From ee16f8545bf8b8eff189a2259e7c3aa806a3a2cf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: nsheff <nsheff@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2023 21:29:28 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] implement abstract targets. Fix #19

---
 docs/commands.md | 12 ++++++++++++
 markmeld/cli.py  | 12 ++++++++----
 2 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/docs/commands.md b/docs/commands.md
index 395924e..9a06ccd 100644
--- a/docs/commands.md
+++ b/docs/commands.md
@@ -48,3 +48,15 @@ targets:
       - target3
 ```
 
+### Abstract targets
+
+Another type of target is an *abstract target*, which is a target that can be imported, but not built. Abstract targets can also be `meta` or `raw` targets, so we don't specify them with `type`, but with `abstract: true`.
+
+For example, `base_target` below is an abstract target that can be used as a template for other concrete targets. You can use abstract targets to set up re-usable parameter sets or other configurations that you can then inheret in other targets.
+
+```yaml
+targets:
+  targbase_target:
+    abstract: true
+    bibfolder: /path/to/bib/
+```
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/markmeld/cli.py b/markmeld/cli.py
index 832202d..5d34ce4 100644
--- a/markmeld/cli.py
+++ b/markmeld/cli.py
@@ -154,6 +154,8 @@ def main(test_args=None):
         if "targets" not in cfg:
             raise TargetError(f"No targets specified in config.")
         for t, k in cfg["targets"].items():
+            if "abstract" in cfg["targets"][t]:
+                continue
             sys.stdout.write(t + " ")
         sys.exit(0)
 
@@ -167,10 +169,12 @@ def main(test_args=None):
     if args.list:
         if "targets" not in cfg:
             raise TargetError(f"No targets specified in config.")
-        tarlist = {
-            x: k["description"] if "description" in k else "No description"
-            for x, k in sorted(cfg["targets"].items())
-        }
+        
+        tarlist = {}
+        for t, k in cfg["targets"].items():
+            if "abstract" in cfg["targets"][t]:
+                continue
+            tarlist[t] = k["description"] if "description" in k else "---"
         _LOGGER.error(f"Targets:")
         for k, v in tarlist.items():
             _LOGGER.error(f"  {k}: {v}")