superseded by fdo_profile rule.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_prefetch_hints=<a build target label> default: see description: Use cache prefetch hints.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_profile=<a build target label> default: see description: The fdo_profile representing the profile to be used for optimization.
Tags: affects_outputs
--features=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The given features will be enabled or disabled by default for all packages. Specifying -<feature> will disable the feature globally. Negative features always override positive ones. This flag is used to enable rolling out default feature changes without a Bazel release.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--[no]force_pic default: "false": If enabled, all C++ compilations produce position-independent code ("- fPIC"), links prefer PIC pre-built libraries over non-PIC libraries, and links produce position-independent executables ("-pie").
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute. Can be "PY2" or " PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> default: "opt": Specify the mode the tools used during the build will be built in. Values: ' fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--host_conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_cpu=<a string> default: "": The host CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute for the host configuration. Can be "PY2" or "PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]instrument_test_targets default: "false": When coverage is enabled, specifies whether to consider instrumenting test rules. When set, test rules included by --instrumentation_filter are instrumented. Otherwise, test rules are always excluded from coverage instrumentation.
Tags: affects_outputs
--instrumentation_filter=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths> default: "-/javatests[/:],-/test/java[/:]": When coverage is enabled, only rules with names included by the specified regex- based filter will be instrumented. Rules prefixed with '-' are excluded instead. Note that only non-test rules are instrumented unless -- instrument_test_targets is enabled.
Tags: affects_outputs
--ios_cpu=<a string> default: "x86_64": Specifies to target CPU of iOS compilation.
Tags: no_op, deprecated
--ios_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible iOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--ios_multi_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Comma-separated list of architectures to build an ios_application with. The result is a universal binary containing all specified architectures.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--[no]legacy_whole_archive default: "true": When on, use --whole-archive for cc_binary rules that have linkshared=1 and either linkstatic=1 or '-static' in linkopts. This is for backwards compatibility only. A better alternative is to use alwayslink=1 where required.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltobackendopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO backend step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltoindexopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO indexing step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--macos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple macOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--macos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible macOS version for targets.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]objc_debug_with_GLIBCXX default: "false": If set, and compilation mode is set to 'dbg', define GLIBCXX_DEBUG, GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC and GLIBCPP_CONCEPT_CHECKS.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]objc_enable_binary_stripping default: "false": Whether to perform symbol and dead-code strippings on linked binaries. Binary strippings will be performed if both this flag and --compilationMode=opt are specified.
Tags: action_command_lines
--objccopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Objective C compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--per_file_copt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to gcc when compiling certain files. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1, option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: --per_file_copt=//foo/. *\.cc,-//foo/bar\.cc@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the gcc command line of all cc files in //foo/ except bar.cc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--per_file_ltobackendopt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to LTO backend (under -- features=thin_lto) when compiling certain backend objects. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1,option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns. option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: -- per_file_ltobackendopt=//foo/.*\.o,-//foo/bar\.o@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the LTO backend command line of all o files in //foo/ except bar.o.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--platform_suffix=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--run_under=<a prefix in front of command> default: see description: Prefix to insert in front of command before running. Examples: --run_under=valgrind --run_under=strace --run_under='strace -c' --run_under='valgrind --quiet --num-callers=20' --run_under=//package:target --run_under='//package:target --options'
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]share_native_deps default: "true": If true, native libraries that contain identical functionality will be shared among different targets
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]stamp default: "false": Stamp binaries with the date, username, hostname, workspace information, etc.
Tags: affects_outputs
--strip=<always, sometimes or never> default: "sometimes": Specifies whether to strip binaries and shared libraries (using "-Wl,-- strip-debug"). The default value of 'sometimes' means strip iff -- compilation_mode=fastbuild.
Tags: affects_outputs
--stripopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to strip when generating a '<name>. stripped' binary.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--swiftcopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Swift compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--tvos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple tvOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--tvos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible tvOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "i386": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple watchOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--watchos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible watchOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state

--auto_cpu_environment_group=<a build target label> default: "": Declare the environment_group to use for automatically mapping cpu values to target_environment values.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]check_licenses default: "false": Check that licensing constraints imposed by dependent packages do not conflict with distribution modes of the targets being built. By default, licenses are not checked.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]check_visibility default: "true": If disabled, visibility errors are demoted to warnings.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]desugar_for_android default: "true": Whether to desugar Java 8 bytecode before dexing.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]enforce_constraints default: "true": Checks the environments each target is compatible with and reports errors if any target has dependencies that don't support the same environments
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]experimental_allow_android_library_deps_without_srcs default: "false": Flag to help transition from allowing to disallowing srcs-less android_library rules with deps. The depot needs to be cleaned up to roll this out by default.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_throw_on_resource_conflict default: "false": If passed, resource merge conflicts will be treated as errors instead of warnings
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_check_desugar_deps default: "false": Whether to double-check correct desugaring at Android binary level.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_desugar_java8_libs default: "false": Whether to include supported Java 8 libraries in apps for legacy devices.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--experimental_import_deps_checking=<off, warning or error> default: "OFF": When enabled, check whether the dependencies of an aar_import are complete. This enforcement can break the build, or can just result in warnings.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_java_proto_add_allowed_public_imports default: "false": If true, add --allowed_public_imports to the java compile actions.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]strict_filesets default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets crossing package boundaries are reported as errors. It does not work when check_fileset_dependencies_recursively is disabled.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_java_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "default": If true, checks that a Java target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_proto_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "strict": If true, checks that a proto_library target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit, incompatible_change
--[no]strict_system_includes default: "false": If true, headers found through system include paths (-isystem) are also required to be declared.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, eagerness_to_exit
--target_environment=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Declares this build's target environment. Must be a label reference to an "environment" rule. If specified, all top-level targets must be compatible with this environment.
Tags: changes_inputs

--apk_signing_method=<v1, v2 or v1_v2> default: "v1_v2": Implementation to use to sign APKs
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--default_ios_provisioning_profile=<a build target label> default: "": Tags: changes_inputs
--[no]device_debug_entitlements default: "true": If set, and compilation mode is not 'opt', objc apps will include debug entitlements when signing.
Tags: changes_inputs
--extra_entitlements=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of a .entitlements file that is merged into any iOS signing action in this build.
Tags: changes_inputs
--ios_signing_cert_name=<a string> default: see description: Certificate name to use for iOS signing. If not set will fall back to provisioning profile. May be the certificate's keychain identity preference or (substring) of the certificate's common name, as per codesign's man page (SIGNING IDENTITIES).
Tags: action_command_lines

--[no]experimental_android_use_parallel_dex2oat default: "false": Use dex2oat in parallel to possibly speed up android_test.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, host_machine_resource_optimizations, experimental
--[no]ios_memleaks default: "false": Enable checking for memory leaks in ios_test targets.
Tags: action_command_lines
--ios_simulator_device=<a string> default: "iPhone 5s": The device to simulate when running an iOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'iPhone 6'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--ios_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.3": The version of iOS to run on the simulator when running or testing. This is ignored for ios_test rules if a target device is specified in the rule.
Tags: test_runner
--test_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional environment variables to be injected into the test runner environment. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case its value will be read from the Bazel client environment, or by the name=value pair. This option can be used multiple times to specify several variables. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
Tags: test_runner
--test_timeout=<a single integer or comma-separated list of 4 integers> default: "-1": Override the default test timeout values for test timeouts (in secs). If a single positive integer value is specified it will override all categories. If 4 comma-separated integers are specified, they will override the timeouts for short, moderate, long and eternal (in that order). In either form, a value of -1 tells bazel to use its default timeouts for that category.
--tvos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple TV 1080p": The device to simulate when running an tvOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'Apple TV 1080p'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--tvos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.0": The version of tvOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple Watch - 38mm": The device to simulate when running an watchOS application in the simulator, e. g. 'Apple Watch - 38mm'. You can get a list of devices by running ' xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "2.0": The version of watchOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner

--aspect_deps=<off, conservative or precise> default: "conservative": How to resolve aspect dependencies when the output format is one of {xml,proto, record}. 'off' means no aspect dependencies are resolved, ' conservative' (the default) means all declared aspect dependencies are added regardless of whether they are given the rule class of direct dependencies, 'precise' means that only those aspects are added that are possibly active given the rule class of the direct dependencies. Note that precise mode requires loading other packages to evaluate a single target thus making it slower than the other modes. Also note that even precise mode is not completely precise: the decision whether to compute an aspect is decided in the analysis phase, which is not run during 'bazel query'.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]host_deps default: "true": Query: If disabled, dependencies on 'host configuration' targets will not be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. A ' host configuration' dependency edge, such as the one from any ' proto_library' rule to the Protocol Compiler, usually points to a tool executed during the build (on the host machine) rather than a part of the same 'target' program. Cquery: If disabled, filters out all configured targets which cross a host transition from the top-level target that discovered this configured target. That means if the top-level target is in the target configuration, only configured targets also in the target configuration will be returned. If the top-level target is in the host configuration, only host configured targets will be returned.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]implicit_deps default: "true": If enabled, implicit dependencies will be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. An implicit dependency is one that is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file but added by bazel.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--output=<a string> default: "proto": The format in which the aquery results should be printed.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:default_values default: "true": If true, attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are included; otherwise they are omitted. This option is applicable to -- output=proto
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:flatten_selects default: "true": If enabled, configurable attributes created by select() are flattened. For list types the flattened representation is a list containing each value of the select map exactly once. Scalar types are flattened to null.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--proto:output_rule_attrs=<comma-separated list of options> default: "all": Comma separated list of attributes to include in output. Defaults to all attributes. Set to empty string to not output any attribute. This option is applicable to --output=proto.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]relative_locations default: "false": If true, the location of BUILD files in xml and proto outputs will be relative. By default, the location output is an absolute path and will not be consistent across machines. You can set this option to true to have a consistent result across machines.
Tags: terminal_output
--universe_scope=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": A comma-separated set of target patterns (additive and subtractive). The query may be performed in the universe defined by the transitive closure of the specified targets. This option is used for the query and cquery commands. For cquery, the input to this option is the targets all answers are built under and so this option may affect configurations and transitions. If this option is not specified, the top-level targets are assumed to be the targets parsed from the query expression. Note: For cquery, not specifying this option may cause the build to break if targets parsed from the query expression are not buildable with top-level options.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]distinct_host_configuration default: "true": Build all the tools used during the build for a distinct configuration from that used for the target program. When this is disabled, the same configuration is used for host and target programs. This may cause undesirable rebuilds of tools such as the protocol compiler (and then everything downstream) whenever a minor change is made to the target configuration, such as setting the linker options. When this is enabled (the default), a distinct configuration will be used to build the tools, preventing undesired rebuilds. However, certain libraries will then need to be compiled twice, once for each configuration, which may cause some builds to be slower. As a rule of thumb, this option is likely to benefit users that make frequent changes in configuration (e.g. opt/dbg). Please read the user manual for the full explanation.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, bazel_internal_configuration, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_inmemory_dotd_files default: "false": If enabled, C++ .d files will be passed through in memory directly from the remote build nodes instead of being written to disk.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_no_dotd_scanning_with_modules default: "false": If enabled, don't analyze generated .d files in builds with Clang's C++ modules.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]experimental_objc_header_thinning default: "false": If set then ObjcCompile actions will have their action inputs reduced by running a tool to detect which headers are actually required for compilation.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_prune_cpp_input_discovery default: "false": If enabled, stop C++ input discovery at modular headers.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]incremental_dexing default: "true": Does most of the work for dexing separately for each Jar file.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--objc_header_thinning_partition_size=<an integer> default: "120": The maximum number of source files to process within in each header scanning action.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]objc_use_dotd_pruning default: "true": If set, .d files emited by clang will be used to prune the set of inputs passed into objc compiles.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]parse_headers_verifies_modules default: "false": If enabled, the parse_headers feature verifies that a header module can be built for the target in question instead of doing a separate compile of the header.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs
--[no]process_headers_in_dependencies default: "false": When building a target //a:a, process headers in all targets that //a:a depends on (if header processing is enabled for the toolchain).
Tags: execution
--[no]prune_cpp_modules default: "true": If enabled, use the results of input discovery to reduce the number of used modules.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, changes_inputs
--[no]trim_test_configuration default: "false": When enabled, test-related options will be cleared below the top level of the build. When this flag is active, tests cannot be built as dependencies of non- test rules, but changes to test-related options will not cause non-test rules to be re-analyzed.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]use_singlejar_apkbuilder default: "true": Build Android APKs with SingleJar.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]toolchain_resolution_debug default: "false": Print debug information while finding toolchains for a rule. This might help developers of Bazel or Skylark rules with debugging failures due to missing toolchains.
Tags: terminal_output

--[no]cache_test_results [-t] default: "auto": If set to 'auto', Bazel reruns a test if and only if: (1) Bazel detects changes in the test or its dependencies, (2) the test is marked as external, (3) multiple test runs were requested with --runs_per_test, or(4) the test previously failed. If set to 'yes', Bazel caches all test results except for tests marked as external. If set to 'no', Bazel does not cache any test results.
--check_constraint=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Check the listed constraint.
--[no]experimental_j2objc_header_map default: "true": Whether to generate J2ObjC header map in parallel of J2ObjC transpilation.
--[no]experimental_strict_action_env default: "false": If true, Bazel uses an environment with a static value for PATH and does not inherit LD_LIBRARY_PATH or TMPDIR. Use --action_env=ENV_VARIABLE if you want to inherit specific environment variables from the client, but note that doing so can prevent cross-user caching if a shared cache is used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]explicit_java_test_deps default: "false": Explicitly specify a dependency to JUnit or Hamcrest in a java_test instead of accidentally obtaining from the TestRunner's deps. Only works for bazel right now.
--[no]explicit_jre_deps default: "true": This flag is a noop and will be removed.
--host_java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher used by tools that are executed during a build.
--host_java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The Java toolchain used to build tools that are executed during a build.
--host_javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:host_jdk": JAVABASE used for the host JDK. This is the java_runtime which is used to execute tools during a build.
--host_platform_remote_properties_override=<a string> default: see description: Manually set the remote_execution_properties for the host platform if it is not already set.
--j2objc_translation_flags=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the J2ObjC tool.
--java_classpath=<off or javabuilder> default: "javabuilder": Enables reduced classpaths for Java compilations.
--java_debug: Causes the Java virtual machine of a java test to wait for a connection from a JDWP-compliant debugger (such as jdb) before starting the test. Implies - test_output=streamed.
Expands to:
  --test_arg=--wrapper_script_flag=--debug
  --test_output=streamed
  --test_strategy=exclusive
  --test_timeout=9999
  --nocache_test_results
--[no]java_deps default: "true": Generate dependency information (for now, compile-time classpath) per Java target.
--[no]java_header_compilation default: "true": Compile ijars directly from source.
--java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher to use when building Java binaries. The "launcher" attribute overrides this flag.
--java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The name of the toolchain rule for Java.
--javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:jdk": JAVABASE used for the JDK invoked by Bazel. This is the java_runtime which will be used to execute external Java commands.
--javacopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to javac.
--jvmopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the Java VM. These options will get added to the VM startup options of each java_binary target.
--message_translations=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The message translations used for translating messages in Java targets.
--plugin=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Plugins to use in the build. Currently works with java_plugin.
--proguard_top=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies which version of ProGuard to use for code removal when building a Java binary.
--proto_compiler=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:protoc": The label of the proto-compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_cc=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:cc_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile C++ protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_j2objc=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/j2objc:j2objc_proto_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile j2objc protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_java=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:java_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile Java protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_javalite=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf_javalite//:javalite_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile JavaLite protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--protocopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the protobuf compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs
--runs_per_test=<a positive integer or test_regex@runs. This flag may be passed more than once> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies number of times to run each test. If any of those attempts fail for any reason, the whole test would be considered failed. Normally the value specified is just an integer. Example: --runs_per_test=3 will run all tests 3 times. Alternate syntax: regex_filter@runs_per_test. Where runs_per_test stands for an integer value and regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). Example: -- runs_per_test=//foo/.*,-//foo/bar/.*@3 runs all tests in //foo/ except those under foo/bar three times. This option can be passed multiple times.
--shell_executable=<a path> default: see description: Absolute path to the shell executable for Bazel to use. If this is unset, but the BAZEL_SH environment variable is set on the first Bazel invocation (that starts up a Bazel server), Bazel uses that. If neither is set, Bazel uses a hard-coded default path depending on the operating system it runs on (Windows: c:/tools/msys64/usr/bin/bash.exe, FreeBSD: /usr/local/bin/bash, all others: /bin/bash). Note that using a shell that is not compatible with bash may lead to build failures or runtime failures of the generated binaries.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--test_arg=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional options and arguments that should be passed to the test executable. Can be used multiple times to specify several arguments. If multiple tests are executed, each of them will receive identical arguments. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
--test_filter=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a filter to forward to the test framework. Used to limit the tests run. Note that this does not affect which targets are built.
--test_result_expiration=<an integer> default: "-1": This option is deprecated and has no effect.
--test_sharding_strategy=<explicit, experimental_heuristic or disabled> default: "explicit": Specify strategy for test sharding: 'explicit' to only use sharding if the 'shard_count' BUILD attribute is present. 'disabled' to never use test sharding. 'experimental_heuristic' to enable sharding on remotely executed tests without an explicit 'shard_count' attribute which link in a supported framework. Considered experimental.
--[no]translations default: "auto": Translate Java messages; bundle all translations into the jar for each affected rule.
--[no]use_ijars default: "true": If enabled, this option causes Java compilation to use interface jars. This will result in faster incremental compilation, but error messages can be different.

