openSUSE:Build Service Concept OscProjPack

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osc PROJ/PACK

This is a feature suggestion for easier osc commandline handling. Many commands require specifying Project and/or Package names.

The current situation is not satisfying for the following reasons:

  • inconsistent defaults. Some osc subcommands can take project and/or package names from the current directory, if run inside a checkout tree. If both project and package can use this default or only one, and if one, which, depends on the command. Users have a hard time memorizing which is which.
  • The command line needs a lot of typing (esp in branch projects), and thus the commands are cumbersome to type. The user needs to enter information that can already be derived from the current working directory.
  • In most cases PRJ/PKG can be used instead of PRJ PKG, which is a convenience for allowing copy&paste from pwd output.
  • Osc developers tried to fine tune defaults and position of the PRJ PKG parameters for each individual subcommand.

Examples as of osc version 0.123:

      osc maintainer PRJ [PKG]
        - does not look in the current directory.
        - need at least PRJ.
      osc list [PRJ [PKG]]
        - Never looks at the current directory.
        - lists all projects, if run without parameters. 
      osc checkout [PRJ] PKG
      osc checkout PRJ
        - takes project from current directory, if inside a checkout tree
        - else operates on an entire project.
      osc checkin [ARG]
        - defaults to current project and package, 
        - if arg is a subdirectory, project is taken from current directory
        - if arg is a file, both project and package are taken from current
          directory.
      osc results [PRJ PKG]
        - takes either both or none from current directory.



Suggested solution

Instead of tuning (maybe optional) positional parameters in a subcommand specific way, We suggest to deprecate this syntax over time and instead favour an alternate syntax:

 osc CMD ... [--prj PRJ] [--pkg PKG] ...
 osc CMD ... [--proj PRJ] [--pack PKG] ...
 osc CMD ... [--project PRJ] [--package PKG] ...

These six options are new to osc, currently no existing command uses them. Thus the new syntax is conflict free wit the old syntax, both can be used in parallel.

  • --prj, --proj, --project are synonyms.
  • --pkg, --pack, --package are synonyms.

Osc shall also support aliases, to save typing. Some implicit aliases shall exist, with well defined magic effects. Aliases substitution is literal. They can replace options including their parameters, or just the option, or just the parameters.

-      (a dash) expands to --prj openSUSE:Factory 
       (or --prj followed by any other project as defined in 
       ~/.oscrc:default_project )
       --prj -         is synonymous to just -, for consistency.
.      (a dot) evaluates the current working directory, searching for
       .osc/_apiurl, .osc/_project, and .osc/_package 
       Implicit --apiurl, --prj, or --pkg options are constructed as far
       as available from the current directory and as far as not already 
       present in the command line. 
       If a dot is used as parameter to an option, it has a more 
       deterministic meaning.
       --apiurl .      Substitute only the current apiurl,
       --prj .         Substitute the current project name, and provides 
                       a default for --apiurl unless given.
       --pkg .         Substitures current package name likewise.
./.    expands to --prj . --pkg .
./PKG  expands to --prj . --pkg PKG

Unless otherwise noted in the online help, magic aliases are only attempted onceper commandline, and will only apply to their respective options. E.g. osc ci -m - will use a simple '-' as check in messages, and the absence of any project or package will default to the current project or package, just as osc ci . -m - would do.

Additionally, user defined aliases can be added to ~/.oscrc If an alias expansion has effect on the command line, the expanded line is printed as debug output.

online help of osc commands shall refer to the above syntax like this:

       osc CMD ... PROJ/PACK

An additional help entry

       osc help 'PROJ/PACK' 

shall explain the relevant details as presented herein.



Preview

A sneak preview of the sugested features is available in the build service project home:jnweiger osc.jw


Questions

How does this work with commands which maybe used with local and remote instances at all places ? For example the linkpac (or maybe better link in future, so it can also work for projects). It may get local or remote project or packages as source or as target in almost all combinations. I think this would not in all cases, right ?

What about to have arguments with / (or just the .) as local references and for example remote instances with a percent ?

Examples:

osc link /work_dir/project/package home:adrianSuSE%
osc link -%glibc /work_dir/project/meine.glibc           # creates a _link locally to remote openSUSE:Factory glibc package.
osc link openSUSE:11% home:adrianSuSE:my11.1%              # creates a project link (not yet supported, but comming), pure server side operation
osc link /work_dir/project/package /work_dir/project2/package2  # pure local link of a package