dbt debug avoid dependency checking

[leoch20]

Describe the feature

We deployed dbt in AWS managed Airflow MWAA. Currently we perform some system checks to ensure the deployment is successful. Among them is dbt debug . The issue is that git is not install in MWAA and there is no reason to install it (please correct me if there is a need to have it). Because git is not install, every time we run the system checks dbt debug fails.

It would be great if we could manually bypass checking the dependencies so that if debug fails we know it is not because of missing git.

[jtcohen6]

@leoch20 Thanks for opening! Honestly, I'm of two minds about this one.

On the one hand, you're completely right that it's possible to use dbt without having git installed, assuming you don't need to install any git-based packages.

On the other hand, dbt debug is really intended as a helper check for CLI users who have installed dbt locally, to help them make sure they're ready to start up with dbt development—not a step in automated orchestration processes. I can appreciate that, if something is going to fail in Airflow (e.g. a faulty database connection), it's nicer to fail with the clear error early on, rather than a slightly more-buried error during the early steps of a run. But it's going to fail either way.

(I could imagine a local user who doesn't want to have git installed, but that seems much less likely.)

Having said all that, the codepath here is quite straightforward:
https://github.com/dbt-labs/dbt/blob/d2dbe6afe4ecff25e4fa8ba471716bc8bd0ef760/core/dbt/task/debug.py#L124-L126

I don't think it would be a big lift to add debug task flags like:

dbt debug --skip-configuration
dbt debug --skip-dependencies
dbt debug --skip-connection

And check before running each check:

    if not self.args.skip_configuration:
        self.test_configuration()
    if not self.args.skip_dependencies:
        self.test_dependencies()
    if not self.args.skip_connection:
        self.test_connection()

So, if this is something you'd like to open a PR for, I'd be happy to review it.

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