Build Options

--distdir=<a path> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional places to search for archives before accessing the network to download them.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]experimental_repository_cache_hardlinks default: "false": If set, the repository cache will hardlink the file in case of a cache hit, rather than copying. This is inteded to save disk space.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--repository_cache=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the cache location of the downloaded values obtained during the fetching of external repositories.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--experimental_docker_image=<a string> default: "": Specify a Docker image name (e.g. "ubuntu:latest") that should be used to execute a sandboxed action when using the docker strategy and the action itself doesn't already have a container-image attribute in its remote_execution_properties in the platform description. The value of this flag is passed verbatim to 'docker run', so it supports the same syntax and mechanisms as Docker itself.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_docker_privileged default: "false": If enabled, Bazel will pass the --privileged flag to 'docker run' when running actions. This might be required by your build, but it might also result in reduced hermeticity.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_docker_use_customized_images default: "true": If enabled, injects the uid and gid of the current user into the Docker image before using it. This is required if your build / tests depend on the user having a name and home directory inside the container. This is on by default, but you can disable it in case the automatic image customization feature doesn't work in your case or you know that you don't need it.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_docker_verbose default: "false": If enabled, Bazel will print more verbose messages about the Docker sandbox strategy.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_enable_docker_sandbox default: "false": Enable Docker-based sandboxing. This option has no effect if Docker is not installed.
Tags: execution
--experimental_sandboxfs_path=<a string> default: "sandboxfs": Path to the sandboxfs binary to use when --experimental_use_sandboxfs is true. If a bare name, use the first binary of that name found in the PATH.
--[no]experimental_split_xml_generation default: "false": If this flag is set, and a test action does not generate a test.xml file, then Bazel uses a separate action to generate a dummy test.xml file containing the test log. Otherwise, Bazel generates the test.xml as part of the test action.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_use_sandboxfs default: "false": Use sandboxfs to create the actions' execroot directories instead of building a symlink tree.
--[no]incompatible_symlinked_sandbox_expands_tree_artifacts_in_runfiles_tree default: "false": If enabled, the sandbox will expand tree artifacts in runfiles, thus the files that are contained in the tree artifact will be symlinked as individual files.
Tags: execution, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes, incompatible_change
--jobs=<"auto" or an integer in 0-3000 range> [-j] default: "auto": The number of concurrent jobs to run. 0 means build sequentially. " auto" means to use a reasonable value derived from the machine's hardware profile (e.g. the number of processors). Values above 3000 are not allowed, and values above 1500 may cause memory issues.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations, execution
--[no]keep_going [-k] default: "false": Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be analyzed, other prerequisites of these targets can be.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit
--loading_phase_threads=<an integer> default: "default": Number of parallel threads to use for the loading/analysis phase.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]remote_allow_symlink_upload default: "true": If true, upload action symlink outputs to the remote cache. The remote cache currently doesn't support symlinks, so symlink outputs are converted into regular files. If this option is not enabled, otherwise cachable actions that output symlinks will fail.
Tags: execution

--[no]build default: "true": Execute the build; this is the usual behaviour. Specifying --nobuild causes the build to stop before executing the build actions, returning zero iff the package loading and analysis phases completed successfully; this mode is useful for testing those phases.
Tags: execution, affects_outputs
--output_groups=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies which output groups of the top-level targets to build. If omitted, a default set of output groups are built. When specified the default set is overridden. However you may use --output_groups=+<output_group> or -- output_groups=-<output_group> to instead modify the set of output groups.
Tags: execution, affects_outputs

--aspects=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Comma-separated list of aspects to be applied to top-level targets. All aspects are applied to all top-level targets independently. Aspects are specified in the form <bzl-file-label>%<aspect_name>, for example '//tools: my_def.bzl%my_aspect', where 'my_aspect' is a top-level value from from a file tools/my_def.bzl
--experimental_multi_cpu=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: This flag allows specifying multiple target CPUs. If this is specified, the -- cpu option is ignored.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--symlink_prefix=<a string> default: see description: The prefix that is prepended to any of the convenience symlinks that are created after a build. If '/' is passed, then no symlinks are created and no warning is emitted. If omitted, the default value is the name of the build tool.
Tags: affects_outputs

--experimental_repository_hash_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, specifies a file containing a resolved value, against which the repository directory hashes should be verified
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_verify_repository_rules=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: If list of repository rules for which the hash of the output directory should be verified, provided a file is specified by -- experimental_respository_hash_file.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental

--[no]announce default: "false": Deprecated. No-op.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--experimental_repository_resolved_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a Skylark value with the resolved information of all Skylark respository rules that were executed.
Tags: affects_outputs
--explain=<a path> default: see description: Causes the build system to explain each executed step of the build. The explanation is written to the specified log file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--output_filter=<a valid Java regular expression> default: see description: Only shows warnings for rules with a name matching the provided regular expression.
Tags: affects_outputs
--progress_report_interval=<an integer in 0-3600 range> default: "0": The number of seconds to wait between two reports on still running jobs. The default value 0 means to use the default 10:30:60 incremental algorithm.
Tags: affects_outputs
--show_result=<an integer> default: "1": Show the results of the build. For each target, state whether or not it was brought up-to-date, and if so, a list of output files that were built. The printed files are convenient strings for copy+pasting to the shell, to execute them. This option requires an integer argument, which is the threshold number of targets above which result information is not printed. Thus zero causes suppression of the message and MAX_INT causes printing of the result to occur always. The default is one.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]verbose_explanations default: "false": Increases the verbosity of the explanations issued if --explain is enabled. Has no effect if --explain is not enabled.
Tags: affects_outputs

--[no]build_manual_tests default: "false": Forces test targets tagged 'manual' to be built. 'manual' tests are excluded from processing. This option forces them to be built (but not executed).
--build_tag_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of tags. Each tag can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded tags. Only those targets will be built that contain at least one included tag and do not contain any excluded tags. This option does not affect the set of tests executed with the 'test' command; those are be governed by the test filtering options, for example ' --test_tag_filters'
--[no]build_tests_only default: "false": If specified, only *_test and test_suite rules will be built and other targets specified on the command line will be ignored. By default everything that was requested will be built.
--[no]check_tests_up_to_date default: "false": Don't run tests, just check if they are up-to-date. If all tests results are up-to-date, the testing completes successfully. If any test needs to be built or executed, an error is reported and the testing fails. This option implies --check_up_to_date behavior.
--[no]check_up_to_date default: "false": Don't perform the build, just check if it is up-to-date. If all targets are up-to-date, the build completes successfully. If any step needs to be executed an error is reported and the build fails.
--combined_report=<none or lcov> default: "none": Specifies desired cumulative coverage report type. At this point only HTML and LCOV reports are supported.
--[no]compile_one_dependency default: "false": Compile a single dependency of the argument files. This is useful for syntax checking source files in IDEs, for example, by rebuilding a single target that depends on the source file to detect errors as early as possible in the edit/build/test cycle. This argument affects the way all non-flag arguments are interpreted; instead of being targets to build they are source filenames. For each source filename an arbitrary target that depends on it will be built.
--deleted_packages=<comma-separated list of package names> default: "": A comma-separated list of names of packages which the build system will consider non-existent, even if they are visible somewhere on the package path. Use this option when deleting a subpackage 'x/y' of an existing package 'x'. For example, after deleting x/y/BUILD in your client, the build system may complain if it encounters a label '//x:y/z' if that is still provided by another package_path entry. Specifying --deleted_packages x/y avoids this problem.
--[no]discard_analysis_cache default: "false": Discard the analysis cache immediately after the analysis phase completes. Reduces memory usage by ~10%, but makes further incremental builds slower.
--disk_cache=<a path> default: see description: A path to a directory where Bazel can read and write actions and action outputs. If the directory does not exist, it will be created.
--embed_label=<string> default: "": Embed source control revision or release label in binary
--[no]expand_test_suites default: "true": Expand test_suite targets into their constituent tests before analysis. When this flag is turned on (the default), negative target patterns will apply to the tests belonging to the test suite, otherwise they will not. Turning off this flag is useful when top-level aspects are applied at command line: then they can analyze test_suite targets.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--experimental_execution_log_file=<a string> default: "": Log the executed spawns into this file as delimited Spawn protos.
--experimental_extra_action_filter=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths> default: "": Filters set of targets to schedule extra_actions for.
--[no]experimental_extra_action_top_level_only default: "false": Only schedules extra_actions for top level targets.
--[no]experimental_guard_against_concurrent_changes default: "false": Turn this off to disable checking the ctime of input files of an action before uploading it to a remote cache. There may be cases where the Linux kernel delays writing of files, which could cause false positives.
--[no]experimental_interleave_loading_and_analysis default: "true": No-op.
--[no]experimental_local_memory_estimate default: "false": Estimate the actual memory available online. By default, Bazel assumes most actions use a fixed amount of memory, and counts that against the total available system memory, regardless of how much memory is actually available. This option enables online estimation of how much memory is available at any given time, and thus does not require accurate estimation of how much memory a given action will take.
--experimental_persistent_javac: Enable the experimental persistent Java compiler.
Expands to:
  --strategy=Javac=worker
  --strategy=JavaIjar=local
  --strategy=JavaDeployJar=local
  --strategy=JavaSourceJar=local
  --strategy=Turbine=local
--experimental_remote_grpc_log=<a string> default: "": If specified, a path to a file to log gRPC call related details. This log consists of a sequence of serialized com.google.devtools.build.lib.remote. logging.RemoteExecutionLog.LogEntry protobufs with each message prefixed by a varint denoting the size of the following serialized protobuf message, as performed by the method LogEntry.writeDelimitedTo(OutputStream).
--[no]experimental_remote_retry default: "true": Whether to retry transient remote execution/cache errors.
--experimental_remote_retry_jitter=<a double> default: "0.1": The random factor to apply to retry delays on transient errors.
--experimental_remote_retry_max_attempts=<an integer> default: "5": The maximum number of attempts to retry a transient error.
--experimental_remote_retry_max_delay_millis=<a long integer> default: "5000": The maximum delay before retrying a transient error.
--experimental_remote_retry_multiplier=<a double> default: "2": The multiplier by which to increase the retry delay on transient errors.
--experimental_remote_retry_start_delay_millis=<a long integer> default: "100": The initial delay before retrying a transient error.
--[no]experimental_remote_spawn_cache default: "false": Whether to use the experimental spawn cache infrastructure for remote caching. Enabling this flag makes Bazel ignore any setting for remote_executor.
Tags: no_op
--experimental_sandbox_base=<a string> default: "": Lets the sandbox create its sandbox directories underneath this path. Specify a path on tmpfs (like /run/shm) to possibly improve performance a lot when your build / tests have many input files. Note: You need enough RAM and free space on the tmpfs to hold output and intermediate files generated by running actions.
--[no]experimental_sandbox_default_allow_network default: "true": Allow network access by default for actions.
--flaky_test_attempts=<a positive integer, the string "default", or test_regex@attempts. This flag may be passed more than once> multiple uses are accumulated: Each test will be retried up to the specified number of times in case of any test failure. Tests that required more than one attempt to pass would be marked as 'FLAKY' in the test summary. If this option is set, it should specify an int N or the string 'default'. If it's an int, then all tests will be run up to N times. If it is not specified or its value is ' default', then only a single test attempt will be made for regular tests and three for tests marked explicitly as flaky by their rule (flaky=1 attribute).
--genrule_strategy=<a string> default: "": Specify how to execute genrules. 'standalone' means run all of them locally. 'sandboxed' means run them in namespaces based sandbox (available only on Linux)
--google_auth_scopes=<comma-separated list of options> default: "https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform": A comma-separated list of Google Cloud authentication scopes.
--google_credentials=<a string> default: see description: Specifies the file to get authentication credentials from. See https://cloud. google.com/docs/authentication for details.
--[no]google_default_credentials default: "false": Whether to use 'Google Application Default Credentials' for authentication. See https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication for details. Disabled by default.
--high_priority_workers=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Mnemonics of workers to run with high priority. When high priority workers are running all other workers are throttled.
--[no]ignore_unsupported_sandboxing default: "false": Do not print a warning when sandboxed execution is not supported on this system.
--local_resources=<comma-separated available amount of RAM (in MB), CPU (in cores) and available I/O (1.0 being average workstation)> default: see description: Explicitly set amount of local resources available to Bazel. By default, Bazel will query system configuration to estimate amount of RAM (in MB) and number of CPU cores available for the locally executed build actions. It would also assume default I/O capabilities of the local workstation (1.0). This options allows to explicitly set all 3 values. Note, that if this option is used, Bazel will ignore --ram_utilization_factor.
--local_termination_grace_seconds=<an integer> default: "15": Time to wait between terminating a local process due to timeout and forcefully shutting it down.
--local_test_jobs=<an integer> default: "0": The max number of local test jobs to run concurrently. 0 means local resources will limit the number of local test jobs to run concurrently instead. Setting this greater than the value for --jobs is ineffectual.
--[no]materialize_param_files default: "false": Writes intermediate parameter files to output tree even when using remote action execution. Useful when debugging actions.
--override_repository=<an equals-separated mapping of repository name to path> multiple uses are accumulated: Overrides a repository with a local directory.
--package_path=<colon-separated list of options> default: "%workspace%": A colon-separated list of where to look for packages. Elements beginning with '%workspace%' are relative to the enclosing workspace. If omitted or empty, the default is the output of 'bazel info default-package-path'.
--ram_utilization_factor=<an integer> default: "67": Specify what percentage of the system's RAM Bazel should try to use for its subprocesses. This option affects how many processes Bazel will try to run in parallel. If you run several Bazel builds in parallel, using a lower value for this option may avoid thrashing and thus improve overall throughput. Using a value higher than the default is NOT recommended. Note that Bazel's estimates are very coarse, so the actual RAM usage may be much higher or much lower than specified. Note also that this option does not affect the amount of memory that the Bazel server itself will use.
--[no]remote_accept_cached default: "true": Whether to accept remotely cached action results.
--remote_cache=<a string> default: see description: HOST or HOST:PORT of a remote caching endpoint.
--remote_cache_proxy=<a string> default: see description: Connect to the remote cache through a proxy. Currently this flag can only be used to configure a Unix domain socket (unix:/path/to/socket) for the HTTP cache.
--remote_executor=<a string> default: see description: HOST or HOST:PORT of a remote execution endpoint.
--remote_http_cache=<a string> default: see description: A base URL of a HTTP caching service. Both http:// and https:// are supported. BLOBs are stored with PUT and retrieved with GET. See remote/README.html for more information.
--remote_instance_name=<a string> default: "": Value to pass as instance_name in the remote execution API.
--[no]remote_local_fallback default: "false": Whether to fall back to standalone local execution strategy if remote execution fails.
--remote_local_fallback_strategy=<a string> default: "local": The strategy to use when remote execution has to fallback to local execution.
--remote_max_connections=<an integer> default: "100": The max. number of concurrent network connections to the remote cache/executor. By default Bazel limits the number of TCP connections to 100. Setting this flag to 0 will make Bazel choose the number of connections automatically.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--remote_timeout=<an integer> default: "60": The maximum number of seconds to wait for remote execution and cache calls.
--[no]remote_upload_local_results default: "true": Whether to upload locally executed action results to the remote cache.
--[no]resource_autosense default: "false": This flag has no effect, and is deprecated
--[no]runs_per_test_detects_flakes default: "false": If true, any shard in which at least one run/attempt passes and at least one run/attempt fails gets a FLAKY status.
--sandbox_add_mount_pair=<a single path or a 'source:target' pair> multiple uses are accumulated: Add additional path pair to mount in sandbox.
--sandbox_block_path=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: For sandboxed actions, disallow access to this path.
--[no]sandbox_debug default: "false": Let the sandbox print debug information on execution. This might help developers of Bazel or Skylark rules with debugging failures due to missing input files, etc.
--[no]sandbox_fake_hostname default: "false": Change the current hostname to 'localhost' for sandboxed actions.
--[no]sandbox_fake_username default: "false": Change the current username to 'nobody' for sandboxed actions.
--sandbox_tmpfs_path=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: For sandboxed actions, mount an empty, writable directory at this path (if supported by the sandboxing implementation, ignored otherwise).
--sandbox_writable_path=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: For sandboxed actions, make an existing directory writable in the sandbox (if supported by the sandboxing implementation, ignored otherwise).
--[no]show_loading_progress default: "true": If enabled, causes Bazel to print "Loading package:" messages.
--spawn_strategy=<a string> default: "": Specify how spawn actions are executed by default. 'standalone' means run all of them locally without any kind of sandboxing. 'sandboxed' means to run them in a sandboxed environment with limited privileges (details depend on platform support).
--strategy=<a 'name=value' assignment> multiple uses are accumulated: Specify how to distribute compilation of other spawn actions. Example: ' Javac=local' means to spawn Java compilation locally. ' JavaIjar=sandboxed' means to spawn Java Ijar actions in a sandbox.
--[no]subcommands [-s] default: "false": Display the subcommands executed during a build.
--[no]test_keep_going default: "true": When disabled, any non-passing test will cause the entire build to stop. By default all tests are run, even if some do not pass.
--test_lang_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test languages. Each language can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded languages. Only those test targets will be found that are written in the specified languages. The name used for each language should be the same as the language prefix in the *_test rule, e.g. one of 'cc', 'java', 'py', etc. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_output=<summary, errors, all or streamed> default: "summary": Specifies desired output mode. Valid values are 'summary' to output only test status summary, 'errors' to also print test logs for failed tests, 'all' to print logs for all tests and 'streamed' to output logs for all tests in real time (this will force tests to be executed locally one at a time regardless of --test_strategy value).
--test_size_filters=<comma-separated list of values: small, medium, large or enormous> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test sizes. Each size can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded sizes. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included size and do not contain any excluded sizes. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_strategy=<a string> default: "": Specifies which strategy to use when running tests.
--test_summary=<short, terse, detailed or none> default: "short": Specifies the desired format ot the test summary. Valid values are ' short' to print information only about tests executed, 'terse', to print information only about unsuccessful tests that were run, ' detailed' to print detailed information about failed test cases, and ' none' to omit the summary.
--test_tag_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test tags. Each tag can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded tags. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included tag and do not contain any excluded tags. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_timeout_filters=<comma-separated list of values: short, moderate, long or eternal> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test timeouts. Each timeout can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded timeouts. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included timeout and do not contain any excluded timeouts. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_tmpdir=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the base temporary directory for 'bazel test' to use.
--tls_certificate=<a string> default: see description: Specify the TLS client certificate to use.
--[no]tls_enabled default: "false": Specifies whether to use TLS for remote execution/caching and the build event service (BES).
--[no]verbose_failures default: "false": If a command fails, print out the full command line.
--worker_extra_flag=<a 'name=value' assignment> multiple uses are accumulated: Extra command-flags that will be passed to worker processes in addition to -- persistent_worker, keyed by mnemonic (e.g. --worker_extra_flag=Javac=--debug.
--worker_max_instances=<an integer or a named integer, 'name=value'> multiple uses are accumulated: How many instances of a worker process (like the persistent Java compiler) may be launched if you use the 'worker' strategy. May be specified as [name=value] to give a different value per worker mnemonic.
--[no]worker_quit_after_build default: "false": If enabled, all workers quit after a build is done.
--[no]worker_sandboxing default: "false": If enabled, workers will be executed in a sandboxed environment.
--[no]worker_verbose default: "false": If enabled, prints verbose messages when workers are started, shutdown, ...
--workspace_status_command=<path> default: "": A command invoked at the beginning of the build to provide status information about the workspace in the form of key/value pairs. See the User's Manual for the full specification.

