Re: Improve the output of `guix refresh -l`

[Ludovic Courtès]

Maxime Devos <maximedevos@telenet.be> skribis:

> Zhu Zihao schreef op do 17-03-2022 om 18:22 [+0800]:
>> for example, run `guix refresh -l pango`, The terminal prints:
>> 
>> ```
>> Building the following 2945 packages would ensure 7521 dependent
>> packages are rebuilt: ......<long long package list>
>> ```
>> 
>> The package list is too long to read, flood my terminal with package
>> names. It will hide the actual rebuilt count, I have to pipe the
>> output
>> to less command to make sure I can see it.
>> 
>> What about add an option like `--detail` for `guix refresh -l`?
>
> The short option '-l' is a shorthand for the long option
> '--list-dependents'.  It seems to me that '--list-dependents' should
> actually list the dependents, so I would not do that, otherwise the
> option name would (by itself) not correspond to its behaviour anymore.

Maybe it could use ‘fill-paragraph’ and
‘call-with-paginated-output-port’ so that it’s less annoying?

> Maybe something like a '--count-dependents' option would be nice
> though.

That too, and/or ‘--direct-dependents’ (sometimes it’s good enough).

Another option would be a ‘guix refresh’ mode that automatically
rebuilds the updated package and its direct dependents.

Thoughts?

Ludo’.