Hi Raghav, On Thu, 26 Aug 2021 at 21:04, Raghav Gururajan <r...@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>. :-)