--[no]experimental_split_xml_generation default: "false": If this flag is set, and a test action does not generate a test.xml file, then Bazel uses a separate action to generate a dummy test.xml file containing the test log. Otherwise, Bazel generates the test.xml as part of the test action.
Tags: execution
--[no]experimental_strict_fileset_output default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets will treat all output artifacts as regular files. They will not traverse directories or be sensitive to symlinks.
Tags: execution
--jobs=<"auto" or an integer in 0-3000 range> [-j] default: "auto": The number of concurrent jobs to run. 0 means build sequentially. " auto" means to use a reasonable value derived from the machine's hardware profile (e.g. the number of processors). Values above 3000 are not allowed, and values above 1500 may cause memory issues.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations, execution
--[no]keep_going [-k] default: "false": Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be analyzed, other prerequisites of these targets can be.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit
--loading_phase_threads=<an integer> default: "default": Number of parallel threads to use for the loading/analysis phase.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--android_aapt=<aapt, aapt2 or auto> default: "aapt": Selects the version of androidAaptVersion to use for android_binary rules.Flag to help the test and transition to aapt2.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_compiler=<a string> default: see description: The Android target compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "//external:android/crosstool": The location of the C++ compiler used for Android builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: The Android target grte_top.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_manifest_merger=<legacy or android> default: "android": Selects the manifest merger to use for android_binary rules. Flag to help thetransition to the Android manifest merger from the legacy merger.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_sdk=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/android:sdk": Specifies Android SDK/platform that is used to build Android applications.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--apple_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used in Apple and Objc rules and their dependencies.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, changes_inputs
--apple_sdk=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of target that will provide the appropriate Apple SDK for the current build configuration.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_output_directory_tag=<a string> default: "": Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compiler=<a string> default: see description: The C++ compiler to use for compiling the target.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution
--coverage_report_generator=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_report_generator": Location of the binary that is used to generate coverage reports. This must currently be a filegroup that contains a single file, the binary. Defaults to '//tools/test:coverage_report_generator'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--coverage_support=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_support": Location of support files that are required on the inputs of every test action that collects code coverage. Defaults to '//tools/test: coverage_support'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used for compiling C++ code.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--custom_malloc=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies a custom malloc implementation. This setting overrides malloc attributes in build rules.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--enabled_toolchain_types=<a build target label> default: "": Enable toolchain resolution for the given toolchain type, if the rules used support that. This does not directly change the core Bazel machinery, but is a signal to participating rule implementations that toolchain resolution should be used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_disable_compilation_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from compilation_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_compilation_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing compilation flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_linking_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing linking flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_crosstool_fields default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from legacy crosstool fields (see #5187.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_linking_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from linking_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_cc_toolchain_config_info default: "false": If true, Bazel will allow creating a CcToolchainConfigInfo.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_objc_cc_deps default: "true": Allows objc_* rules to depend on cc_library and causes any objc dependencies to be built with --cpu set to "ios_<--ios_cpu>" for any values in --ios_multi_cpu.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change
--experimental_stl=<a build target label> default: see description: If set, use this label instead of the default STL implementation. This option is EXPERIMENTAL and may go away in a future release.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines, experimental
--extra_execution_platforms=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The platforms that are available as execution platforms to run actions. Platforms can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These platforms will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_execution_platforms().
Tags: execution
--extra_toolchains=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The toolchain rules to be considered during toolchain resolution. Toolchains can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These toolchains will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_toolchains().
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--grte_top=<a label> default: see description: A label to a checked-in libc library. The default value is selected by the crosstool toolchain, and you almost never need to override it.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: see description: By default, the --crosstool_top and --compiler options are also used for the host configuration. If this flag is provided, Bazel uses the default libc and compiler for the given crosstool_top.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: If specified, this setting overrides the libc top-level directory (--grte_top) for the host configuration.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_platform=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:host_platform": The label of a platform rule that describes the host system.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]incompatible_strict_objc_module_maps default: "false": Propagates Objective-C module maps only to direct dependencies in the ' objc' provider, not to all transitive dependencies.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]interface_shared_objects default: "true": Use interface shared objects if supported by the toolchain. All ELF toolchains currently support this setting.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, affects_outputs
--ios_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the iOS SDK to use to build iOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--macos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the macOS SDK to use to build macOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--minimum_os_version=<a string> default: see description: The minimum OS version which your compilation targets.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--objc_header_scanner_tool=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/objc:header_scanner": Location of tool to scan Objective-C code for inclusions and output a . headers_list file.
Tags: changes_inputs
--platforms=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:target_platform": The labels of the platform rules describing the target platforms for the current command.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--python2_path=<a string> default: "python": Local path to the Python2 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python3_path=<An option for python3 path> default: "auto": Local path to the Python3 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python_path=<a string> default: "python": The absolute path of the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--python_top=<a build target label> default: see description: The label of py_runtime rule used for the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--tvos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the tvOS SDK to use to build tvOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the watchOS SDK to use to build watchOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version=<a string> default: see description: If specified, uses Xcode of the given version for relevant build actions. If unspecified, uses the executor default version of Xcode.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version_config=<a build target label> default: "@local_config_xcode//:host_xcodes": The label of the xcode_config rule to be used for selecting the Xcode version in the build configuration.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis

--[no]apple_enable_auto_dsym_dbg default: "false": Whether to force enable generating debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s) for dbg builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]apple_generate_dsym default: "false": Whether to generate debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s).
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]build default: "true": Execute the build; this is the usual behaviour. Specifying --nobuild causes the build to stop before executing the build actions, returning zero iff the package loading and analysis phases completed successfully; this mode is useful for testing those phases.
Tags: execution, affects_outputs
--[no]build_runfile_links default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for all targets. If false, write only manifests when possible.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_runfile_manifests default: "true": If true, write runfiles manifests for all targets. If false, omit them.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_test_dwp default: "false": If enabled, when building C++ tests statically and with fission the .dwp file for the test binary will be automatically built as well.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--cc_proto_library_header_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.h": Sets the prefixes of header files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_proto_library_source_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.cc": Sets the prefixes of source files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]enable_apple_binary_native_protos default: "true": If set, apple_binary will generate and link objc protos into the output binary.
Tags: affects_outputs, incompatible_change
--[no]experimental_objc_enable_module_maps default: "false": Enables module map generation and interpretation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_proto_extra_actions default: "false": Run extra actions for alternative Java api versions in a proto_library.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fission=<a set of compilation modes> default: "no": Specifies which compilation modes use fission for C++ compilations and links. May be any combination of {'fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'} or the special values 'yes' to enable all modes and 'no' to disable all modes.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]legacy_external_runfiles default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for external repositories under . runfiles/wsname/external/repo (in addition to .runfiles/repo).
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]objc_generate_linkmap default: "false": Specifies whether to generate a linkmap file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--output_groups=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies which output groups of the top-level targets to build. If omitted, a default set of output groups are built. When specified the default set is overridden. However you may use --output_groups=+<output_group> or -- output_groups=-<output_group> to instead modify the set of output groups.
Tags: execution, affects_outputs
--[no]output_symbol_counts default: "false": If enabled, for every C++ binary linked with gold, the number of defined symbols and the number of used symbols per input file is stored in a .sc file.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]save_temps default: "false": If set, temporary outputs from gcc will be saved. These include .s files (assembler code), .i files (preprocessed C) and .ii files (preprocessed C++).
Tags: affects_outputs

