_copier_conf and other global variables can't be used in the questions section

[AdrianFreundQC]

Describe the problem

The _copier_conf variable can be used in templated file names, file contents, and task and migration commands, however it can't be used in the questions section, for example in the default or when key of a template.

I don't know if this is intentional design or an oversight. From my point of view it is definitely unexpected.

Supporting this would enable some new use cases. In my case I want to add a new boolean question to a project, that defaults no yes for new projects, but defaults to no for existing projects being updated.

I tried doing this by setting default: "{{ _copier_conf.src_path is not none }}"

This resulted in '_copier_conf' is undefined

Template

use_mypy:
  type: bool
  help: "Should this project run full mypy type checking during CI?"
  default: "{{ _copier_conf.src_path is not none }}" # to prevent breaking existing projects

To Reproduce

No response

Logs

No response

Expected behavior

The question should default to yes for new projects and no for existing projects

Screenshots/screencasts/logs

No response

Operating system

macOS

Operating system distribution and version

Sonoma 14.2.1

Copier version

9.1.1

Python version

Python 3.11.0

Installation method

distro package

Additional context

I can try writing a pull request for this. Doesn't look too hard to fix.

[yajo]

Expected behavior

The question should default to yes for new projects and no for existing projects

I don't think adding ˋ_copier_confˋ to the template context would fix your problem.

When you're updating a project, a question's default value doesn't come from the template defaults. Instead, it comes from the last answers. At least, if the last answer was recorded (it wasn't skipped nor a password).

So, after knowing that, do you think the feature is still relevant?

I'm gonna close the issue assuming there's no real use for this feature, to keep the issue tracker clean. But please feel free to keep commenting. I'll reopen if there comes to be a real use case.

Thanks! ❤️

[geodab]

Hello, I also found this confusing and unexpected, but for a slightly different use case.

In particular, it would be nice to use the _folder_name or _copier_conf.dst_path as a basis for deriving a project_name or project_type.

Since these are available when rendering the initial _message_before_copy it is surprising that they are unavailable in a question prompt presented immediately afterward.

Also, while trying to understand what was happening I attempted to find a workaround by defining a ContextHook extension to update the context, but I think I ran into the same issue with that--it worked in the context of rendering the message template but not for a prompt default template. Again, that was unexpected, but ultimately led me to discover this closed issue. Would it be possible to reopen it to address these use cases?

[yajo]

That makes more sense.