the search for `version.py` should exclude `exclude-paths` specified in `release-please-config.json` especially for the `.` path

Author: RogerHYangCreated Feb 21, 2024Updated Sep 21, 2026
Labelstype: feature requestpriority: p3

The search for version.py here doesn't consider exclude-paths. It simply searches all subfolders, and that is problematic for the package with the . path because all sub-packages will get a version update when the root package is updated.

Below is an example set-up where this is an issue, i.e. /packages/xyz/src/xyz/version.py shouldn't be updated because it's part of the excluded-paths.

folder structure

/src/abc/version.py
/packages/xyz/src/xyz/version.py

release-please-config.json

json
"packages": {
   ".": {
       "package-name": "abc",
       "release-type": "python",
       "exclude-paths": ["packages"]
   },
   "packages/xyz": {
       "package-name": "xyz",
       "release-type": "python"
   }
},

Source: googleapis/release-please