--action_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies the set of environment variables available to actions. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case the value will be taken from the invocation environment, or by the name=value pair which sets the value independent of the invocation environment. This option can be used multiple times; for options given for the same variable, the latest wins, options for different variables accumulate.
Tags: action_command_lines
--android_cpu=<a string> default: "armeabi-v7a": The Android target CPU.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "off": Determines whether C++ deps of Android rules will be linked dynamically when a cc_binary does not explicitly create a shared library. 'default' means bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--apple_bitcode=<none, embedded_markers or embedded> default: "none": Specify the Apple bitcode mode for compile steps. Values: 'none', ' embedded_markers', 'embedded'.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--aspects=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Comma-separated list of aspects to be applied to top-level targets. All aspects are applied to all top-level targets independently. Aspects are specified in the form <bzl-file-label>%<aspect_name>, for example '//tools: my_def.bzl%my_aspect', where 'my_aspect' is a top-level value from from a file tools/my_def.bzl
--[no]build_python_zip default: "auto": Build python executable zip; on on Windows, off on other platforms
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]collect_code_coverage default: "false": If specified, Bazel will instrument code (using offline instrumentation where possible) and will collect coverage information during tests. Only targets that match --instrumentation_filter will be affected. Usually this option should not be specified directly - 'bazel coverage' command should be used instead.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> [-c] default: "fastbuild": Specify the mode the binary will be built in. Values: 'fastbuild', ' dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--cpu=<a string> default: "": The target CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C++ source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--define=<a 'name=value' assignment> multiple uses are accumulated: Each --define option specifies an assignment for a build variable.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "default": Determines whether C++ binaries will be linked dynamically. 'default' means Bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]enable_fdo_profile_absolute_path default: "true": If set, use of fdo_absolute_profile_path will raise an error.
Tags: affects_outputs
--experimental_action_listener=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Use action_listener to attach an extra_action to existing build actions.
Tags: execution, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_compress_java_resources default: "false": Compress Java resources in APKs
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_databinding_v2 default: "false": Use android databinding v2
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_rewrite_dexes_with_rex default: "false": use rex tool to rewrite dex files
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_java_coverage default: "false": If true Bazel will use a new way of computing code coverage for java targets.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]experimental_link_compile_output_separately default: "false": This flag is experimental and may go away at any time. If true, dynamically linked binary targets will build and link their own srcs as a dynamic library instead of directly linking it in.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_multi_cpu=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: This flag allows specifying multiple target CPUs. If this is specified, the -- cpu option is ignored.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_objc_fastbuild_options=<comma-separated list of options> default: "-O0,-DDEBUG=1": Uses these strings as objc fastbuild compiler options.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_omitfp default: "false": If true, use libunwind for stack unwinding, and compile with -fomit-frame- pointer and -fasynchronous-unwind-tables.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_use_llvm_covmap default: "false": If specified, Bazel will generate llvm-cov coverage map information rather than gcov when collect_code_coverage is enabled.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fat_apk_cpu=<comma-separated list of options> default: "armeabi-v7a": Setting this option enables fat APKs, which contain native binaries for all specified target architectures, e.g., --fat_apk_cpu=x86,armeabi-v7a. If this flag is specified, then --android_cpu is ignored for dependencies of android_binary rules.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--fdo_instrument=<a string> default: see description: Generate binaries with FDO instrumentation. With Clang/LLVM compiler, it also accepts the directory name under which the raw profile file(s) will be dumped at runtime.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_optimize=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Use FDO profile information to optimize compilation. Specify the name of the zip file containing the .gcda file tree, an afdo file containing an auto profile or an xfdo file containing a default cross binary profile. If the multiple profiles passed through the option include xfdo file and other types of profiles, the last profile other than xfdo file will prevail. If the multiple profiles include only xfdo files or don't include any xfdo file, the last profile will prevail. This flag also accepts files specified as labels, for example //foo/bar:file.afdo. Such labels must refer to input files; you may need to add an exports_files directive to the corresponding package to make the file visible to Bazel. It also accepts a raw or an indexed LLVM profile file. This flag will be superseded by fdo_profile rule.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_prefetch_hints=<a build target label> default: see description: Use cache prefetch hints.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_profile=<a build target label> default: see description: The fdo_profile representing the profile to be used for optimization.
Tags: affects_outputs
--features=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The given features will be enabled or disabled by default for all packages. Specifying -<feature> will disable the feature globally. Negative features always override positive ones. This flag is used to enable rolling out default feature changes without a Bazel release.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--[no]force_pic default: "false": If enabled, all C++ compilations produce position-independent code ("- fPIC"), links prefer PIC pre-built libraries over non-PIC libraries, and links produce position-independent executables ("-pie").
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute. Can be "PY2" or " PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> default: "opt": Specify the mode the tools used during the build will be built in. Values: ' fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--host_conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_cpu=<a string> default: "": The host CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute for the host configuration. Can be "PY2" or "PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]instrument_test_targets default: "false": When coverage is enabled, specifies whether to consider instrumenting test rules. When set, test rules included by --instrumentation_filter are instrumented. Otherwise, test rules are always excluded from coverage instrumentation.
Tags: affects_outputs
--instrumentation_filter=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths> default: "-/javatests[/:],-/test/java[/:]": When coverage is enabled, only rules with names included by the specified regex- based filter will be instrumented. Rules prefixed with '-' are excluded instead. Note that only non-test rules are instrumented unless -- instrument_test_targets is enabled.
Tags: affects_outputs
--ios_cpu=<a string> default: "x86_64": Specifies to target CPU of iOS compilation.
Tags: no_op, deprecated
--ios_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible iOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--ios_multi_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Comma-separated list of architectures to build an ios_application with. The result is a universal binary containing all specified architectures.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--[no]legacy_whole_archive default: "true": When on, use --whole-archive for cc_binary rules that have linkshared=1 and either linkstatic=1 or '-static' in linkopts. This is for backwards compatibility only. A better alternative is to use alwayslink=1 where required.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltobackendopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO backend step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltoindexopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO indexing step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--macos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple macOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--macos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible macOS version for targets.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]objc_debug_with_GLIBCXX default: "false": If set, and compilation mode is set to 'dbg', define GLIBCXX_DEBUG, GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC and GLIBCPP_CONCEPT_CHECKS.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]objc_enable_binary_stripping default: "false": Whether to perform symbol and dead-code strippings on linked binaries. Binary strippings will be performed if both this flag and --compilationMode=opt are specified.
Tags: action_command_lines
--objccopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Objective C compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--per_file_copt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to gcc when compiling certain files. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1, option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: --per_file_copt=//foo/. *\.cc,-//foo/bar\.cc@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the gcc command line of all cc files in //foo/ except bar.cc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--per_file_ltobackendopt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to LTO backend (under -- features=thin_lto) when compiling certain backend objects. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1,option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns. option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: -- per_file_ltobackendopt=//foo/.*\.o,-//foo/bar\.o@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the LTO backend command line of all o files in //foo/ except bar.o.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--platform_suffix=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--run_under=<a prefix in front of command> default: see description: Prefix to insert in front of command before running. Examples: --run_under=valgrind --run_under=strace --run_under='strace -c' --run_under='valgrind --quiet --num-callers=20' --run_under=//package:target --run_under='//package:target --options'
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]share_native_deps default: "true": If true, native libraries that contain identical functionality will be shared among different targets
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]stamp default: "false": Stamp binaries with the date, username, hostname, workspace information, etc.
Tags: affects_outputs
--strip=<always, sometimes or never> default: "sometimes": Specifies whether to strip binaries and shared libraries (using "-Wl,-- strip-debug"). The default value of 'sometimes' means strip iff -- compilation_mode=fastbuild.
Tags: affects_outputs
--stripopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to strip when generating a '<name>. stripped' binary.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--swiftcopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Swift compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--symlink_prefix=<a string> default: see description: The prefix that is prepended to any of the convenience symlinks that are created after a build. If '/' is passed, then no symlinks are created and no warning is emitted. If omitted, the default value is the name of the build tool.
Tags: affects_outputs
--tvos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple tvOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--tvos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible tvOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "i386": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple watchOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--watchos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible watchOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state

--auto_cpu_environment_group=<a build target label> default: "": Declare the environment_group to use for automatically mapping cpu values to target_environment values.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]check_licenses default: "false": Check that licensing constraints imposed by dependent packages do not conflict with distribution modes of the targets being built. By default, licenses are not checked.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]check_visibility default: "true": If disabled, visibility errors are demoted to warnings.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]desugar_for_android default: "true": Whether to desugar Java 8 bytecode before dexing.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]enforce_constraints default: "true": Checks the environments each target is compatible with and reports errors if any target has dependencies that don't support the same environments
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]experimental_allow_android_library_deps_without_srcs default: "false": Flag to help transition from allowing to disallowing srcs-less android_library rules with deps. The depot needs to be cleaned up to roll this out by default.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_throw_on_resource_conflict default: "false": If passed, resource merge conflicts will be treated as errors instead of warnings
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_check_desugar_deps default: "false": Whether to double-check correct desugaring at Android binary level.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_desugar_java8_libs default: "false": Whether to include supported Java 8 libraries in apps for legacy devices.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--experimental_import_deps_checking=<off, warning or error> default: "OFF": When enabled, check whether the dependencies of an aar_import are complete. This enforcement can break the build, or can just result in warnings.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_java_proto_add_allowed_public_imports default: "false": If true, add --allowed_public_imports to the java compile actions.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]strict_filesets default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets crossing package boundaries are reported as errors. It does not work when check_fileset_dependencies_recursively is disabled.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_java_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "default": If true, checks that a Java target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_proto_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "strict": If true, checks that a proto_library target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit, incompatible_change
--[no]strict_system_includes default: "false": If true, headers found through system include paths (-isystem) are also required to be declared.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, eagerness_to_exit
--target_environment=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Declares this build's target environment. Must be a label reference to an "environment" rule. If specified, all top-level targets must be compatible with this environment.
Tags: changes_inputs

--apk_signing_method=<v1, v2 or v1_v2> default: "v1_v2": Implementation to use to sign APKs
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--default_ios_provisioning_profile=<a build target label> default: "": Tags: changes_inputs
--[no]device_debug_entitlements default: "true": If set, and compilation mode is not 'opt', objc apps will include debug entitlements when signing.
Tags: changes_inputs
--extra_entitlements=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of a .entitlements file that is merged into any iOS signing action in this build.
Tags: changes_inputs
--ios_signing_cert_name=<a string> default: see description: Certificate name to use for iOS signing. If not set will fall back to provisioning profile. May be the certificate's keychain identity preference or (substring) of the certificate's common name, as per codesign's man page (SIGNING IDENTITIES).
Tags: action_command_lines

--[no]experimental_android_use_parallel_dex2oat default: "false": Use dex2oat in parallel to possibly speed up android_test.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, host_machine_resource_optimizations, experimental
--[no]ios_memleaks default: "false": Enable checking for memory leaks in ios_test targets.
Tags: action_command_lines
--ios_simulator_device=<a string> default: "iPhone 5s": The device to simulate when running an iOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'iPhone 6'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--ios_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.3": The version of iOS to run on the simulator when running or testing. This is ignored for ios_test rules if a target device is specified in the rule.
Tags: test_runner
--test_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional environment variables to be injected into the test runner environment. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case its value will be read from the Bazel client environment, or by the name=value pair. This option can be used multiple times to specify several variables. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
Tags: test_runner
--test_timeout=<a single integer or comma-separated list of 4 integers> default: "-1": Override the default test timeout values for test timeouts (in secs). If a single positive integer value is specified it will override all categories. If 4 comma-separated integers are specified, they will override the timeouts for short, moderate, long and eternal (in that order). In either form, a value of -1 tells bazel to use its default timeouts for that category.
--tvos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple TV 1080p": The device to simulate when running an tvOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'Apple TV 1080p'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--tvos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.0": The version of tvOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple Watch - 38mm": The device to simulate when running an watchOS application in the simulator, e. g. 'Apple Watch - 38mm'. You can get a list of devices by running ' xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "2.0": The version of watchOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner

--[no]distinct_host_configuration default: "true": Build all the tools used during the build for a distinct configuration from that used for the target program. When this is disabled, the same configuration is used for host and target programs. This may cause undesirable rebuilds of tools such as the protocol compiler (and then everything downstream) whenever a minor change is made to the target configuration, such as setting the linker options. When this is enabled (the default), a distinct configuration will be used to build the tools, preventing undesired rebuilds. However, certain libraries will then need to be compiled twice, once for each configuration, which may cause some builds to be slower. As a rule of thumb, this option is likely to benefit users that make frequent changes in configuration (e.g. opt/dbg). Please read the user manual for the full explanation.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, bazel_internal_configuration, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_inmemory_dotd_files default: "false": If enabled, C++ .d files will be passed through in memory directly from the remote build nodes instead of being written to disk.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_no_dotd_scanning_with_modules default: "false": If enabled, don't analyze generated .d files in builds with Clang's C++ modules.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]experimental_objc_header_thinning default: "false": If set then ObjcCompile actions will have their action inputs reduced by running a tool to detect which headers are actually required for compilation.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_prune_cpp_input_discovery default: "false": If enabled, stop C++ input discovery at modular headers.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]incremental_dexing default: "true": Does most of the work for dexing separately for each Jar file.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--objc_header_thinning_partition_size=<an integer> default: "120": The maximum number of source files to process within in each header scanning action.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]objc_use_dotd_pruning default: "true": If set, .d files emited by clang will be used to prune the set of inputs passed into objc compiles.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]parse_headers_verifies_modules default: "false": If enabled, the parse_headers feature verifies that a header module can be built for the target in question instead of doing a separate compile of the header.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs
--[no]process_headers_in_dependencies default: "false": When building a target //a:a, process headers in all targets that //a:a depends on (if header processing is enabled for the toolchain).
Tags: execution
--[no]prune_cpp_modules default: "true": If enabled, use the results of input discovery to reduce the number of used modules.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, changes_inputs
--[no]trim_test_configuration default: "false": When enabled, test-related options will be cleared below the top level of the build. When this flag is active, tests cannot be built as dependencies of non- test rules, but changes to test-related options will not cause non-test rules to be re-analyzed.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]use_singlejar_apkbuilder default: "true": Build Android APKs with SingleJar.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]announce default: "false": Deprecated. No-op.
Tags: affects_outputs
--explain=<a path> default: see description: Causes the build system to explain each executed step of the build. The explanation is written to the specified log file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--output_filter=<a valid Java regular expression> default: see description: Only shows warnings for rules with a name matching the provided regular expression.
Tags: affects_outputs
--progress_report_interval=<an integer in 0-3600 range> default: "0": The number of seconds to wait between two reports on still running jobs. The default value 0 means to use the default 10:30:60 incremental algorithm.
Tags: affects_outputs
--show_result=<an integer> default: "1": Show the results of the build. For each target, state whether or not it was brought up-to-date, and if so, a list of output files that were built. The printed files are convenient strings for copy+pasting to the shell, to execute them. This option requires an integer argument, which is the threshold number of targets above which result information is not printed. Thus zero causes suppression of the message and MAX_INT causes printing of the result to occur always. The default is one.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]toolchain_resolution_debug default: "false": Print debug information while finding toolchains for a rule. This might help developers of Bazel or Skylark rules with debugging failures due to missing toolchains.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]verbose_explanations default: "false": Increases the verbosity of the explanations issued if --explain is enabled. Has no effect if --explain is not enabled.
Tags: affects_outputs

