DockerCLI/e2e/cli-plugins
Sebastiaan van Stijn f28fc7f82f
cli: FlagErrorFunc: don't print long usage output for invalid flags
When trying to use an invalid flag, the CLI currently prints the a short
error message, instructions to use the `--help` flag to learn about the
correct usage, followed by the command's usage output.

While this is a common convention, and may have been a nice gesture when
docker was still young and only had a few commands and options ("you did
something wrong, but here's an overview of what you can use"), that's no
longer the case, and many commands have a _very_ long output.

The result of this is that the error message, which is the relevant
information in this case - "You mis-typed something" - is lost in the
output, and hard to find (sometimes even requiring scrolling back).

The output is also confusing, because it _looks_ like something ran
successfully (most of the output is not about the error!).

Even further; the suggested resolution (try `--help` to see the correct
options) is rather redundant, because running teh command with `--help`
produces _exactly_ the same output as was just showh, baring the error
message. As a fun fact, due to the usage output being printed, the
output even contains not one, but _two_ "call to actions";

- `See 'docker volume --help'.` (under the erro message)
- `Run 'docker volume COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.`
  (under the usage output)

In short; the output is too verbose, confusing, and doesn't provide
a good UX. Let's reduce the output produced so that the focus is on the
important information.

This patch:

- Changes the usage to the short-usage.
- Prefixes the error message with the binary / root-command name
  (usually `docker:`) to be consistent with `unknon command`, and helps
  to distinguish where the message originated from (the `docker` CLI in
  this case).
- Adds an empty line between the error-message and the "call to action"
  (`Run 'docker volume --help' ...` in the example below). This helps
  separating the error message ("unkown flag") from the call-to-action.

Before this patch:

    docker volume --no-such-flag
    unknown flag: --no-such-flag
    See 'docker volume --help'.

    Usage:  docker volume COMMAND

    Manage volumes

    Commands:
      create      Create a volume
      inspect     Display detailed information on one or more volumes
      ls          List volumes
      prune       Remove unused local volumes
      rm          Remove one or more volumes
      update      Update a volume (cluster volumes only)

    Run 'docker volume COMMAND --help' for more information on a command.

With this patch:

    docker volume --no-such-flag
    docker: unknown flag: --no-such-flag

    Usage:  docker volume COMMAND

    Run 'docker volume --help' for more information

Signed-off-by: Sebastiaan van Stijn <github@gone.nl>
2024-07-17 13:22:31 +02:00
..
plugins e2e/cli-plugins: use identifiable output for test 2024-07-05 10:59:26 +02:00
testdata cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands 2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
config_test.go bump gotest.tools v3.0.1 for compatibility with Go 1.14 2020-02-23 00:28:55 +01:00
dial_test.go bump gotest.tools v3.0.1 for compatibility with Go 1.14 2020-02-23 00:28:55 +01:00
flags_test.go cli: improve argument validation output 2024-07-05 03:35:14 +02:00
help_test.go cli: FlagErrorFunc: don't print long usage output for invalid flags 2024-07-17 13:22:31 +02:00
main_test.go e2e: Add a TestMain for cli plugins tests 2019-04-03 15:06:34 +01:00
run_test.go Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
socket_test.go cmd/docker: don't discard cli.StatusError errors without custom message 2024-07-05 10:59:27 +02:00
util_test.go golangci-lint: enable thelper linter 2023-11-20 16:02:17 +01:00