From: zimoun <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>
To: Raghav Gururajan <rg@raghavgururajan.name>, guix-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Re: delete-generations or --delete-generations?
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2021 11:27:06 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <86v93rb5lh.fsf@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <fdb27bc6-875e-d0e7-8d8e-4c21331b06c4@raghavgururajan.name>
Hi Raghav,
On Thu, 26 Aug 2021 at 21:04, Raghav Gururajan <rg@raghavgururajan.name> wrote:
> Why there is no '--' prefix to 'delete-generations' for `guix system`,
> when there is for `guix pull` and `guix package`?
I speculate too. :-) I guess because the idea behind “guix system” is
one action at a time however “guix package” can compose actions in one
transaction (guix package --install=foo --remove=bar). Using the
default CLI parser (SRFI-37), it seems easier for composing to use the
options (--<name-it>) than to extract actions. For instance, if it was
“guix package <action>” as it is with “guix system”, then it is harder
to parse the composition, i.e.,
guix package install foo remove bar
Aside the CLI parser is more work than just using ’args-fold’ from
SRFI-37, ambiguities happen: consider the case where ’remove’ is also a
package, for instance.
Then the other actions (--list-generations, --show, --search, etc.)
would inherit from this initial “guix package” design about composition
for a install/remove transactions.
Well, I agree that “guix system” is inconsistent with the rest of
commands. First, “guix system” does not enjoy the typo hinter:
$ guix system delte-generations
guix system: error: delte-generations: unknown action
compared to:
$ guix package --delte-generations
guix package: error: delte-generations: unrecognized option
hint: Did you mean `delete-generations'?
Well, although it is obviously fixable. ;-) Second, it leads to corner
cases as describe by the manual, for instance,
$ guix system delete-generation -1
guix system: error: 1: unrecognized option
here ’-1’ is considered by the parser as a short option, so one needs:
$ guix system delete-generation -- -1
Issue which does not happen using “--delete-generation”. :-)
On the other hand, the composition is not totally true, for instance:
$ guix package --show=cuirass --search="GNU hello"
name: hello
…
$ guix package --search="GNU hello" --show=cuirass
name: cuirass
…
although it is debatable to compose them. :-)
Ah consistent CLI, so complicated topic! ;-)
Cheers,
simon
PS: It reminds me issues with short-name accepting optional argument:
guix package -I -p /tmp/profile # fails
guix package -p /tmp/profile -I # works
<http://issues.guix.gnu.org/40549#19> where a next action is described
here <http://issues.guix.gnu.org/40549#22>. :-)
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-08-27 9:39 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-08-27 1:04 delete-generations or --delete-generations? Raghav Gururajan
2021-08-27 2:55 ` Jack Hill
2021-08-27 9:27 ` zimoun [this message]
2021-09-08 20:59 ` Ludovic Courtès
2021-09-09 13:47 ` Leo Famulari
2021-09-09 14:14 ` André A. Gomes
2021-09-09 14:44 ` Leo Famulari
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