--[no]build_manual_tests default: "false": Forces test targets tagged 'manual' to be built. 'manual' tests are excluded from processing. This option forces them to be built (but not executed).
--build_tag_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of tags. Each tag can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded tags. Only those targets will be built that contain at least one included tag and do not contain any excluded tags. This option does not affect the set of tests executed with the 'test' command; those are be governed by the test filtering options, for example ' --test_tag_filters'
--[no]build_tests_only default: "false": If specified, only *_test and test_suite rules will be built and other targets specified on the command line will be ignored. By default everything that was requested will be built.
--[no]cache_test_results [-t] default: "auto": If set to 'auto', Bazel reruns a test if and only if: (1) Bazel detects changes in the test or its dependencies, (2) the test is marked as external, (3) multiple test runs were requested with --runs_per_test, or(4) the test previously failed. If set to 'yes', Bazel caches all test results except for tests marked as external. If set to 'no', Bazel does not cache any test results.
--check_constraint=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Check the listed constraint.
--[no]check_tests_up_to_date default: "false": Don't run tests, just check if they are up-to-date. If all tests results are up-to-date, the testing completes successfully. If any test needs to be built or executed, an error is reported and the testing fails. This option implies --check_up_to_date behavior.
--[no]check_up_to_date default: "false": Don't perform the build, just check if it is up-to-date. If all targets are up-to-date, the build completes successfully. If any step needs to be executed an error is reported and the build fails.
--[no]compile_one_dependency default: "false": Compile a single dependency of the argument files. This is useful for syntax checking source files in IDEs, for example, by rebuilding a single target that depends on the source file to detect errors as early as possible in the edit/build/test cycle. This argument affects the way all non-flag arguments are interpreted; instead of being targets to build they are source filenames. For each source filename an arbitrary target that depends on it will be built.
--deleted_packages=<comma-separated list of package names> default: "": A comma-separated list of names of packages which the build system will consider non-existent, even if they are visible somewhere on the package path. Use this option when deleting a subpackage 'x/y' of an existing package 'x'. For example, after deleting x/y/BUILD in your client, the build system may complain if it encounters a label '//x:y/z' if that is still provided by another package_path entry. Specifying --deleted_packages x/y avoids this problem.
--[no]discard_analysis_cache default: "false": Discard the analysis cache immediately after the analysis phase completes. Reduces memory usage by ~10%, but makes further incremental builds slower.
--[no]expand_test_suites default: "true": Expand test_suite targets into their constituent tests before analysis. When this flag is turned on (the default), negative target patterns will apply to the tests belonging to the test suite, otherwise they will not. Turning off this flag is useful when top-level aspects are applied at command line: then they can analyze test_suite targets.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--experimental_execution_log_file=<a string> default: "": Log the executed spawns into this file as delimited Spawn protos.
--experimental_extra_action_filter=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths> default: "": Filters set of targets to schedule extra_actions for.
--[no]experimental_extra_action_top_level_only default: "false": Only schedules extra_actions for top level targets.
--[no]experimental_interleave_loading_and_analysis default: "true": No-op.
--[no]experimental_j2objc_header_map default: "true": Whether to generate J2ObjC header map in parallel of J2ObjC transpilation.
--[no]experimental_local_memory_estimate default: "false": Estimate the actual memory available online. By default, Bazel assumes most actions use a fixed amount of memory, and counts that against the total available system memory, regardless of how much memory is actually available. This option enables online estimation of how much memory is available at any given time, and thus does not require accurate estimation of how much memory a given action will take.
--[no]experimental_strict_action_env default: "false": If true, Bazel uses an environment with a static value for PATH and does not inherit LD_LIBRARY_PATH or TMPDIR. Use --action_env=ENV_VARIABLE if you want to inherit specific environment variables from the client, but note that doing so can prevent cross-user caching if a shared cache is used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]explicit_java_test_deps default: "false": Explicitly specify a dependency to JUnit or Hamcrest in a java_test instead of accidentally obtaining from the TestRunner's deps. Only works for bazel right now.
--[no]explicit_jre_deps default: "true": This flag is a noop and will be removed.
--flaky_test_attempts=<a positive integer, the string "default", or test_regex@attempts. This flag may be passed more than once> multiple uses are accumulated: Each test will be retried up to the specified number of times in case of any test failure. Tests that required more than one attempt to pass would be marked as 'FLAKY' in the test summary. If this option is set, it should specify an int N or the string 'default'. If it's an int, then all tests will be run up to N times. If it is not specified or its value is ' default', then only a single test attempt will be made for regular tests and three for tests marked explicitly as flaky by their rule (flaky=1 attribute).
--host_java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher used by tools that are executed during a build.
--host_java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The Java toolchain used to build tools that are executed during a build.
--host_javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:host_jdk": JAVABASE used for the host JDK. This is the java_runtime which is used to execute tools during a build.
--host_platform_remote_properties_override=<a string> default: see description: Manually set the remote_execution_properties for the host platform if it is not already set.
--j2objc_translation_flags=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the J2ObjC tool.
--java_classpath=<off or javabuilder> default: "javabuilder": Enables reduced classpaths for Java compilations.
--java_debug: Causes the Java virtual machine of a java test to wait for a connection from a JDWP-compliant debugger (such as jdb) before starting the test. Implies - test_output=streamed.
Expands to:
  --test_arg=--wrapper_script_flag=--debug
  --test_output=streamed
  --test_strategy=exclusive
  --test_timeout=9999
  --nocache_test_results
--[no]java_deps default: "true": Generate dependency information (for now, compile-time classpath) per Java target.
--[no]java_header_compilation default: "true": Compile ijars directly from source.
--java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher to use when building Java binaries. The "launcher" attribute overrides this flag.
--java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The name of the toolchain rule for Java.
--javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:jdk": JAVABASE used for the JDK invoked by Bazel. This is the java_runtime which will be used to execute external Java commands.
--javacopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to javac.
--jvmopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the Java VM. These options will get added to the VM startup options of each java_binary target.
--local_resources=<comma-separated available amount of RAM (in MB), CPU (in cores) and available I/O (1.0 being average workstation)> default: see description: Explicitly set amount of local resources available to Bazel. By default, Bazel will query system configuration to estimate amount of RAM (in MB) and number of CPU cores available for the locally executed build actions. It would also assume default I/O capabilities of the local workstation (1.0). This options allows to explicitly set all 3 values. Note, that if this option is used, Bazel will ignore --ram_utilization_factor.
--local_termination_grace_seconds=<an integer> default: "15": Time to wait between terminating a local process due to timeout and forcefully shutting it down.
--local_test_jobs=<an integer> default: "0": The max number of local test jobs to run concurrently. 0 means local resources will limit the number of local test jobs to run concurrently instead. Setting this greater than the value for --jobs is ineffectual.
--[no]materialize_param_files default: "false": Writes intermediate parameter files to output tree even when using remote action execution. Useful when debugging actions.
--message_translations=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The message translations used for translating messages in Java targets.
--package_path=<colon-separated list of options> default: "%workspace%": A colon-separated list of where to look for packages. Elements beginning with '%workspace%' are relative to the enclosing workspace. If omitted or empty, the default is the output of 'bazel info default-package-path'.
--plugin=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Plugins to use in the build. Currently works with java_plugin.
--proguard_top=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies which version of ProGuard to use for code removal when building a Java binary.
--proto_compiler=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:protoc": The label of the proto-compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_cc=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:cc_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile C++ protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_j2objc=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/j2objc:j2objc_proto_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile j2objc protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_java=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:java_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile Java protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_javalite=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf_javalite//:javalite_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile JavaLite protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--protocopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the protobuf compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs
--ram_utilization_factor=<an integer> default: "67": Specify what percentage of the system's RAM Bazel should try to use for its subprocesses. This option affects how many processes Bazel will try to run in parallel. If you run several Bazel builds in parallel, using a lower value for this option may avoid thrashing and thus improve overall throughput. Using a value higher than the default is NOT recommended. Note that Bazel's estimates are very coarse, so the actual RAM usage may be much higher or much lower than specified. Note also that this option does not affect the amount of memory that the Bazel server itself will use.
--[no]resource_autosense default: "false": This flag has no effect, and is deprecated
--runs_per_test=<a positive integer or test_regex@runs. This flag may be passed more than once> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies number of times to run each test. If any of those attempts fail for any reason, the whole test would be considered failed. Normally the value specified is just an integer. Example: --runs_per_test=3 will run all tests 3 times. Alternate syntax: regex_filter@runs_per_test. Where runs_per_test stands for an integer value and regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). Example: -- runs_per_test=//foo/.*,-//foo/bar/.*@3 runs all tests in //foo/ except those under foo/bar three times. This option can be passed multiple times.
--[no]runs_per_test_detects_flakes default: "false": If true, any shard in which at least one run/attempt passes and at least one run/attempt fails gets a FLAKY status.
--shell_executable=<a path> default: see description: Absolute path to the shell executable for Bazel to use. If this is unset, but the BAZEL_SH environment variable is set on the first Bazel invocation (that starts up a Bazel server), Bazel uses that. If neither is set, Bazel uses a hard-coded default path depending on the operating system it runs on (Windows: c:/tools/msys64/usr/bin/bash.exe, FreeBSD: /usr/local/bin/bash, all others: /bin/bash). Note that using a shell that is not compatible with bash may lead to build failures or runtime failures of the generated binaries.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]show_loading_progress default: "true": If enabled, causes Bazel to print "Loading package:" messages.
--[no]subcommands [-s] default: "false": Display the subcommands executed during a build.
--test_arg=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional options and arguments that should be passed to the test executable. Can be used multiple times to specify several arguments. If multiple tests are executed, each of them will receive identical arguments. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
--test_filter=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a filter to forward to the test framework. Used to limit the tests run. Note that this does not affect which targets are built.
--[no]test_keep_going default: "true": When disabled, any non-passing test will cause the entire build to stop. By default all tests are run, even if some do not pass.
--test_lang_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test languages. Each language can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded languages. Only those test targets will be found that are written in the specified languages. The name used for each language should be the same as the language prefix in the *_test rule, e.g. one of 'cc', 'java', 'py', etc. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_output=<summary, errors, all or streamed> default: "summary": Specifies desired output mode. Valid values are 'summary' to output only test status summary, 'errors' to also print test logs for failed tests, 'all' to print logs for all tests and 'streamed' to output logs for all tests in real time (this will force tests to be executed locally one at a time regardless of --test_strategy value).
--test_result_expiration=<an integer> default: "-1": This option is deprecated and has no effect.
--test_sharding_strategy=<explicit, experimental_heuristic or disabled> default: "explicit": Specify strategy for test sharding: 'explicit' to only use sharding if the 'shard_count' BUILD attribute is present. 'disabled' to never use test sharding. 'experimental_heuristic' to enable sharding on remotely executed tests without an explicit 'shard_count' attribute which link in a supported framework. Considered experimental.
--test_size_filters=<comma-separated list of values: small, medium, large or enormous> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test sizes. Each size can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded sizes. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included size and do not contain any excluded sizes. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_strategy=<a string> default: "": Specifies which strategy to use when running tests.
--test_summary=<short, terse, detailed or none> default: "short": Specifies the desired format ot the test summary. Valid values are ' short' to print information only about tests executed, 'terse', to print information only about unsuccessful tests that were run, ' detailed' to print detailed information about failed test cases, and ' none' to omit the summary.
--test_tag_filters=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test tags. Each tag can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded tags. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included tag and do not contain any excluded tags. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_timeout_filters=<comma-separated list of values: short, moderate, long or eternal> default: "": Specifies a comma-separated list of test timeouts. Each timeout can be optionally preceded with '-' to specify excluded timeouts. Only those test targets will be found that contain at least one included timeout and do not contain any excluded timeouts. This option affects --build_tests_only behavior and the test command.
--test_tmpdir=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the base temporary directory for 'bazel test' to use.
--[no]translations default: "auto": Translate Java messages; bundle all translations into the jar for each affected rule.
--[no]use_ijars default: "true": If enabled, this option causes Java compilation to use interface jars. This will result in faster incremental compilation, but error messages can be different.
--[no]verbose_failures default: "false": If a command fails, print out the full command line.

Canonicalize-flags Options

--[no]canonicalize_policy default: "false": Output the canonical policy, after expansion and filtering. To keep the output clean, the canonicalized command arguments will NOT be shown when this option is set to true. Note that the command specified by --for_command affects the filtered policy, and if none is specified, the default command is ' build'.
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output
--[no]show_warnings default: "false": Output parser warnings to standard error (e.g. for conflicting flag options).
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

--for_command=<a string> default: "build": The command for which the options should be canonicalized.
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output
--invocation_policy=<a string> default: "": Applies an invocation policy to the options to be canonicalized.
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output

Clean Options

Inherits all options from build.

--[no]async default: "false": If true, output cleaning is asynchronous. When this command completes, it will be safe to execute new commands in the same client, even though the deletion may continue in the background.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]expunge default: "false": If true, clean removes the entire working tree for this bazel instance, which includes all bazel-created temporary and build output files, and stops the bazel server if it is running.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--expunge_async: If specified, clean asynchronously removes the entire working tree for this % {product} instance, which includes all bazel-created temporary and build output files, and stops the bazel server if it is running. When this command completes, it will be safe to execute new commands in the same client, even though the deletion may continue in the background.
Expands to:
--expunge
--async

Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Coverage Options

Inherits all options from test.

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Cquery Options

Inherits all options from build.

--aspect_deps=<off, conservative or precise> default: "conservative": How to resolve aspect dependencies when the output format is one of {xml,proto, record}. 'off' means no aspect dependencies are resolved, ' conservative' (the default) means all declared aspect dependencies are added regardless of whether they are given the rule class of direct dependencies, 'precise' means that only those aspects are added that are possibly active given the rule class of the direct dependencies. Note that precise mode requires loading other packages to evaluate a single target thus making it slower than the other modes. Also note that even precise mode is not completely precise: the decision whether to compute an aspect is decided in the analysis phase, which is not run during 'bazel query'.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]host_deps default: "true": Query: If disabled, dependencies on 'host configuration' targets will not be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. A ' host configuration' dependency edge, such as the one from any ' proto_library' rule to the Protocol Compiler, usually points to a tool executed during the build (on the host machine) rather than a part of the same 'target' program. Cquery: If disabled, filters out all configured targets which cross a host transition from the top-level target that discovered this configured target. That means if the top-level target is in the target configuration, only configured targets also in the target configuration will be returned. If the top-level target is in the host configuration, only host configured targets will be returned.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]implicit_deps default: "true": If enabled, implicit dependencies will be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. An implicit dependency is one that is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file but added by bazel.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--output=<a string> default: "label": The format in which the cquery results should be printed. Allowed values for cquery are: label, transitions, proto. If you select 'transitions', you also have to specify the --transitions=(lite|full) option.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:default_values default: "true": If true, attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are included; otherwise they are omitted. This option is applicable to -- output=proto
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:flatten_selects default: "true": If enabled, configurable attributes created by select() are flattened. For list types the flattened representation is a list containing each value of the select map exactly once. Scalar types are flattened to null.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]proto:include_configurations default: "true": if enabled, proto output will include information about configurations. When disabled,cquery proto output format resembles query output format
Tags: affects_outputs
--proto:output_rule_attrs=<comma-separated list of options> default: "all": Comma separated list of attributes to include in output. Defaults to all attributes. Set to empty string to not output any attribute. This option is applicable to --output=proto.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]relative_locations default: "false": If true, the location of BUILD files in xml and proto outputs will be relative. By default, the location output is an absolute path and will not be consistent across machines. You can set this option to true to have a consistent result across machines.
Tags: terminal_output
--transitions=<full, lite or none> default: "none": The format in which cquery will print transition information.
Tags: affects_outputs
--universe_scope=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": A comma-separated set of target patterns (additive and subtractive). The query may be performed in the universe defined by the transitive closure of the specified targets. This option is used for the query and cquery commands. For cquery, the input to this option is the targets all answers are built under and so this option may affect configurations and transitions. If this option is not specified, the top-level targets are assumed to be the targets parsed from the query expression. Note: For cquery, not specifying this option may cause the build to break if targets parsed from the query expression are not buildable with top-level options.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

--[no]experimental_strict_fileset_output default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets will treat all output artifacts as regular files. They will not traverse directories or be sensitive to symlinks.
Tags: execution

