I noticed that a line with only a comment in it will break any sorting of AssignExprs when there is a comment before the assignment, but if the "keep sorted" comment is the first element in the list, then it will sort the list. Example:
list1 = [
"foo",
"bar",
"buzz",
]
# buildifier: keep sorted
list2 = [
"bar",
"buzz",
"foo",
]
# this will not be sorted:
# buildifier: keep sorted
list3 = [
"foo",
"bar",
"buzz",
# "blah",
"abc123",
]
# this WILL be sorted:
list4 = [
# buildifier: keep sorted
"foo",
"bar",
"buzz",
# "blah",
"abc123",
]
buildifier will sort list4 but not list3:
❯ buildifier -mode=diff -lint=warn example.bzl
--- example.bzl 2026-02-05 16:06:51
+++ /var/folders/m1/5018nxw5655fd55ql3xqqpjm0000gn/T/buildifier-tmp-3189288486 2026-02-05 16:10:37
@@ -24,9 +24,9 @@
# this WILL be sorted:
list4 = [
# buildifier: keep sorted
- "foo",
"bar",
"buzz",
+ "foo",
# "blah",
"abc123",
]
exit status 1
I noticed that a line with only a comment in it will break any sorting of AssignExprs when there is a comment before the assignment, but if the "keep sorted" comment is the first element in the list, then it will sort the list. Example:
buildifier will sort
list4but notlist3: