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Add support for ActiveHelp
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Signed-off-by: Marc Khouzam <marc.khouzam@montreal.ca>
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marckhouzam committed Oct 8, 2021
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions README.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ name a few. [This list](./projects_using_cobra.md) contains a more extensive lis
* [Suggestions when "unknown command" happens](user_guide.md#suggestions-when-unknown-command-happens)
* [Generating documentation for your command](user_guide.md#generating-documentation-for-your-command)
* [Generating shell completions](user_guide.md#generating-shell-completions)
* [Providing Active Help](user_guide.md#providing-active-help)
- [Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md)
- [License](#license)

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149 changes: 149 additions & 0 deletions active_help.md
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@@ -0,0 +1,149 @@
# Active Help

Active Help is a framework provided by Cobra which allows a program to define messages (hints, warnings, etc) that will be printed during program usage. It aims to make it easier for your users to learn how to use your program. If configured by the program, Active Help is printed when the user triggers shell completion.

For example,
```
bash-5.1$ helm repo add [tab]
You must choose a name for the repo you are adding.
bash-5.1$ bin/helm package [tab]
Please specify the path to the chart to package
bash-5.1$ bin/helm package [tab][tab]
bin/ internal/ scripts/ pkg/ testdata/
```
## Supported shells

Active Help is currently only supported for the following shells:
- Bash (using [bash completion V2](shell_completions.md#bash-completion-v2) only)
- Zsh

## Adding Active Help messages

As Active Help uses the shell completion system, the implementation of Active Help messages is done by enhancing custom dynamic completions. If you are not familiar with dynamic completions, please refer to [Shell Completions](shell_completions.md).

Adding Active Help is done through the use of the `cobra.AppendActiveHelp(...)` function, where the program repeatedly adds Active Help messages to the list of completions. Keep reading for details.

### Active Help for nouns

Adding Active Help when completing a noun is done within the `ValidArgsFunction(...)` of a command. Please notice the use of `cobra.AppendActiveHelp(...)` in the following example:

```go
cmd := &cobra.Command{
Use: "add [NAME] [URL]",
Short: "add a chart repository",
Args: require.ExactArgs(2),
RunE: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) error {
return addRepo(args)
},
ValidArgsFunction: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string, toComplete string) ([]string, cobra.ShellCompDirective) {
var comps []string
if len(args) == 0 {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "You must choose a name for the repo you are adding")
} else if len(args) == 1 {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "You must specify the URL for the repo you are adding")
} else {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "This command does not take any more arguments")
}
return comps, cobra.ShellCompDirectiveNoFileComp
},
}
```
The example above defines the completions (none, in this specific example) as well as the Active Help messages for the `helm repo add` command. It yields the following behavior:
```
bash-5.1$ helm repo add [tab]
You must choose a name for the repo you are adding
bash-5.1$ helm repo add grafana [tab]
You must specify the URL for the repo you are adding
bash-5.1$ helm repo add grafana https://grafana.github.io/helm-charts [tab]
This command does not take any more arguments
```

### Active Help for flags

Providing Active Help for flags is done in the same fashion as for nouns, but using the completion function registered for the flag. For example:
```go
_ = cmd.RegisterFlagCompletionFunc("version", func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string, toComplete string) ([]string, cobra.ShellCompDirective) {
if len(args) != 2 {
return cobra.AppendActiveHelp(nil, "You must first specify the chart to install before the --version flag can be completed"), cobra.ShellCompDirectiveNoFileComp
}
return compVersionFlag(args[1], toComplete)
})
```
The example above prints an Active Help message when not enough information was given by the user to complete the `--version` flag.
```
bash-5.1$ bin/helm install myrelease --version 2.0.[tab]
You must first specify the chart to install before the --version flag can be completed
bash-5.1$ bin/helm install myrelease bitnami/solr --version 2.0.[tab][tab]
2.0.1 2.0.2 2.0.3
```

## User control of Active Help

You may want to allow your users to disable Active Help or choose between different levels of Active Help. It is entirely up to the program to define the level of configurability of Active Help that it wants to offer. Implementing the configuration of Active Help through Cobra is done as follows:

1. Allow a user to specify the Active Help configuration she wants. This would normally be done when the user requests the generation of the shell completion script
1. Specify the Active Help configuration by setting the `rootCmd.ActiveHelpConfig` string before calling the Cobra API that generates the shell completion script
1. When in `cmd.ValidArgsFunction(...)` or a flag's completion function, read the configuration from the `cmd.ActiveHelpConfig` field and select what Active Help messages should or should not be added