--android_aapt=<aapt, aapt2 or auto> default: "aapt": Selects the version of androidAaptVersion to use for android_binary rules.Flag to help the test and transition to aapt2.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_compiler=<a string> default: see description: The Android target compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "//external:android/crosstool": The location of the C++ compiler used for Android builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: The Android target grte_top.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_manifest_merger=<legacy or android> default: "android": Selects the manifest merger to use for android_binary rules. Flag to help thetransition to the Android manifest merger from the legacy merger.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_sdk=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/android:sdk": Specifies Android SDK/platform that is used to build Android applications.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--apple_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used in Apple and Objc rules and their dependencies.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, changes_inputs
--apple_sdk=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of target that will provide the appropriate Apple SDK for the current build configuration.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_output_directory_tag=<a string> default: "": Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compiler=<a string> default: see description: The C++ compiler to use for compiling the target.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution
--coverage_report_generator=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_report_generator": Location of the binary that is used to generate coverage reports. This must currently be a filegroup that contains a single file, the binary. Defaults to '//tools/test:coverage_report_generator'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--coverage_support=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/test:coverage_support": Location of support files that are required on the inputs of every test action that collects code coverage. Defaults to '//tools/test: coverage_support'.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/cpp:toolchain": The label of the crosstool package to be used for compiling C++ code.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--custom_malloc=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies a custom malloc implementation. This setting overrides malloc attributes in build rules.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--enabled_toolchain_types=<a build target label> default: "": Enable toolchain resolution for the given toolchain type, if the rules used support that. This does not directly change the core Bazel machinery, but is a signal to participating rule implementations that toolchain resolution should be used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_disable_compilation_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from compilation_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_compilation_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing compilation flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_cc_linking_api default: "false": If true, C++ Skylark API exposing linking flags will be disabled.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_legacy_crosstool_fields default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from legacy crosstool fields (see #5187.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_disable_linking_mode_flags default: "false": If true, Bazel will not read crosstool flags from linking_mode_flags field.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_cc_toolchain_config_info default: "false": If true, Bazel will allow creating a CcToolchainConfigInfo.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_enable_objc_cc_deps default: "true": Allows objc_* rules to depend on cc_library and causes any objc dependencies to be built with --cpu set to "ios_<--ios_cpu>" for any values in --ios_multi_cpu.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change
--experimental_stl=<a build target label> default: see description: If set, use this label instead of the default STL implementation. This option is EXPERIMENTAL and may go away in a future release.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines, experimental
--extra_execution_platforms=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The platforms that are available as execution platforms to run actions. Platforms can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These platforms will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_execution_platforms().
Tags: execution
--extra_toolchains=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": The toolchain rules to be considered during toolchain resolution. Toolchains can be specified by exact target, or as a target pattern. These toolchains will be considered before those declared in the WORKSPACE file by register_toolchains().
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--grte_top=<a label> default: see description: A label to a checked-in libc library. The default value is selected by the crosstool toolchain, and you almost never need to override it.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_crosstool_top=<a build target label> default: see description: By default, the --crosstool_top and --compiler options are also used for the host configuration. If this flag is provided, Bazel uses the default libc and compiler for the given crosstool_top.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_grte_top=<a label> default: see description: If specified, this setting overrides the libc top-level directory (--grte_top) for the host configuration.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_platform=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:host_platform": The label of a platform rule that describes the host system.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]incompatible_strict_objc_module_maps default: "false": Propagates Objective-C module maps only to direct dependencies in the ' objc' provider, not to all transitive dependencies.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, incompatible_change, triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes
--[no]interface_shared_objects default: "true": Use interface shared objects if supported by the toolchain. All ELF toolchains currently support this setting.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, affects_outputs
--ios_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the iOS SDK to use to build iOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--macos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the macOS SDK to use to build macOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--minimum_os_version=<a string> default: see description: The minimum OS version which your compilation targets.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--objc_header_scanner_tool=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/objc:header_scanner": Location of tool to scan Objective-C code for inclusions and output a . headers_list file.
Tags: changes_inputs
--platforms=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//platforms:target_platform": The labels of the platform rules describing the target platforms for the current command.
Tags: affects_outputs, changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--python2_path=<a string> default: "python": Local path to the Python2 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python3_path=<An option for python3 path> default: "auto": Local path to the Python3 executable. Deprecated, please use python_path or python_top instead.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, deprecated
--python_path=<a string> default: "python": The absolute path of the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--python_top=<a build target label> default: see description: The label of py_runtime rule used for the Python interpreter invoked by Bazel.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--tvos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the tvOS SDK to use to build tvOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_sdk_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Specifies the version of the watchOS SDK to use to build watchOS applications.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version=<a string> default: see description: If specified, uses Xcode of the given version for relevant build actions. If unspecified, uses the executor default version of Xcode.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--xcode_version_config=<a build target label> default: "@local_config_xcode//:host_xcodes": The label of the xcode_config rule to be used for selecting the Xcode version in the build configuration.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis

--[no]apple_enable_auto_dsym_dbg default: "false": Whether to force enable generating debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s) for dbg builds.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]apple_generate_dsym default: "false": Whether to generate debug symbol(.dSYM) file(s).
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--[no]build_runfile_links default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for all targets. If false, write only manifests when possible.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_runfile_manifests default: "true": If true, write runfiles manifests for all targets. If false, omit them.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]build_test_dwp default: "false": If enabled, when building C++ tests statically and with fission the .dwp file for the test binary will be automatically built as well.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--cc_proto_library_header_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.h": Sets the prefixes of header files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--cc_proto_library_source_suffixes=<comma-separated list of options> default: ".pb.cc": Sets the prefixes of source files that a cc_proto_library creates.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]enable_apple_binary_native_protos default: "true": If set, apple_binary will generate and link objc protos into the output binary.
Tags: affects_outputs, incompatible_change
--[no]experimental_objc_enable_module_maps default: "false": Enables module map generation and interpretation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_proto_extra_actions default: "false": Run extra actions for alternative Java api versions in a proto_library.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fission=<a set of compilation modes> default: "no": Specifies which compilation modes use fission for C++ compilations and links. May be any combination of {'fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'} or the special values 'yes' to enable all modes and 'no' to disable all modes.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]legacy_external_runfiles default: "true": If true, build runfiles symlink forests for external repositories under . runfiles/wsname/external/repo (in addition to .runfiles/repo).
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]objc_generate_linkmap default: "false": Specifies whether to generate a linkmap file.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]output_symbol_counts default: "false": If enabled, for every C++ binary linked with gold, the number of defined symbols and the number of used symbols per input file is stored in a .sc file.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]save_temps default: "false": If set, temporary outputs from gcc will be saved. These include .s files (assembler code), .i files (preprocessed C) and .ii files (preprocessed C++).
Tags: affects_outputs

--action_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies the set of environment variables available to actions. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case the value will be taken from the invocation environment, or by the name=value pair which sets the value independent of the invocation environment. This option can be used multiple times; for options given for the same variable, the latest wins, options for different variables accumulate.
Tags: action_command_lines
--android_cpu=<a string> default: "armeabi-v7a": The Android target CPU.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--android_dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "off": Determines whether C++ deps of Android rules will be linked dynamically when a cc_binary does not explicitly create a shared library. 'default' means bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--apple_bitcode=<none, embedded_markers or embedded> default: "none": Specify the Apple bitcode mode for compile steps. Values: 'none', ' embedded_markers', 'embedded'.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]build_python_zip default: "auto": Build python executable zip; on on Windows, off on other platforms
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]collect_code_coverage default: "false": If specified, Bazel will instrument code (using offline instrumentation where possible) and will collect coverage information during tests. Only targets that match --instrumentation_filter will be affected. Usually this option should not be specified directly - 'bazel coverage' command should be used instead.
Tags: affects_outputs
--compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> [-c] default: "fastbuild": Specify the mode the binary will be built in. Values: 'fastbuild', ' dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--cpu=<a string> default: "": The target CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C++ source files.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--define=<a 'name=value' assignment> multiple uses are accumulated: Each --define option specifies an assignment for a build variable.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--dynamic_mode=<off, default or fully> default: "default": Determines whether C++ binaries will be linked dynamically. 'default' means Bazel will choose whether to link dynamically. 'fully' means all libraries will be linked dynamically. 'off' means that all libraries will be linked in mostly static mode.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]enable_fdo_profile_absolute_path default: "true": If set, use of fdo_absolute_profile_path will raise an error.
Tags: affects_outputs
--experimental_action_listener=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Use action_listener to attach an extra_action to existing build actions.
Tags: execution, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_compress_java_resources default: "false": Compress Java resources in APKs
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_databinding_v2 default: "false": Use android databinding v2
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_android_resource_shrinking default: "false": Enables resource shrinking for android_binary APKs that use ProGuard.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_rewrite_dexes_with_rex default: "false": use rex tool to rewrite dex files
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--[no]experimental_java_coverage default: "false": If true Bazel will use a new way of computing code coverage for java targets.
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]experimental_link_compile_output_separately default: "false": This flag is experimental and may go away at any time. If true, dynamically linked binary targets will build and link their own srcs as a dynamic library instead of directly linking it in.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_objc_fastbuild_options=<comma-separated list of options> default: "-O0,-DDEBUG=1": Uses these strings as objc fastbuild compiler options.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]experimental_omitfp default: "false": If true, use libunwind for stack unwinding, and compile with -fomit-frame- pointer and -fasynchronous-unwind-tables.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_use_llvm_covmap default: "false": If specified, Bazel will generate llvm-cov coverage map information rather than gcov when collect_code_coverage is enabled.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--fat_apk_cpu=<comma-separated list of options> default: "armeabi-v7a": Setting this option enables fat APKs, which contain native binaries for all specified target architectures, e.g., --fat_apk_cpu=x86,armeabi-v7a. If this flag is specified, then --android_cpu is ignored for dependencies of android_binary rules.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--fdo_instrument=<a string> default: see description: Generate binaries with FDO instrumentation. With Clang/LLVM compiler, it also accepts the directory name under which the raw profile file(s) will be dumped at runtime.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_optimize=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Use FDO profile information to optimize compilation. Specify the name of the zip file containing the .gcda file tree, an afdo file containing an auto profile or an xfdo file containing a default cross binary profile. If the multiple profiles passed through the option include xfdo file and other types of profiles, the last profile other than xfdo file will prevail. If the multiple profiles include only xfdo files or don't include any xfdo file, the last profile will prevail. This flag also accepts files specified as labels, for example //foo/bar:file.afdo. Such labels must refer to input files; you may need to add an exports_files directive to the corresponding package to make the file visible to Bazel. It also accepts a raw or an indexed LLVM profile file. This flag will be superseded by fdo_profile rule.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_prefetch_hints=<a build target label> default: see description: Use cache prefetch hints.
Tags: affects_outputs
--fdo_profile=<a build target label> default: see description: The fdo_profile representing the profile to be used for optimization.
Tags: affects_outputs
--features=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The given features will be enabled or disabled by default for all packages. Specifying -<feature> will disable the feature globally. Negative features always override positive ones. This flag is used to enable rolling out default feature changes without a Bazel release.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--[no]force_pic default: "false": If enabled, all C++ compilations produce position-independent code ("- fPIC"), links prefer PIC pre-built libraries over non-PIC libraries, and links produce position-independent executables ("-pie").
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute. Can be "PY2" or " PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_compilation_mode=<fastbuild, dbg or opt> default: "opt": Specify the mode the tools used during the build will be built in. Values: ' fastbuild', 'dbg', 'opt'.
Tags: affects_outputs, action_command_lines
--host_conlyopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when compiling C source files for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_copt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_cpu=<a string> default: "": The host CPU.
Tags: changes_inputs, affects_outputs
--host_cxxopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to gcc for host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--host_force_python=<py2, py3, py2and3, py2only or py3only> default: see description: Overrides default_python_version attribute for the host configuration. Can be "PY2" or "PY3".
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--host_linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking host tools.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--[no]instrument_test_targets default: "false": When coverage is enabled, specifies whether to consider instrumenting test rules. When set, test rules included by --instrumentation_filter are instrumented. Otherwise, test rules are always excluded from coverage instrumentation.
Tags: affects_outputs
--instrumentation_filter=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths> default: "-/javatests[/:],-/test/java[/:]": When coverage is enabled, only rules with names included by the specified regex- based filter will be instrumented. Rules prefixed with '-' are excluded instead. Note that only non-test rules are instrumented unless -- instrument_test_targets is enabled.
Tags: affects_outputs
--ios_cpu=<a string> default: "x86_64": Specifies to target CPU of iOS compilation.
Tags: no_op, deprecated
--ios_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible iOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--ios_multi_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": Comma-separated list of architectures to build an ios_application with. The result is a universal binary containing all specified architectures.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--[no]legacy_whole_archive default: "true": When on, use --whole-archive for cc_binary rules that have linkshared=1 and either linkstatic=1 or '-static' in linkopts. This is for backwards compatibility only. A better alternative is to use alwayslink=1 where required.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--linkopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to gcc when linking.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltobackendopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO backend step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--ltoindexopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional option to pass to the LTO indexing step (under --features=thin_lto).
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--macos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple macOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--macos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible macOS version for targets.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--[no]objc_debug_with_GLIBCXX default: "false": If set, and compilation mode is set to 'dbg', define GLIBCXX_DEBUG, GLIBCXX_DEBUG_PEDANTIC and GLIBCPP_CONCEPT_CHECKS.
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]objc_enable_binary_stripping default: "false": Whether to perform symbol and dead-code strippings on linked binaries. Binary strippings will be performed if both this flag and --compilationMode=opt are specified.
Tags: action_command_lines
--objccopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Objective C compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--per_file_copt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to gcc when compiling certain files. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1, option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: --per_file_copt=//foo/. *\.cc,-//foo/bar\.cc@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the gcc command line of all cc files in //foo/ except bar.cc.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--per_file_ltobackendopt=<a comma-separated list of regex expressions with prefix '-' specifying excluded paths followed by an @ and a comma separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to selectively pass to LTO backend (under -- features=thin_lto) when compiling certain backend objects. This option can be passed multiple times. Syntax: regex_filter@option_1,option_2,...,option_n. Where regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns. option_1 to option_n stand for arbitrary command line options. If an option contains a comma it has to be quoted with a backslash. Options can contain @. Only the first @ is used to split the string. Example: -- per_file_ltobackendopt=//foo/.*\.o,-//foo/bar\.o@-O0 adds the -O0 command line option to the LTO backend command line of all o files in //foo/ except bar.o.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--platform_suffix=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a suffix to be added to the configuration directory.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--run_under=<a prefix in front of command> default: see description: Prefix to insert in front of command before running. Examples: --run_under=valgrind --run_under=strace --run_under='strace -c' --run_under='valgrind --quiet --num-callers=20' --run_under=//package:target --run_under='//package:target --options'
Tags: action_command_lines
--[no]share_native_deps default: "true": If true, native libraries that contain identical functionality will be shared among different targets
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs
--[no]stamp default: "false": Stamp binaries with the date, username, hostname, workspace information, etc.
Tags: affects_outputs
--strip=<always, sometimes or never> default: "sometimes": Specifies whether to strip binaries and shared libraries (using "-Wl,-- strip-debug"). The default value of 'sometimes' means strip iff -- compilation_mode=fastbuild.
Tags: affects_outputs
--stripopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to strip when generating a '<name>. stripped' binary.
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs
--swiftcopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to Swift compilation.
Tags: action_command_lines
--tvos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "x86_64": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple tvOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--tvos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible tvOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state
--watchos_cpus=<comma-separated list of options> default: "i386": Comma-separated list of architectures for which to build Apple watchOS binaries.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, loading_and_analysis
--watchos_minimum_os=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: see description: Minimum compatible watchOS version for target simulators and devices.
Tags: loses_incremental_state

--auto_cpu_environment_group=<a build target label> default: "": Declare the environment_group to use for automatically mapping cpu values to target_environment values.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]check_licenses default: "false": Check that licensing constraints imposed by dependent packages do not conflict with distribution modes of the targets being built. By default, licenses are not checked.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]check_visibility default: "true": If disabled, visibility errors are demoted to warnings.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]desugar_for_android default: "true": Whether to desugar Java 8 bytecode before dexing.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]enforce_constraints default: "true": Checks the environments each target is compatible with and reports errors if any target has dependencies that don't support the same environments
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]experimental_allow_android_library_deps_without_srcs default: "false": Flag to help transition from allowing to disallowing srcs-less android_library rules with deps. The depot needs to be cleaned up to roll this out by default.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_android_throw_on_resource_conflict default: "false": If passed, resource merge conflicts will be treated as errors instead of warnings
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_check_desugar_deps default: "false": Whether to double-check correct desugaring at Android binary level.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_desugar_java8_libs default: "false": Whether to include supported Java 8 libraries in apps for legacy devices.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state, experimental
--experimental_import_deps_checking=<off, warning or error> default: "OFF": When enabled, check whether the dependencies of an aar_import are complete. This enforcement can break the build, or can just result in warnings.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_java_proto_add_allowed_public_imports default: "false": If true, add --allowed_public_imports to the java compile actions.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]strict_filesets default: "false": If this option is enabled, filesets crossing package boundaries are reported as errors. It does not work when check_fileset_dependencies_recursively is disabled.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_java_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "default": If true, checks that a Java target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--strict_proto_deps=<off, warn, error, strict or default> default: "strict": If true, checks that a proto_library target explicitly declares all directly used targets as dependencies.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit, incompatible_change
--[no]strict_system_includes default: "false": If true, headers found through system include paths (-isystem) are also required to be declared.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, eagerness_to_exit
--target_environment=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Declares this build's target environment. Must be a label reference to an "environment" rule. If specified, all top-level targets must be compatible with this environment.
Tags: changes_inputs

