Hi Johan, I was actually talking about this exact same concept hmm a couple weeks ago now on IRC with some other people in #maven. I suggested that Perldoc is a good example to follow for Maven commandline documentation, and it sounds like you would probably agree.
Ideally we'd find a way for the plugin documentation (which currently creates the plugin websites) to somehow also function as the basis for this "mvn help xyz" function. Then we've got 1 source of documentation and we can generate multiple views (website, help plugin, etc) on the docs. I don't know who (if anyone) is pursuing this idea currently, but I agree that it sounds like a reasonable approach to take in an effort to improve documentation. Wayne On 9/26/07, Johan Iskandar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Brian, > > Sorry if not answering your call, but.. I think my reply is about > helping the usability part of maven > > Here's my wish list in short: (lengthy details at the bottom) > 1 - It would be great if the mvn command could have the ability to > provide documentation more than just a cheat note (-help) of most usable > commands. > 2 - It would also be a lot better if the mvn command was able to dig > more documentation on the plug-ins, perhaps by standardizing the way > mojos should provide docs to the mvn command, so that users could query > the mojos docs through mvn command. > > Best regards, > Johan > > > Details: > We should add in the cheat note how to query for help say like this: > >mvn -help > usage: mvn [options] [<goal(s)>] [<phase(s)>] > > Options: > -q,--quiet Quiet output - only show errors > ...bla..bla..bla... > -h,--help Provide help on the plugin/goals used, > Ex: mvn -h clean > > Common goals: > clean bla..bla..bla.. > ..bla..bla..bla.. > help Calling the help plugin. > > >mvn help (or you could also use the more formal command '>mvn > help:help' or >mvn -h help) > Welcome to help plugin 1.0.0 for mvn version > 2.0.9! > > usage: mvn help<:goal> > > Goals available on the current version: > faq Frequently asked question. > quick-start Quick start tutorial. > package-creation Topics on package creation. > mojo-dev Best practices on mojo development. > ..bla..bla..bla.. > > >mvn -h jetty > Welcome to jetty! > ..bla..bla..bla.. > > >mvn -h jetty:run > The jetty run goal is ..bla..bla..bla.. > > > XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX > XXXX > What I have currently (version 2.0.6) is this: > > ======================================================================== > ==== > d:\m2ws>mvn -help > > usage: mvn [options] [<goal(s)>] [<phase(s)>] > > Options: > -q,--quiet Quiet output - only show errors > ...bla..bla..bla.. > -h,--help Display help information > ...bla..bla..bla.. > > d:\m2ws>mvn help:help > [INFO] Scanning for projects... > [INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix: 'help'. > [INFO] artifact org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-help-plugin: checking for > updates from central > Downloading: > http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-help-plugin > /2.0.1/maven-help-plugin-2.0.1.pom > 1K downloaded > Downloading: > http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/maven/plugins/maven-help-plugin > /2.0.1/maven-help-plugin-2.0.1.jar > 19K downloaded > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [ERROR] BUILD FAILURE > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] Required goal not found: help:help > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] Total time: 45 seconds > [INFO] Finished at: Thu Sep 27 08:41:24 ICT 2007 > [INFO] Final Memory: 1M/3M > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > d:\m2ws>mvn help > [INFO] Scanning for projects... > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [ERROR] BUILD FAILURE > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] Invalid task 'help': you must specify a valid lifecycle phase, or > a goal in the format plugin:goal or pluginGroupId:plug > inArtifactId:pluginVersion:goal > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] For more information, run Maven with the -e switch > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > [INFO] Total time: < 1 second > [INFO] Finished at: Thu Sep 27 08:41:34 ICT 2007 > [INFO] Final Memory: 1M/2M > [INFO] > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > ======================================================================== > ==== > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
