Add option to import resources using a command line argument

[qarmin]

Describe the project you are working on:
I'm working on PR which import and check project to test PR - godotengine/godot#40994

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project:
I can't find(because probably doesn't exists) any flag, that would only import all files(scenes, resources, images etc...)

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation:
Now I use timeout to prevent godot from quiting during importing, which sadly doesn't always work in CI

timeout 25s godot -e

but this isn't also universal solution, because a lot of projects have a lot of assets which is impossible to measure time which is needed to import all files.

So better idea is to add new flag e.g. --import-only which would import files and after that just close Godot.
It would be great if the editor wasn't even running.

godot --import-only

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudocode, mockups, and/or diagrams:
The best if it would work without needing initializing all graphics editor components, but I know that this isn't now possible, because code which imports resources exists in EditorFileSystem

The easiest way to do this is to save to variable if user used --import-only option and check it in EditorFileSystem::_notification inside NOTIFICATION_EXIT_TREE if is set, so it may wait until all files will be imported.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?:
Like I wrote, it can be used timeout but it is really really really bad solution for any project greater than 1 image.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?:
It would be very helpful for all people wanting to integrate their projects into CI

[Calinou]

godot --editor --quit should do the job in theory. (--quit exits the engine after one iteration has finished running.)

[qarmin]

In smaller project it usually works, but with https://github.com/godotengine/tps-demo it close after 2/3 second, which is impossible import all files because normal importing take ~30 minutes.

[Xrayez]

I vote yes! My legit use case godotengine/godot#39396 (comment).

[realkotob]

I support this.

I've worked the headless godot a lot and I found that godot --editor --quit is very unreliable.

Additionally, on gitlab the community CI runners don't cache pipelines when it's told to because the runners are shared and don't share their caches together. If there was an import CLI argument then at least I could try to have the cache be shared across jobs within the same pipeline.

[knightofiam]

I would like to see this implemented to avoid spurious CI errors when exporting via Godot headless:

ERROR: get_dependencies: Cannot open file 'res://.import/blahblahblahblah.sample At: core/io/resource_format_binary.cpp:1048

It reports an error because it can't find the .import folder (not under source control), but then it auto-generates it after the so-called "error" before exporting.

[Yazir]

I second @knightofiam 's comment.

Projects using build pipelines, without ./.import in repo are facing this issue. Build works, but with an error for each asset.

[aaronfranke]

I ran into this issue today. I tried ./godot --headless --editor --quit but then a later CI step has many errors like this:

ERROR: Failed loading resource: res://whatever. Make sure resources have been imported by opening the project in the editor at least once.
   at: _load (core/io/resource_loader.cpp:221)

So, as mentioned above, --editor --quit doesn't seem to be working as expected.

[Calinou]

@PoolloverNathan Please don't bump issues without contributing significant new information. Use the 👍 reaction button on the first post instead.

[mogoh]

What is the best workaround for this issue for now?
The best that I came up with is commit .godot/imported/* and *.translation.

timeout 25s godot -e does not work in CI because it requries XServer which is not available in CI.

[Calinou]

timeout 25s godot -e does not work in CI because it requries XServer which is not available in CI.

With Godot 4, timeout 25s godot --headless -e will work 🙂

With Godot 3, use a Linux headless editor binary which can be downloaded from the official website.

[juse4pro]

We had the same problem and opening the project via command line in editor mode with --quit-after 2 was solving it.
--quit-after 1 quits too early. Related to this: godotengine/godot#77508 (which is closed but has to be re-opened)

[mogoh]

@Calinou

With Godot 4, timeout 25s godot --headless -e will work 🙂

I did not test it right.
Yes, --headless generally works.
Thanks.

However, I noticed, that rebuilding the cache can cause other problems.
A font gets reimported which leads to a new UID, deleted fallbacks, and reference problems.
However, this might be topic for another issue.
I keep committing the cache for now.