--apk_signing_method=<v1, v2 or v1_v2> default: "v1_v2": Implementation to use to sign APKs
Tags: action_command_lines, affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--default_ios_provisioning_profile=<a build target label> default: "": Tags: changes_inputs
--[no]device_debug_entitlements default: "true": If set, and compilation mode is not 'opt', objc apps will include debug entitlements when signing.
Tags: changes_inputs
--extra_entitlements=<a build target label> default: see description: Location of a .entitlements file that is merged into any iOS signing action in this build.
Tags: changes_inputs
--ios_signing_cert_name=<a string> default: see description: Certificate name to use for iOS signing. If not set will fall back to provisioning profile. May be the certificate's keychain identity preference or (substring) of the certificate's common name, as per codesign's man page (SIGNING IDENTITIES).
Tags: action_command_lines

--[no]experimental_android_use_parallel_dex2oat default: "false": Use dex2oat in parallel to possibly speed up android_test.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, host_machine_resource_optimizations, experimental
--[no]ios_memleaks default: "false": Enable checking for memory leaks in ios_test targets.
Tags: action_command_lines
--ios_simulator_device=<a string> default: "iPhone 5s": The device to simulate when running an iOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'iPhone 6'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--ios_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.3": The version of iOS to run on the simulator when running or testing. This is ignored for ios_test rules if a target device is specified in the rule.
Tags: test_runner
--test_env=<a 'name=value' assignment with an optional value part> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional environment variables to be injected into the test runner environment. Variables can be either specified by name, in which case its value will be read from the Bazel client environment, or by the name=value pair. This option can be used multiple times to specify several variables. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
Tags: test_runner
--test_timeout=<a single integer or comma-separated list of 4 integers> default: "-1": Override the default test timeout values for test timeouts (in secs). If a single positive integer value is specified it will override all categories. If 4 comma-separated integers are specified, they will override the timeouts for short, moderate, long and eternal (in that order). In either form, a value of -1 tells bazel to use its default timeouts for that category.
--tvos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple TV 1080p": The device to simulate when running an tvOS application in the simulator, e.g. 'Apple TV 1080p'. You can get a list of devices by running 'xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--tvos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "9.0": The version of tvOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_device=<a string> default: "Apple Watch - 38mm": The device to simulate when running an watchOS application in the simulator, e. g. 'Apple Watch - 38mm'. You can get a list of devices by running ' xcrun simctl list devicetypes' on the machine the simulator will be run on.
Tags: test_runner
--watchos_simulator_version=<a dotted version (for example '2.3' or '3.3alpha2.4')> default: "2.0": The version of watchOS to run on the simulator when running or testing.
Tags: test_runner

--aspect_deps=<off, conservative or precise> default: "conservative": How to resolve aspect dependencies when the output format is one of {xml,proto, record}. 'off' means no aspect dependencies are resolved, ' conservative' (the default) means all declared aspect dependencies are added regardless of whether they are given the rule class of direct dependencies, 'precise' means that only those aspects are added that are possibly active given the rule class of the direct dependencies. Note that precise mode requires loading other packages to evaluate a single target thus making it slower than the other modes. Also note that even precise mode is not completely precise: the decision whether to compute an aspect is decided in the analysis phase, which is not run during 'bazel query'.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]host_deps default: "true": Query: If disabled, dependencies on 'host configuration' targets will not be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. A ' host configuration' dependency edge, such as the one from any ' proto_library' rule to the Protocol Compiler, usually points to a tool executed during the build (on the host machine) rather than a part of the same 'target' program. Cquery: If disabled, filters out all configured targets which cross a host transition from the top-level target that discovered this configured target. That means if the top-level target is in the target configuration, only configured targets also in the target configuration will be returned. If the top-level target is in the host configuration, only host configured targets will be returned.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]implicit_deps default: "true": If enabled, implicit dependencies will be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. An implicit dependency is one that is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file but added by bazel.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--output=<a string> default: "label": The format in which the cquery results should be printed. Allowed values for cquery are: label, transitions, proto. If you select 'transitions', you also have to specify the --transitions=(lite|full) option.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:default_values default: "true": If true, attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are included; otherwise they are omitted. This option is applicable to -- output=proto
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:flatten_selects default: "true": If enabled, configurable attributes created by select() are flattened. For list types the flattened representation is a list containing each value of the select map exactly once. Scalar types are flattened to null.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]proto:include_configurations default: "true": if enabled, proto output will include information about configurations. When disabled,cquery proto output format resembles query output format
Tags: affects_outputs
--proto:output_rule_attrs=<comma-separated list of options> default: "all": Comma separated list of attributes to include in output. Defaults to all attributes. Set to empty string to not output any attribute. This option is applicable to --output=proto.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]relative_locations default: "false": If true, the location of BUILD files in xml and proto outputs will be relative. By default, the location output is an absolute path and will not be consistent across machines. You can set this option to true to have a consistent result across machines.
Tags: terminal_output
--transitions=<full, lite or none> default: "none": The format in which cquery will print transition information.
Tags: affects_outputs
--universe_scope=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": A comma-separated set of target patterns (additive and subtractive). The query may be performed in the universe defined by the transitive closure of the specified targets. This option is used for the query and cquery commands. For cquery, the input to this option is the targets all answers are built under and so this option may affect configurations and transitions. If this option is not specified, the top-level targets are assumed to be the targets parsed from the query expression. Note: For cquery, not specifying this option may cause the build to break if targets parsed from the query expression are not buildable with top-level options.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]distinct_host_configuration default: "true": Build all the tools used during the build for a distinct configuration from that used for the target program. When this is disabled, the same configuration is used for host and target programs. This may cause undesirable rebuilds of tools such as the protocol compiler (and then everything downstream) whenever a minor change is made to the target configuration, such as setting the linker options. When this is enabled (the default), a distinct configuration will be used to build the tools, preventing undesired rebuilds. However, certain libraries will then need to be compiled twice, once for each configuration, which may cause some builds to be slower. As a rule of thumb, this option is likely to benefit users that make frequent changes in configuration (e.g. opt/dbg). Please read the user manual for the full explanation.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, bazel_internal_configuration, loading_and_analysis
--[no]experimental_inmemory_dotd_files default: "false": If enabled, C++ .d files will be passed through in memory directly from the remote build nodes instead of being written to disk.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, affects_outputs, experimental
--[no]experimental_no_dotd_scanning_with_modules default: "false": If enabled, don't analyze generated .d files in builds with Clang's C++ modules.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]experimental_objc_header_thinning default: "false": If set then ObjcCompile actions will have their action inputs reduced by running a tool to detect which headers are actually required for compilation.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis, experimental
--[no]experimental_prune_cpp_input_discovery default: "false": If enabled, stop C++ input discovery at modular headers.
Tags: execution, changes_inputs
--[no]incremental_dexing default: "true": Does most of the work for dexing separately for each Jar file.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--objc_header_thinning_partition_size=<an integer> default: "120": The maximum number of source files to process within in each header scanning action.
Tags: host_machine_resource_optimizations
--[no]objc_use_dotd_pruning default: "true": If set, .d files emited by clang will be used to prune the set of inputs passed into objc compiles.
Tags: changes_inputs, loading_and_analysis
--[no]parse_headers_verifies_modules default: "false": If enabled, the parse_headers feature verifies that a header module can be built for the target in question instead of doing a separate compile of the header.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, changes_inputs
--[no]process_headers_in_dependencies default: "false": When building a target //a:a, process headers in all targets that //a:a depends on (if header processing is enabled for the toolchain).
Tags: execution
--[no]prune_cpp_modules default: "true": If enabled, use the results of input discovery to reduce the number of used modules.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, changes_inputs
--[no]trim_test_configuration default: "false": When enabled, test-related options will be cleared below the top level of the build. When this flag is active, tests cannot be built as dependencies of non- test rules, but changes to test-related options will not cause non-test rules to be re-analyzed.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, loses_incremental_state
--[no]use_singlejar_apkbuilder default: "true": Build Android APKs with SingleJar.
Tags: loading_and_analysis

--[no]toolchain_resolution_debug default: "false": Print debug information while finding toolchains for a rule. This might help developers of Bazel or Skylark rules with debugging failures due to missing toolchains.
Tags: terminal_output

--[no]cache_test_results [-t] default: "auto": If set to 'auto', Bazel reruns a test if and only if: (1) Bazel detects changes in the test or its dependencies, (2) the test is marked as external, (3) multiple test runs were requested with --runs_per_test, or(4) the test previously failed. If set to 'yes', Bazel caches all test results except for tests marked as external. If set to 'no', Bazel does not cache any test results.
--check_constraint=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Check the listed constraint.
--[no]experimental_j2objc_header_map default: "true": Whether to generate J2ObjC header map in parallel of J2ObjC transpilation.
--[no]experimental_strict_action_env default: "false": If true, Bazel uses an environment with a static value for PATH and does not inherit LD_LIBRARY_PATH or TMPDIR. Use --action_env=ENV_VARIABLE if you want to inherit specific environment variables from the client, but note that doing so can prevent cross-user caching if a shared cache is used.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]explicit_java_test_deps default: "false": Explicitly specify a dependency to JUnit or Hamcrest in a java_test instead of accidentally obtaining from the TestRunner's deps. Only works for bazel right now.
--[no]explicit_jre_deps default: "true": This flag is a noop and will be removed.
--host_java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher used by tools that are executed during a build.
--host_java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The Java toolchain used to build tools that are executed during a build.
--host_javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:host_jdk": JAVABASE used for the host JDK. This is the java_runtime which is used to execute tools during a build.
--host_platform_remote_properties_override=<a string> default: see description: Manually set the remote_execution_properties for the host platform if it is not already set.
--j2objc_translation_flags=<comma-separated list of options> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the J2ObjC tool.
--java_classpath=<off or javabuilder> default: "javabuilder": Enables reduced classpaths for Java compilations.
--java_debug: Causes the Java virtual machine of a java test to wait for a connection from a JDWP-compliant debugger (such as jdb) before starting the test. Implies - test_output=streamed.
Expands to:
  --test_arg=--wrapper_script_flag=--debug
  --test_output=streamed
  --test_strategy=exclusive
  --test_timeout=9999
  --nocache_test_results
--[no]java_deps default: "true": Generate dependency information (for now, compile-time classpath) per Java target.
--[no]java_header_compilation default: "true": Compile ijars directly from source.
--java_launcher=<a build target label> default: see description: The Java launcher to use when building Java binaries. The "launcher" attribute overrides this flag.
--java_toolchain=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:toolchain": The name of the toolchain rule for Java.
--javabase=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/jdk:jdk": JAVABASE used for the JDK invoked by Bazel. This is the java_runtime which will be used to execute external Java commands.
--javacopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to javac.
--jvmopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the Java VM. These options will get added to the VM startup options of each java_binary target.
--message_translations=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: The message translations used for translating messages in Java targets.
--plugin=<a build target label> multiple uses are accumulated: Plugins to use in the build. Currently works with java_plugin.
--proguard_top=<a build target label> default: see description: Specifies which version of ProGuard to use for code removal when building a Java binary.
--proto_compiler=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:protoc": The label of the proto-compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_cc=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:cc_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile C++ protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_j2objc=<a build target label> default: "@bazel_tools//tools/j2objc:j2objc_proto_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile j2objc protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_java=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf//:java_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile Java protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--proto_toolchain_for_javalite=<a build target label> default: "@com_google_protobuf_javalite//:javalite_toolchain": Label of proto_lang_toolchain() which describes how to compile JavaLite protos
Tags: affects_outputs, loading_and_analysis
--protocopt=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional options to pass to the protobuf compiler.
Tags: affects_outputs
--runs_per_test=<a positive integer or test_regex@runs. This flag may be passed more than once> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies number of times to run each test. If any of those attempts fail for any reason, the whole test would be considered failed. Normally the value specified is just an integer. Example: --runs_per_test=3 will run all tests 3 times. Alternate syntax: regex_filter@runs_per_test. Where runs_per_test stands for an integer value and regex_filter stands for a list of include and exclude regular expression patterns (Also see --instrumentation_filter). Example: -- runs_per_test=//foo/.*,-//foo/bar/.*@3 runs all tests in //foo/ except those under foo/bar three times. This option can be passed multiple times.
--shell_executable=<a path> default: see description: Absolute path to the shell executable for Bazel to use. If this is unset, but the BAZEL_SH environment variable is set on the first Bazel invocation (that starts up a Bazel server), Bazel uses that. If neither is set, Bazel uses a hard-coded default path depending on the operating system it runs on (Windows: c:/tools/msys64/usr/bin/bash.exe, FreeBSD: /usr/local/bin/bash, all others: /bin/bash). Note that using a shell that is not compatible with bash may lead to build failures or runtime failures of the generated binaries.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--test_arg=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Specifies additional options and arguments that should be passed to the test executable. Can be used multiple times to specify several arguments. If multiple tests are executed, each of them will receive identical arguments. Used only by the 'bazel test' command.
--test_filter=<a string> default: see description: Specifies a filter to forward to the test framework. Used to limit the tests run. Note that this does not affect which targets are built.
--test_result_expiration=<an integer> default: "-1": This option is deprecated and has no effect.
--test_sharding_strategy=<explicit, experimental_heuristic or disabled> default: "explicit": Specify strategy for test sharding: 'explicit' to only use sharding if the 'shard_count' BUILD attribute is present. 'disabled' to never use test sharding. 'experimental_heuristic' to enable sharding on remotely executed tests without an explicit 'shard_count' attribute which link in a supported framework. Considered experimental.
--[no]translations default: "auto": Translate Java messages; bundle all translations into the jar for each affected rule.
--[no]use_ijars default: "true": If enabled, this option causes Java compilation to use interface jars. This will result in faster incremental compilation, but error messages can be different.

