.bazelversion for Rust examples is too accurate

[peroksid]

I am on Debian 12 with Bazel 8.3.1 installed according to these instructions.

Currently rust-examples/.bazelversion contains "8.1.1". I checked the examples - it builds with 8.3.1.

It would be good to allow builds for versions >= 8.1.1, not exactly 8.1.1. I tried '>=8.1.1' but the wrapper script installed on Debian seems to not support the syntax with modifiers.

Is there a way to specify the version constrain more flexibly? Maybe README.md should tell about USE_BAZEL_VERSION env var for new users to move along when they can not install exactly 8.1.1?

[bc-lee]

I believe most people use bazelisk and symlink bazel to it. It respects .bazelversion and also allows overriding the version via the USE_BAZEL_VERSION environment variable. Unless you have a policy requiring a specific Bazel version, it’s generally better to rely on bazelisk.