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fix(help): Explain --explain #12592

Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Aug 30, 2023
Merged

fix(help): Explain --explain #12592

merged 1 commit into from
Aug 30, 2023

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epage
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@epage epage commented Aug 29, 2023

In working on #12578, I'm focusing on each help string to decide how it should be handled and I noticed this. It feels weird to explain something in terms of another command's CLI, so I took rustc --helps message and added rustc to clarify it.

Looking back, the flag was added in #2551 with the message we have today. Nothing seems to really be said about it.

In reflecting on this, I'm not 100% convinced and am open to other opinions.

In working on rust-lang#12578, I'm focusing on each help string to decide how it
should be handled and I noticed this.  It feels weird to explain
something in terms of another command's CLI, so I took `rustc --help`s
message and added `rustc` to clarify it.

Looking back, the flag was added in rust-lang#2551 with the message we have
today.  Nothing seems to really be said about it.

In reflecting on this, I'm not 100% convinced and am open to other
opinions.
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rustbot commented Aug 29, 2023

r? @ehuss

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@rustbot rustbot added A-cli Area: Command-line interface, option parsing, etc. S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Aug 29, 2023
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@bors r+

It does looks better :)

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bors commented Aug 29, 2023

📌 Commit d893056 has been approved by weihanglo

It is now in the queue for this repository.

@bors bors added S-waiting-on-bors Status: Waiting on bors to run and complete tests. Bors will change the label on completion. and removed S-waiting-on-review Status: Awaiting review from the assignee but also interested parties. labels Aug 29, 2023
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bors commented Aug 29, 2023

⌛ Testing commit d893056 with merge 633a91a...

bors added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 29, 2023
fix(help): Explain --explain

In working on #12578, I'm focusing on each help string to decide how it should be handled and I noticed this.  It feels weird to explain something in terms of another command's CLI, so I took `rustc --help`s message and added `rustc` to clarify it.

Looking back, the flag was added in #2551 with the message we have today.  Nothing seems to really be said about it.

In reflecting on this, I'm not 100% convinced and am open to other opinions.
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bors commented Aug 29, 2023

☀️ Test successful - checks-actions
Approved by: weihanglo
Pushing 633a91a to master...

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bors commented Aug 29, 2023

👀 Test was successful, but fast-forwarding failed: 422 Update is not a fast forward

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epage commented Aug 30, 2023

@bors r=weihanglo

Retrying after that bors failure

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bors commented Aug 30, 2023

📌 Commit 58fb982 has been approved by weihanglo

It is now in the queue for this repository.

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bors commented Aug 30, 2023

⌛ Testing commit 58fb982 with merge 1da01e5...

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bors commented Aug 30, 2023

☀️ Test successful - checks-actions
Approved by: weihanglo
Pushing 1da01e5 to master...

@bors bors merged commit 1da01e5 into rust-lang:master Aug 30, 2023
@epage epage deleted the explain branch August 30, 2023 00:56
bors added a commit to rust-lang-ci/rust that referenced this pull request Sep 6, 2023
Update cargo

21 commits in 96fe1c9e1aecd8f57063e3753969bb6418fd2fd5..d14c85f4e6e7671673b1a1bc87231ff7164761e1
2023-08-29 20:10:34 +0000 to 2023-09-05 22:28:10 +0000
- fix(resolver): Make resolver behavior independent of package order (rust-lang/cargo#12602)
- cargo-credential: change serialization of cache expiration (rust-lang/cargo#12622)
- Update registry-web-api.md yank/unyank comments (rust-lang/cargo#12619)
- test: new options of debuginfo are no longer unstable (rust-lang/cargo#12618)
- use split_once for cleaner code (rust-lang/cargo#12615)
- stop using lazy_static (rust-lang/cargo#12616)
- doc: adjust all doc headings one level up (rust-lang/cargo#12595)
- chore(deps): update compatible (rust-lang/cargo#12609)
- chore(deps): update rust crate cargo_metadata to 0.17.0 (rust-lang/cargo#12610)
- Prepare for partial-version package specs (rust-lang/cargo#12591)
- refactor: Use more serde_untagged (rust-lang/cargo#12581)
- fix(cli): Help users know possible `--target` values (rust-lang/cargo#12607)
- Tab completion for --target uses rustup but fallsback to rustc (rust-lang/cargo#12606)
- Fewer temporary needless strings (rust-lang/cargo#12604)
- fix(help): Provide better commands heading for styling (rust-lang/cargo#12593)
- fix(update): Clarify meaning of --aggressive as --recursive (rust-lang/cargo#12544)
- docs(changelog): Clarify language for Cargo.lock policy (rust-lang/cargo#12601)
- fix typo: "default branch branch" -> "default branch" (rust-lang/cargo#12598)
- fix: add error for unsupported credential provider version (rust-lang/cargo#12590)
- fix(help): Explain --explain (rust-lang/cargo#12592)
- fix(help): Remove redundant information from new/init (rust-lang/cargo#12594)

r? ghost
bors added a commit that referenced this pull request Sep 11, 2023
feat(help): Add styling to help output

### What does this PR try to resolve?

Try to make `--help` output easier to parse by using terminal styling

Screenshots:

![Screenshot from 2023-09-06 09-57-11](https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/assets/60961/61069af4-ef05-40ad-9240-fedea44d4c71)

![Screenshot from 2023-09-06 09-57-21](https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/assets/60961/d2e69024-42aa-47c0-ad0f-24e43551b8db)

![Screenshot from 2023-09-06 09-57-36](https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/assets/60961/e3d895e2-745f-48c6-9e84-d6fb67198d6d)

*(`nargo` is my shell script wrapping `cargo run --manifest-path cargo/Cargo.toml`)*

### How should we test and review this PR?

At this time, the only styling snapshotting library I know of is a pain to use, so testing this requires manually running the commands which I did.  Screenshots are included for easier evaluation of the general idea.

Snapshotting of the plain text output ensures we don't have accidental formatting regressions from this change since the formatting isn't as obvious from looking at the code.

### Additional information

Traditionally, cargo has disabled clap's styled output.  My assumed
reason is that cargo mixes custom help output with auto-generated and
you couldn't previously make it all styled.
Clap 4.2 allowed users to pass in strings styled using ANSI escape
codes, allowing us to pass in styled text that matches clap, unblocking this.  In clap
4.4.1, clap gained the ability for the user to override the style.

In this PR, I decided to use the new 4.4.1 feature to style clap's
output to match the rest of cargo's output.  Alternatively, we could use
a more subdue style that clap uses by default.

I used the `color-print` crate to allow something almost html-like for styling `&static str`.  Alternatively, we could directly embed the ANSI escape codes harder to get write, harder to inspect), or we could do the styling at runtime and enable the `string` feature in clap.

I decided to *not* style `Arg::help` messages because
- It might be distracting to have the descriptions lit up like a
  christmas tree
- It is a lot more work

The one exception I made was for `--list` since it is for a
psuedo-command (`...`) and I wanted to intentionally draw attention to
it.

#12593 made styling of `cargo -h` cleaner imo.
#12592 and #12594 were improvements I noticed while doing this.
@ehuss ehuss added this to the 1.74.0 milestone Sep 30, 2023
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