Dump Options

--[no]action_cache default: "false": Dump action cache content.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--action_graph=<a string> default: see description: Dump action graph to the specified path.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--[no]action_graph:include_cmdline default: "false": Include command line of actions in the action graph dump. This option does only apply to --action_graph.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--action_graph:targets=<comma-separated list of options> default: "...": Comma separated list of targets to include in action graph dump. Defaults to all attributes. This option does only apply to --action_graph.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--[no]packages default: "false": Dump package cache content.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--[no]rule_classes default: "false": Dump rule classes.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--[no]rules default: "false": Dump rules, including counts and memory usage (if memory is tracked).
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--skyframe=<off, summary or detailed> default: "off": Dump Skyframe graph: 'off', 'summary', or 'detailed'.
Tags: bazel_monitoring
--skylark_memory=<a string> default: see description: Dumps a pprof-compatible memory profile to the specified path. To learn more please see <a href=https://github.com/google/pprof>pprof</a>.
Tags: bazel_monitoring

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Fetch Options

--distdir=<a path> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional places to search for archives before accessing the network to download them.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]experimental_repository_cache_hardlinks default: "false": If set, the repository cache will hardlink the file in case of a cache hit, rather than copying. This is inteded to save disk space.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--repository_cache=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the cache location of the downloaded values obtained during the fetching of external repositories.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--[no]keep_going [-k] default: "false": Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be analyzed, other prerequisites of these targets can be.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit

--experimental_repository_hash_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, specifies a file containing a resolved value, against which the repository directory hashes should be verified
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_verify_repository_rules=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: If list of repository rules for which the hash of the output directory should be verified, provided a file is specified by -- experimental_respository_hash_file.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--experimental_repository_resolved_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a Skylark value with the resolved information of all Skylark respository rules that were executed.
Tags: affects_outputs

--deleted_packages=<comma-separated list of package names> default: "": A comma-separated list of names of packages which the build system will consider non-existent, even if they are visible somewhere on the package path. Use this option when deleting a subpackage 'x/y' of an existing package 'x'. For example, after deleting x/y/BUILD in your client, the build system may complain if it encounters a label '//x:y/z' if that is still provided by another package_path entry. Specifying --deleted_packages x/y avoids this problem.
--override_repository=<an equals-separated mapping of repository name to path> multiple uses are accumulated: Overrides a repository with a local directory.
--package_path=<colon-separated list of options> default: "%workspace%": A colon-separated list of where to look for packages. Elements beginning with '%workspace%' are relative to the enclosing workspace. If omitted or empty, the default is the output of 'bazel info default-package-path'.
--[no]show_loading_progress default: "true": If enabled, causes Bazel to print "Loading package:" messages.

Help Options

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--help_verbosity=<long, medium or short> default: "medium": Select the verbosity of the help command.
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output
--long [-l]: Show full description of each option, instead of just its name.
Expands to:
--help_verbosity=long

Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output
--short: Show only the names of the options, not their types or meanings.
Expands to:
--help_verbosity=short

Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output

Info Options

Inherits all options from build.

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--[no]show_make_env default: "false": Include the "Make" environment in the output.
Tags: affects_outputs, terminal_output

License Options

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Mobile-install Options

Inherits all options from build.

--mode=<classic, classic_internal_test_do_not_use or skylark> default: "classic": Select how to run mobile-install. "classic" runs the current version of mobile-install. "skylark" uses the new skylark version, which has support for android_test.
Tags: loading_and_analysis, execution, incompatible_change

--adb=<a string> default: "": adb binary to use for the 'mobile-install' command. If unspecified, the one in the Android SDK specified by the --android_sdk command line option (or the default SDK if --android_sdk is not specified) is used.
Tags: changes_inputs

--[no]incremental default: "false": Whether to do an incremental install. If true, try to avoid unnecessary additional work by reading the state of the device the code is to be installed on and using that information to avoid unnecessary work. If false (the default), always do a full install.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]split_apks default: "false": Whether to use split apks to install and update the application on the device. Works only with devices with Marshmallow or later
Tags: loading_and_analysis, affects_outputs

--adb_arg=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Extra arguments to pass to adb. Usually used to designate a device to install to.
Tags: action_command_lines
--debug_app: Whether to wait for the debugger before starting the app.
Expands to:
--start=DEBUG

Tags: execution
--device=<a string> default: "": The adb device serial number. If not specified, the first device will be used.
Tags: action_command_lines
--start=<no, cold, warm or debug> default: "NO": How the app should be started after installing it. Set to WARM to preserve and restore application state on incremental installs.
Tags: execution
--start_app: Whether to start the app after installing it.
Expands to:
--start=COLD

Tags: execution

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--incremental_install_verbosity=<a string> default: "": The verbosity for incremental install. Set to 1 for debug logging.
Tags: bazel_monitoring

Print_action Options

Inherits all options from build.

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

--print_action_mnemonics=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: Lists which mnemonics to filter print_action data by, no filtering takes place when left empty.

Query Options

--distdir=<a path> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional places to search for archives before accessing the network to download them.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]experimental_repository_cache_hardlinks default: "false": If set, the repository cache will hardlink the file in case of a cache hit, rather than copying. This is inteded to save disk space.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--repository_cache=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the cache location of the downloaded values obtained during the fetching of external repositories.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--[no]keep_going [-k] default: "false": Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be analyzed, other prerequisites of these targets can be.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit
--loading_phase_threads=<an integer> default: "default": Number of parallel threads to use for the loading/analysis phase.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--experimental_repository_hash_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, specifies a file containing a resolved value, against which the repository directory hashes should be verified
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_verify_repository_rules=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: If list of repository rules for which the hash of the output directory should be verified, provided a file is specified by -- experimental_respository_hash_file.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental

--aspect_deps=<off, conservative or precise> default: "conservative": How to resolve aspect dependencies when the output format is one of {xml,proto, record}. 'off' means no aspect dependencies are resolved, ' conservative' (the default) means all declared aspect dependencies are added regardless of whether they are given the rule class of direct dependencies, 'precise' means that only those aspects are added that are possibly active given the rule class of the direct dependencies. Note that precise mode requires loading other packages to evaluate a single target thus making it slower than the other modes. Also note that even precise mode is not completely precise: the decision whether to compute an aspect is decided in the analysis phase, which is not run during 'bazel query'.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--graph:conditional_edges_limit=<an integer> default: "4": The maximum number of condition labels to show. -1 means no truncation and 0 means no annotation. This option is only applicable to --output=graph.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]graph:factored default: "true": If true, then the graph will be emitted 'factored', i.e. topologically- equivalent nodes will be merged together and their labels concatenated. This option is only applicable to --output=graph.
Tags: terminal_output
--graph:node_limit=<an integer> default: "512": The maximum length of the label string for a graph node in the output. Longer labels will be truncated; -1 means no truncation. This option is only applicable to --output=graph.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]host_deps default: "true": Query: If disabled, dependencies on 'host configuration' targets will not be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. A ' host configuration' dependency edge, such as the one from any ' proto_library' rule to the Protocol Compiler, usually points to a tool executed during the build (on the host machine) rather than a part of the same 'target' program. Cquery: If disabled, filters out all configured targets which cross a host transition from the top-level target that discovered this configured target. That means if the top-level target is in the target configuration, only configured targets also in the target configuration will be returned. If the top-level target is in the host configuration, only host configured targets will be returned.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]implicit_deps default: "true": If enabled, implicit dependencies will be included in the dependency graph over which the query operates. An implicit dependency is one that is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file but added by bazel.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--[no]line_terminator_null default: "false": Whether each format is terminated with instead of newline.
Tags: terminal_output
--noorder_results: Output the results in dependency-ordered (default) or unordered fashion. The unordered output is faster but only supported when --output is not minrank, maxrank, or graph.
Expands to:
--order_output=no

Tags: terminal_output
--null: Whether each format is terminated with instead of newline.
Expands to:
--line_terminator_null=true

Tags: terminal_output
--order_output=<no, deps, auto or full> default: "auto": Output the results unordered (no), dependency-ordered (deps), or fully ordered (full). The default is 'auto', meaning that results are output either dependency-ordered or fully ordered, depending on the output formatter (dependency-ordered for proto, minrank, maxrank, and graph, fully ordered for all others). When output is fully ordered, nodes that would otherwise be unordered by the output formatter are alphabetized before output.
Tags: terminal_output
--order_results: Output the results in dependency-ordered (default) or unordered fashion. The unordered output is faster but only supported when --output is not minrank, maxrank, or graph.
Expands to:
--order_output=auto

Tags: terminal_output
--output=<a string> default: "label": The format in which the query results should be printed. Allowed values for query are: build, graph, label, label_kind, locations, maxrank, minrank, package, proto, xml.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:default_values default: "true": If true, attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are included; otherwise they are omitted. This option is applicable to -- output=proto
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]proto:flatten_selects default: "true": If enabled, configurable attributes created by select() are flattened. For list types the flattened representation is a list containing each value of the select map exactly once. Scalar types are flattened to null.
Tags: build_file_semantics
--proto:output_rule_attrs=<comma-separated list of options> default: "all": Comma separated list of attributes to include in output. Defaults to all attributes. Set to empty string to not output any attribute. This option is applicable to --output=proto.
Tags: terminal_output
--query_file=<a string> default: "": If set, query will read the query from the file named here, rather than on the command line. It is an error to specify a file here as well as a command-line query.
Tags: changes_inputs
--[no]relative_locations default: "false": If true, the location of BUILD files in xml and proto outputs will be relative. By default, the location output is an absolute path and will not be consistent across machines. You can set this option to true to have a consistent result across machines.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]strict_test_suite default: "false": If true, the tests() expression gives an error if it encounters a test_suite containing non-test targets.
Tags: build_file_semantics, eagerness_to_exit
--universe_scope=<comma-separated list of options> default: "": A comma-separated set of target patterns (additive and subtractive). The query may be performed in the universe defined by the transitive closure of the specified targets. This option is used for the query and cquery commands. For cquery, the input to this option is the targets all answers are built under and so this option may affect configurations and transitions. If this option is not specified, the top-level targets are assumed to be the targets parsed from the query expression. Note: For cquery, not specifying this option may cause the build to break if targets parsed from the query expression are not buildable with top-level options.
Tags: loading_and_analysis
--[no]xml:default_values default: "false": If true, rule attributes whose value is not explicitly specified in the BUILD file are printed; otherwise they are omitted.
Tags: terminal_output
--[no]xml:line_numbers default: "true": If true, XML output contains line numbers. Disabling this option may make diffs easier to read. This option is only applicable to --output=xml.
Tags: terminal_output

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--experimental_repository_resolved_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a Skylark value with the resolved information of all Skylark respository rules that were executed.
Tags: affects_outputs

--deleted_packages=<comma-separated list of package names> default: "": A comma-separated list of names of packages which the build system will consider non-existent, even if they are visible somewhere on the package path. Use this option when deleting a subpackage 'x/y' of an existing package 'x'. For example, after deleting x/y/BUILD in your client, the build system may complain if it encounters a label '//x:y/z' if that is still provided by another package_path entry. Specifying --deleted_packages x/y avoids this problem.
--override_repository=<an equals-separated mapping of repository name to path> multiple uses are accumulated: Overrides a repository with a local directory.
--package_path=<colon-separated list of options> default: "%workspace%": A colon-separated list of where to look for packages. Elements beginning with '%workspace%' are relative to the enclosing workspace. If omitted or empty, the default is the output of 'bazel info default-package-path'.
--[no]show_loading_progress default: "true": If enabled, causes Bazel to print "Loading package:" messages.

Run Options

Inherits all options from build.

--script_path=<a path> default: see description: If set, write a shell script to the given file which invokes the target. If this option is set, the target is not run from bazel. Use 'bazel run --script_path=foo //foo && ./foo' to invoke target ' //foo' This differs from 'bazel run //foo' in that the % {product} lock is released and the executable is connected to the terminal' s stdin.
Tags: affects_outputs, execution

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Shutdown Options

--iff_heap_size_greater_than=<an integer> default: "0": Iff non-zero, then shutdown will only shut down the server if the total memory (in MB) consumed by the JVM exceeds this value.
Tags: loses_incremental_state, eagerness_to_exit

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Sync Options

--distdir=<a path> multiple uses are accumulated: Additional places to search for archives before accessing the network to download them.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--[no]experimental_repository_cache_hardlinks default: "false": If set, the repository cache will hardlink the file in case of a cache hit, rather than copying. This is inteded to save disk space.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration
--repository_cache=<a path> default: see description: Specifies the cache location of the downloaded values obtained during the fetching of external repositories.
Tags: bazel_internal_configuration

--[no]keep_going [-k] default: "false": Continue as much as possible after an error. While the target that failed and those that depend on it cannot be analyzed, other prerequisites of these targets can be.
Tags: eagerness_to_exit

--experimental_repository_hash_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, specifies a file containing a resolved value, against which the repository directory hashes should be verified
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental
--experimental_verify_repository_rules=<a string> multiple uses are accumulated: If list of repository rules for which the hash of the output directory should be verified, provided a file is specified by -- experimental_respository_hash_file.
Tags: affects_outputs, experimental

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--experimental_repository_resolved_file=<a string> default: "": If non-empty, write a Skylark value with the resolved information of all Skylark respository rules that were executed.
Tags: affects_outputs

--deleted_packages=<comma-separated list of package names> default: "": A comma-separated list of names of packages which the build system will consider non-existent, even if they are visible somewhere on the package path. Use this option when deleting a subpackage 'x/y' of an existing package 'x'. For example, after deleting x/y/BUILD in your client, the build system may complain if it encounters a label '//x:y/z' if that is still provided by another package_path entry. Specifying --deleted_packages x/y avoids this problem.
--override_repository=<an equals-separated mapping of repository name to path> multiple uses are accumulated: Overrides a repository with a local directory.
--package_path=<colon-separated list of options> default: "%workspace%": A colon-separated list of where to look for packages. Elements beginning with '%workspace%' are relative to the enclosing workspace. If omitted or empty, the default is the output of 'bazel info default-package-path'.
--[no]show_loading_progress default: "true": If enabled, causes Bazel to print "Loading package:" messages.

Test Options

Inherits all options from build.

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.
--[no]test_verbose_timeout_warnings default: "false": If true, print additional warnings when the actual test execution time does not match the timeout defined by the test (whether implied or explicit).
Tags: affects_outputs
--[no]verbose_test_summary default: "true": If true, print additional information (timing, number of failed runs, etc) in the test summary.
Tags: affects_outputs

Version Options

--[no]bep_publish_used_heap_size_post_build default: "false": When set we collect and publish used_heap_size_post_build from build_event_stream.proto. This forces a full GC and is off by default.

Option Effect Tags

`unknown`	This option has unknown, or undocumented, effect.
`no_op`	This option has literally no effect.
`loses_incremental_state`	Changing the value of this option can cause significant loss of incremental state, which slows builds. State could be lost due to a server restart or to invalidation of a large part of the dependency graph.
`changes_inputs`	This option actively changes the inputs that bazel considers for the build, such as filesystem restrictions, repository versions, or other options.
`affects_outputs`	This option affects bazel's outputs. This tag is intentionally broad, can include transitive affects, and does not specify the type of output it affects.
`build_file_semantics`	This option affects the semantics of BUILD or .bzl files.
`bazel_internal_configuration`	This option affects settings of bazel-internal machinery. This tag does not, on its own, mean that build artifacts are affected.
`loading_and_analysis`	This option affects the loading and analysis of dependencies, and the building of the dependency graph.
`execution`	This option affects the execution phase, such as sandboxing or remote execution related options.
`host_machine_resource_optimizations`	This option triggers an optimization that may be machine specific and is not guaranteed to work on all machines. The optimization could include a tradeoff with other aspects of performance, such as memory or cpu cost.
`eagerness_to_exit`	This option changes how eagerly bazel will exit from a failure, where a choice between continuing despite the failure and ending the invocation exists.
`bazel_monitoring`	This option is used to monitor bazel's behavior and performance.
`terminal_output`	This option affects bazel's terminal output.
`action_command_lines`	This option changes the command line arguments of one or more build actions.
`test_runner`	This option changes the testrunner environment of the build.

Option Metadata Tags

`experimental`	This option triggers an experimental feature with no guarantees of functionality.
`incompatible_change`	This option triggers a breaking change. Use this option to test your migration readiness or get early access to the new feature
`deprecated`	This option is deprecated. It might be that the feature it affects is deprecated, or that another method of supplying the information is preferred.
`triggered_by_all_incompatible_changes`	This option is triggered by the expansion option --all_incompatible_changes.