Conflicting --version option when using default command

[SmileyChris]

Towncrier's build command is the default command, but it uses a custom --version option that collides with the base cli --version option that simply returns the towncrier version number.

> towncrier --version x.y --draft
towncrier, version 22.12.1.dev0
> towncrier build --version x.y --draft
[renders draft newsfile]

I don't really know if there's an easy out. Maybe just don't use any default command (since there's discussion about not having that as a separate dependency anyway: #506)?

[adiroiban]

I think that it works as expected

I checked a few other tools

$ python3 --version bla
Python 3.10.6
$ tox --version bla
3.21.4 imported from /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/tox/__init__.py

We had this issue #344
and this PR #341

---

Can you please specify what is the actual result and what is the expected result?

Thanks

[SmileyChris]

We have a custom --version option for the build command that is required to specify the version you're build the news for (to either override a version specified in your toml file, or if none exists this is required -- see also #507 )

towncrier/src/towncrier/build.py

Lines 81 to 86 in a8f4630

	@click.option(
	"--version",
	"project_version",
	default=None,
	help="Render the news fragments using given version.",
	)

If build is the default command, it becomes partially gimped because you can't use this option when (i.e. calling towncrier --version x.y), as it is overridden by click's default --version option (returning the version number, similar to python and tox).

[adiroiban]

Thanks for the update Chris. It is still not clear what is your expected behaviour.

I think that this is the current behaviour and my expected behaviour.

• towncrier --version ANYTHONG just return towncrier's own version and ignore any other commands
• towncrier build --version 1.2 - build the release notes for your project that is now at version 1.2.

What is your expected result for these 2 commands?

[hynek]

I agree with Adi here: it's an expectation from a CLI tool to return its own version when passing --version. If anything by it's unfortunate that we have an version flag but it's like with e.g. --help and git: it applies to the active command.

[SmileyChris]

The cli doc's state that

build is also assumed if no command is passed.

So I'll just put a PR for documenting that (build's) --version requires the build command to be explicitly passed.

[adiroiban]

I see... Regarding "build" implicit behavior. I think it's a best effort.

I would prefer not to have a default command... but for towncrier, I think it's too late.
So we just document the current behaviour.

And maybe in the documentation ,we can encourage people to always use an explicit command.