[rush] Improve command-line for "rush add"

[qm3ster]

Not sure why rush add takes packages through the -p flag and not just naked parameters like all the package managers do, but it should still be able to install/update version of multiple package identifiers at once, for example with multiple flags: -p PACKAGE -p PACKAGE@VERSION.

The current behavior when you supply rush add -p foo -p bar is particularly surprising - instead of erroring out since this isn't supported, it just ignores the package names before the last one supplied. You end up only adding bar. That's probably a Bad Thing™

[octogonz]

It's a limitation of the ts-command-line library. #790 is a similar issue. For a long time we've been meaning to replace the underlying parser that ts-command-line uses, but it hasn't been prioritized because we actually don't receive a lot of complaints about it compared to other things. :-)

[domarmstrong]

Can I add another complaint them :) this has been a pain for myself also. The -p flag seems pretty redundant. And having to rush add -p foo then wait, then add another, when you have 5 packages or so to add!

[octogonz]

And having to rush add -p foo then wait, then add another, when you have 5 packages or so to add!

You can skip the waiting by using --skip-update, like this:

# Skip updates
$ rush add -p lib1 -s
$ rush add -p lib2 -s
$ rush add -p lib3 -s
$ rush add -p lib4 -s
# Perform one update for all 5 additions
$ rush add -p lib5

BTW without any changes to ts-command-line, we could convert -p into a string array, so you could do this:

$ rush add -p lib1 -p lib2 -p lib3 -p lib4 -p lib5

The current behavior when you supply rush add -p foo -p bar is particularly surprising - instead of erroring out since this isn't supported, it just ignores the package names before the last one supplied. You end up only adding bar. That's probably a Bad Thing™

Damn... You guys are really making me want to fix the ts-command-line backend parser, though! Today it's based on argparse which hasn't been updated in over a year...

[slavafomin]

Well, this is extremely annoying now to add multiple packages through the rush add command. And we mostly add multiple packages, one for the library itself and another one for it's typings.

It looks like this:

rush add --caret --dev -p some-package --no-update
rush add --caret --dev -p @types/some-package

which is very cumbersome.

It would be nice to do just:

rush add --caret --dev some-package @types/some-package

Also, why --dev flag doesn't have a short version -D like in npm?

I believe it would be very beneficial to have a CLI syntax compatible to npm, for once it would help with migration and adaptation.

[Js-Brecht]

@octogonz What are your thoughts on using defineCommandLineRemainder() (#1869) to resolve this issue? Do you think it could work?

[shedali]

running into this multiple times a day, it can be a bit jarring if having to switch between different package managers. Using bash function as workaround for now

function rushadd(){
  for arg in $@; do
      rush add -p $arg;
   done
}

[octogonz]

What are your thoughts on using defineCommandLineRemainder() (#1869) to resolve this issue? Do you think it could work?

I'm not opposed to $ rush add lib1 lib2 lib3 lib4 lib5, but it's a new syntax that may require some design discussion. (Also, as I recall after we implemented defineCommandLineRemainder() it turned out to have a parsing ambiguity, that made me want to rethink its design. I don't remember the details offhand, though.)

If we want to get something implemented quickly, it would be simpler to extend the current design like this:

$ rush add -p lib1 -p lib2 -p lib3 -p lib4 -p lib5

That would just involve changing this:

rushstack/apps/rush-lib/src/cli/actions/AddAction.ts

Lines 48 to 58 in 8c492e9

	this._packageName = this.defineStringParameter({
	parameterLongName: '--package',
	parameterShortName: '-p',
	required: true,
	argumentName: 'PACKAGE',
	description:
	'(Required) The name of the package which should be added as a dependency.' +
	' A SemVer version specifier can be appended after an "@" sign. WARNING: Symbol characters' +
	" are usually interpreted by your shell, so it's recommended to use quotes." +
	' For example, write "rush add --package "example@^1.2.3"" instead of "rush add --package example@^1.2.3".'
	});

...to be a CommandLineStringListParameter instead of CommandLineStringParameter, and then add a for-loop somewhere to process each of the names.

Should be a pretty easy PR, and without any open questions for the design spec as far as I can tell. This would get something implemented quickly, and then we could come back and improve the CLI in a separate PR.