dbt build: Correct non-fast-failing behavior to match other tasks such as run

[iknox-fa]

dbt build is exiting earlier than it should when faced with a broken project. This leads to an inconsistent user experience, and an incomplete process artifacts (run_results.json). Work done to correct this seemed to lead into larger discussions about the expected behavior of the fail-fast flag.

References:

• dbt build #3490 (review)
• dbt build #3490 (review)

[jtcohen6]

dbt build is exiting earlier than it should when faced with a broken project

It seems to exit as soon as it encounters any runtime error, including SQL errors when running models—so not a broken project per se. That means its logging output looks different from all other tasks, and it never writes run_results.json. Not good!

Sometimes that "instant exit on error" is a feature, not a bug—it should only be when the -x, --fail-fast flag is passed. Incidentally, dbt build --fail-fast seems to work just fine (and differently!) when it encounters an error. (Today, --fail-fast errors for all commands prevent writing the result artifact. Is that good as a general rule? Fair question: #3600.)

What's surprising to me is how/why dbt build has different behavior from standard-issue tasks like dbt run and dbt snapshot, when I figure it inherits so much of its behavior from the base tasks.