The Docker CLI
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Sebastiaan van Stijn a6e96c758e
cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands
Before this patch, output for invalid top-level and sub-commands differed.
For top-level commands, the CLI would print an error-message and a suggestion
to use `--help`. For missing *subcommands*, we would hit a different code-path,
and different output, which includes full "usage" / "help" output.

While it is a common convention to show usage output, and may have been
a nice gesture when docker was still young and only had a few commands
and options ("you did something wrong; 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.
- Changes the error-message to mention the _full_ command instead of only
  the command after `docker` (so `docker no-such-command` instead of
  `no-such-command`).
- Prefixes the error message with the binary / root-command name
  (usually `docker:`); this is something we can still decide on, but
  it's a pattern we already use in some places. The motivation for this
  is that `docker` commands can often produce output that's a combination
  of output from the CLI itself, output from the daemon, and even output
  from the container. The `docker:` prefix 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:

Unknown top-level command:

    docker nosuchcommand foo
    docker: 'nosuchcommand' is not a docker command.
    See 'docker --help'

Unknown sub-command:

    docker volume nosuchcommand foo

    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.

After this patch:

Unknown top-level command:

    docker nosuchcommand foo
    docker: unknown command: docker nosuchcommand

    Run 'docker --help' for more information

Unknown sub-command:

    docker volume nosuchcommand foo
    docker: unknown command: 'docker volume nosuchcommand'

    Usage:  docker volume COMMAND

    Run 'docker volume --help' for more information

Signed-off-by: Sebastiaan van Stijn <github@gone.nl>
2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
.github Merge pull request #5216 from Benehiko/force-lf 2024-07-04 02:09:34 +02:00
cli cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands 2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
cli-plugins cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands 2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
cmd/docker cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands 2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
contrib/completion Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
dockerfiles update to go1.21.12 2024-07-03 10:59:37 +02:00
docs docs: make buildx build the canonical reference doc 2024-07-03 08:55:16 +02:00
e2e cli: improve output and consistency for unknown (sub)commands 2024-07-05 02:28:11 +02:00
experimental deprecate experimental graphdriver plugins 2024-06-18 16:47:00 +02:00
hack/otel OTEL collector/prometheus/aspire-dashboard stack for testing purposes 2024-04-30 12:25:19 +00:00
internal/test replace uses of deprecated API types 2024-07-04 15:22:18 +02:00
man Additional typo corrections 2024-06-20 12:18:43 +02:00
opts test spring-cleaning 2024-07-04 01:35:12 +02:00
scripts update go-md2man to v2.0.4 2024-06-18 21:47:47 +02:00
service/logs service/logs: use strings.Cut 2022-12-29 15:19:31 +01:00
templates Update go:build comments to go1.21 2024-06-18 12:17:13 +02:00
vendor vendor: github.com/docker/docker 508cc7c61226 (master) 2024-07-04 15:20:27 +02:00
.dockerignore validate manpages target 2022-02-25 17:11:17 +01:00
.gitattributes feat: force lf line endings by default 2024-07-02 11:53:42 +02:00
.gitignore Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
.golangci.yml update golangci-lint to .v1.59.0 2024-06-10 21:19:32 +02:00
.mailmap update mailmap and AUTHORS 2024-06-20 13:22:11 +02:00
AUTHORS update mailmap and AUTHORS 2024-06-20 13:22:11 +02:00
CONTRIBUTING.md Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
Dockerfile update to go1.21.12 2024-07-03 10:59:37 +02:00
LICENSE Add project files 2017-04-17 17:49:33 -04:00
MAINTAINERS not actually a maintainer 2023-11-10 21:35:15 +01:00
Makefile Dockerfile: update mvdan/gofumpt to v0.6.0 2024-03-17 13:48:13 +01:00
NOTICE Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
README.md Removed all mentions of "please" from docs and messages 2024-06-11 16:53:40 +02:00
TESTING.md tweak description of login/logout 2022-04-04 10:44:11 +02:00
VERSION bump version to v27.0.1-dev 2024-06-18 13:29:00 +02:00
codecov.yml Drop support for (archived) Compose-on-Kubernetes 2022-02-22 13:47:34 +01:00
docker-bake.hcl update to go1.21.12 2024-07-03 10:59:37 +02:00
docker.Makefile Cleanup of dockerfiles, compose files and env vars 2024-02-13 13:32:45 +00:00
vendor.mod vendor: github.com/docker/docker 508cc7c61226 (master) 2024-07-04 15:20:27 +02:00
vendor.sum vendor: github.com/docker/docker 508cc7c61226 (master) 2024-07-04 15:20:27 +02:00

README.md

Docker CLI

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About

This repository is the home of the Docker CLI.

Development

docker/cli is developed using Docker.

Build CLI from source:

docker buildx bake

Build binaries for all supported platforms:

docker buildx bake cross

Build for a specific platform:

docker buildx bake --set binary.platform=linux/arm64 

Build dynamic binary for glibc or musl:

USE_GLIBC=1 docker buildx bake dynbinary 

Run all linting:

docker buildx bake lint shellcheck

Run test:

docker buildx bake test

List all the available targets:

make help

In-container development environment

Start an interactive development environment:

make -f docker.Makefile shell

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Licensing

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