For example, a program that uses a `completion` command to generate the shell completion script can add a flag `--activehelp-level` to that command. The user would then use that flag to choose an Active Help level:
```
bash-5.1$ source <(helm completion bash --activehelp-level 1)
```
The code to pass that information to Cobra would look something like:
```go
cmd.Root().ActiveHelpConfig = strconv.Itoa(activeHelpLevel)
return cmd.Root().GenBashCompletionV2(out, true)
```
This specified configuration will then be accessible whenever `cmd.ValidArgsFunction(...)` or a flag's completion function is called:
```go
ValidArgsFunction: func(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string, toComplete string) ([]string, cobra.ShellCompDirective) {
activeHelpLevel, err := strconv.Atoi(cmd.ActiveHelpConfig)
if err != nil {
activeHelpLevel = 2 // Highest level allowed by this program
}

var comps []string
if len(args) == 0 {
if activeHelpLevel > 0 {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "You must choose a name for the repo you are adding")
}
} else if len(args) == 1 {
if activeHelpLevel > 0 {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "You must specify the URL for the repo you are adding")
}
} else {
if activeHelpLevel > 1 {
comps = cobra.AppendActiveHelp(comps, "This command does not take any more arguments")
}
}
return comps, cobra.ShellCompDirectiveNoFileComp
},
```
**Note**: If the string "0" is used for `cmd.Root().ActiveHelpConfig`, it will automatically be handled by Cobra and will completely disable all Active Help output (even if some output was specified by the program using the `cobra.AppendActiveHelp(...)` function). Using "0" can simplify your code in situations where you want to blindly disable Active Help.

**Note**: Cobra transparently passes the `cmd.ActiveHelpConfig` string you specified back to your program when completion is invoked. You can therefore define any scheme you choose for your program; you are not limited to using integer levels for the configuration of Active Help.

## Debugging Active Help

Debugging your Active Help code is done in the same way as debugging the dynamic completion code, which is with Cobra's hidden `__complete` command. Please refer to [debugging shell completion](shell_completions.md#debugging) for details.

When debugging with the `__complete` command, if you want to specify different Active Help configurations, you should use the `--__activeHelpCfg` flag (as is done by the generated completion scripts). For example, we can test deactivating some Active Help as shown below:
```
$ bin/helm __complete --__activeHelpCfg=1 install wordpress bitnami/h<ENTER>
bitnami/haproxy
bitnami/harbor
_activeHelp_ WARNING: cannot re-use a name that is still in use
:0
Completion ended with directive: ShellCompDirectiveDefault
$ bin/helm __complete --__activeHelpCfg=0 install wordpress bitnami/h<ENTER>
bitnami/haproxy
bitnami/harbor
:0
Completion ended with directive: ShellCompDirectiveDefault
```
5 changes: 3 additions & 2 deletions bash_completions.go
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -73,7 +73,8 @@ __%[1]s_handle_go_custom_completion()
# Prepare the command to request completions for the program.
# Calling ${words[0]} instead of directly %[1]s allows to handle aliases
args=("${words[@]:1}")
requestComp="${words[0]} %[2]s ${args[*]}"
# Disable ActiveHelp which is not supported for bash completion v1
requestComp="${words[0]} %[2]s --%[8]s=0 ${args[*]}"
lastParam=${words[$((${#words[@]}-1))]}
lastChar=${lastParam:$((${#lastParam}-1)):1}
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -377,7 +378,7 @@ __%[1]s_handle_word()
`, name, ShellCompNoDescRequestCmd,
ShellCompDirectiveError, ShellCompDirectiveNoSpace, ShellCompDirectiveNoFileComp,
ShellCompDirectiveFilterFileExt, ShellCompDirectiveFilterDirs))
ShellCompDirectiveFilterFileExt, ShellCompDirectiveFilterDirs, activeHelpCfgFlagName))
}

func writePostscript(buf io.StringWriter, name string) {
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61 changes: 48 additions & 13 deletions bash_completionsV2.go
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -9,12 +9,12 @@ import (

func (c *Command) genBashCompletion(w io.Writer, includeDesc bool) error {
buf := new(bytes.Buffer)
genBashComp(buf, c.Name(), includeDesc)
genBashComp(buf, c, includeDesc)
_, err := buf.WriteTo(w)
return err
}

