`buildables` block type?

[korrat]

Both installables and runnables block types provide a build action. However, both block types also provide further actions. This makes them less than ideal for some use cases, such as checks or, in the case of Rust projects, a separate derivation for cargoArtifacts.

A simple buildable block type may be helpful here. This block type would only provide the build action. Projects could use it to provide a set of dependencies that other blocks of the cell could use.

Alternatively, both the anything and functions block types could be used for this purpose. In the case of checks, however, that means that checks can no longer be run individually.

[blaggacao]

Both installables and runnables block types provide a build action. However, both block types also provide further actions. This makes them less than ideal for some use cases, such as checks or, in the case of Rust projects, a separate derivation for cargoArtifacts.

Agreed. This is a long-standing semantic mismatch that I just didn't bother to resolve.

I think a low-risk/low-maint and backward-compatible approach would be to perpetuate, but alleviate this issue by just adding your suggested buildable block type.