[Rpm-maint] [rpm-software-management/rpm] command line usage: option -q is not mentioned (#1473)

Michal Domonkos notifications at github.com
Thu Mar 18 13:14:51 UTC 2021


> I consider the following approach less confusing:
> 
> ```
> Query options:
>       --query                                            retrieve information about packages
>       etc.
> ```
> 
> It would help if we could rearrange the sections so that mode selectors come up first.

You should probably look at it from the perspective of a new user (for whom the help page is primarily meant). What I mean is, if you put `--query` in there, what prevents the user from thinking they could use the other options in that section, separately?

```
Query options (with -q or --query):       
      --query                     retrieve information about packages                                                      
      --dump                         dump basic file information                  
  -l, --list                         list files in package                                 
      --queryformat=QUERYFORMAT      use the following query format              
  -s, --state                        display the states of the listed files               
```

There just isn't the obvious link between `--query` and the other options which only make sense when `--query` is specified. For example, you can't just run `rpm -l` or `rpm -s`.

That being said, the automatic help output has its limitations, some of which are hard limitations of `popt` while others are just the result of the way we structure and feed the data to popt. So by all means, patches are welcome :)

> This looks like "the WTF approach" to me.

Care to elaborate?

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