func genBashComp(buf io.StringWriter, name string, includeDesc bool) {
func genBashComp(buf io.StringWriter, cmd *Command, includeDesc bool) {
compCmd := ShellCompRequestCmd
if !includeDesc {
compCmd = ShellCompNoDescRequestCmd
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ __%[1]s_get_completion_results() {
# Prepare the command to request completions for the program.
# Calling ${words[0]} instead of directly %[1]s allows to handle aliases
args=("${words[@]:1}")
requestComp="${words[0]} %[2]s ${args[*]}"
requestComp="${words[0]} %[2]s --%[9]s=%[10]s ${args[*]}"
lastParam=${words[$((${#words[@]}-1))]}
lastChar=${lastParam:$((${#lastParam}-1)):1}
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -111,13 +111,18 @@ __%[1]s_process_completion_results() {
fi
fi
# Separate activeHelp from normal completions
local completions=()
local activeHelp=()
__%[1]s_extract_activeHelp
if [ $((directive & shellCompDirectiveFilterFileExt)) -ne 0 ]; then
# File extension filtering
local fullFilter filter filteringCmd
# Do not use quotes around the $out variable or else newline
# Do not use quotes around the $completions variable or else newline
# characters will be kept.
for filter in ${out[*]}; do
for filter in ${completions[*]}; do
fullFilter+="$filter|"
done
Expand All @@ -129,7 +134,7 @@ __%[1]s_process_completion_results() {
# Use printf to strip any trailing newline
local subdir
subdir=$(printf "%%s" "${out[0]}")
subdir=$(printf "%%s" "${completions[0]}")
if [ -n "$subdir" ]; then
__%[1]s_debug "Listing directories in $subdir"
pushd "$subdir" >/dev/null 2>&1 && _filedir -d && popd >/dev/null 2>&1 || return
Expand All @@ -143,6 +148,35 @@ __%[1]s_process_completion_results() {
__%[1]s_handle_special_char "$cur" :
__%[1]s_handle_special_char "$cur" =
# Print the activeHelp statements before we finish
if [ ${#activeHelp} -ne 0 ]; then
printf "\n";
printf "%%s\n" "${activeHelp[@]}"
printf "\n"
# This needs bash 4.4
printf "%%s" "${PS1@P}${COMP_LINE[@]}"
fi
}
# Separate activeHelp lines from real completions.
# Fills the $activeHelp and $completions arrays.
__%[1]s_extract_activeHelp() {
local activeHelpMarker="%[8]s"
local endIndex=${#activeHelpMarker}
while IFS='' read -r comp; do
if [ "${comp:0:endIndex}" = "$activeHelpMarker" ]; then
comp=${comp:endIndex}
__%[1]s_debug "ActiveHelp found: $comp"
if [ -n "$comp" ]; then
activeHelp+=("$comp")
fi
else
# Not an activeHelp line but a normal completion
completions+=("$comp")
fi
done < <(printf "%%s\n" "${out[@]}")
}
__%[1]s_handle_standard_completion_case() {
Expand All @@ -159,9 +193,9 @@ __%[1]s_handle_standard_completion_case() {
if ((${#comp}>longest)); then
longest=${#comp}
fi
done < <(printf "%%s\n" "${out[@]}")
done < <(printf "%%s\n" "${completions[@]}")
local completions=()
local finalcomps=()
while IFS='' read -r comp; do
if [ -z "$comp" ]; then
continue
Expand All @@ -170,12 +204,12 @@ __%[1]s_handle_standard_completion_case() {
__%[1]s_debug "Original comp: $comp"
comp="$(__%[1]s_format_comp_descriptions "$comp" "$longest")"
__%[1]s_debug "Final comp: $comp"
completions+=("$comp")
done < <(printf "%%s\n" "${out[@]}")
finalcomps+=("$comp")
done < <(printf "%%s\n" "${completions[@]}")
while IFS='' read -r comp; do
COMPREPLY+=("$comp")
done < <(compgen -W "${completions[*]}" -- "$cur")
done < <(compgen -W "${finalcomps[*]}" -- "$cur")
# If there is a single completion left, remove the description text
if [ ${#COMPREPLY[*]} -eq 1 ]; then
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -279,9 +313,10 @@ else
fi
# ex: ts=4 sw=4 et filetype=sh
`, name, compCmd,
`, cmd.Name(), compCmd,
ShellCompDirectiveError, ShellCompDirectiveNoSpace, ShellCompDirectiveNoFileComp,
ShellCompDirectiveFilterFileExt, ShellCompDirectiveFilterDirs))
ShellCompDirectiveFilterFileExt, ShellCompDirectiveFilterDirs,
activeHelpMarker, activeHelpCfgFlagName, cmd.Root().ActiveHelpConfig))
}

// GenBashCompletionFileV2 generates Bash completion version 2.
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17 changes: 17 additions & 0 deletions command.go
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -222,6 +222,23 @@ type Command struct {
// SuggestionsMinimumDistance defines minimum levenshtein distance to display suggestions.
// Must be > 0.
SuggestionsMinimumDistance int

// ActiveHelpConfig is a string that can be used to communicate the level of activeHelp
// the user is interested in receiving.
// The program can set this string before generating the completion scripts.
// When setting this string, it MUST be set on the Root command.
//
// The program should read this string from within ValidArgsFunction or the flag value
// completion functions to make decisions on whether or not to append activeHelp messages.
// This string can be read directly from the command passed to the completion functions,
// or from the Root command.
//
// If the value 0 is used, it will automatically be handled by Cobra and
// will completely disable activeHelp output, even if some output was specified by
// the program.
// Any other value will not be interpreted by Cobra but only provided back
// to the program when ValidArgsFunction is called.
ActiveHelpConfig string
}

// Context returns underlying command context. If command wasn't
Expand Down
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