CosmosDBShell -c help mkitem doesn't work

[Pilchie]

Using CosmosDBShell -c help mkitem or CosmosDBShell -c "help mkitem" both just show the general help, not the mkitem specific help

[mkrueger]

Need to look at it - first test shows it works for me (using the version from the bug bash):

[sevoku]

I can't reproduce the case with quotes:

% CosmosDBShell -c "help mkitem"
  Creates items in container

── Usage ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  mkitem   [-database <ARG>]   [-container <ARG>]   [data] 

── Arguments ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  [data]             (Optional) JSON data for the item to create

── Options ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  -database, -db     The database where items should be created 
  -container, -con   The container where items should be created

── Examples ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  ▶ 1. Create a single item from JSON string
    mkitem '{"id":"1","name":"Product"}'

  ▶ 2. Create item from piped input
    echo '{"id":"2","price":99.99}' | mkitem

  ▶ 3. Create item in specific database and container
    mkitem '{"id":"3","status":"active"}' --database=MyDB --container=Items

BUT without quotes I also get the general help which is expected, the -c/-k need their command quoted, otherwise the shell doesn't know what belongs to where.

@Pilchie can you double check you're on the latest 1.0.213-preview version?

[mkrueger]

Even if not I always routed that command through the command system - so parser/command matcher etc. should always have worked. Will ask some AI models.

[mkrueger]

ok at least in the current builds it shouldn't be possible that it fails.

I can't guarante that there isn't an in between build that has some kind of issue with the help command.

@Pilchie: what does --version print?

[Pilchie]

It does seem to work in powershell with quotes (I thought I tried that before, but maybe not). It still doesn't work without quotes though

Version: CosmosDBShell 1.0.0 (11efc6b1ef238517349a9d57dcd310f1902672da)

Output:

Q:\src
❯ CosmosDBShell -c help mkitem
┌────────────────────┐
│ Available Commands │
└────────────────────┘

  Connection

  connect            Connect command.                  
  disconnect         Disconnect the current connection.

  Data Operations

  mkitem             Creates items in container                   
  print              Print a id/partition key.                    
  query              Executes a query and returns matching results
  rm                 Removes item from container                  

  Management

  create             Creates items/container or databases.           
  delete             Delete items/container or databases.            
  mkcon              Creates a new container in the current database.
  mkdb               Creates new database                            
  rmcon              Removes container                               
  rmdb               Removes database                                

  Utilities

  bucket             Gets or sets the current throughput bucket.          
  cat                Displays a file                                      
  cd                 Changes to container or database                     
  cls                Clears the console screen.                           
  dir                Lists files and directories in the local file system.
  echo               Displays messages.                                   
  exit               Exits cosmos db shell.                               
  ftab               Render piped JSON as a table                         
  help               Shows help information for commands                  
  indexpolicy        Reads or updates the indexing policy of a container. 
  jq                 Commandline JSON processor                           
  ls                 List resources in the current context.               
  pwd                Shows the current shell location.                    
  settings           Shows various settings for databases and containers. 
  version            Displays the version of Cosmos DB Shell.             

┌─────────────────────────┐
│ Control Flow Statements │
└─────────────────────────┘

  break         Exits the nearest enclosing loop immediately.                                                               
  continue      Skips the remainder of the current loop iteration and continues with the next iteration.                    
  def           Defines a named function with optional parameters that can be invoked later.                                
  do            Executes a statement once, then repeats it while the expression remains true.                               
  exec          Dynamically evaluates an expression to get a command or script path and executes it with optional arguments.
  for           Iterates over each element of a collection, assigning it to a loop variable and executing a statement.      
  if            Performs conditional processing in shell scripts.                                                           
  loop          Repeats a statement indefinitely until a break statement is encountered.                                    
  return        Exits the current function (or script) optionally returning a value.                                        
  while         Repeats a statement while the given expression evaluates to true.                                           

[mkrueger]

Fixed by #72.

The root cause was that the CLI used CommandLineParser, which has no "consume the remainder" option, so -c only ever bound to a single token. Unquoted CosmosDBShell -c help mkitem parsed as -c=help plus a stray mkitem, which is why the general help showed up.

Fix: migrated the startup arg parsing to System.CommandLine and added a small NormalizeArguments step that:

• accepts Windows-style /c, /C, /k, /K (translated to -c / -k);
• once -c or -k is seen, joins all remaining argv tokens into a single command string.

After the fix, all of these are equivalent:

CosmosDBShell -c "help mkitem"
CosmosDBShell -c help mkitem
CosmosDBShell /c help mkitem

App-level options (e.g. --connect) must now come before -c / -k, which matches the cmd /c / bash -c mental model. README, docs/navigation.md and docs/programming.md were updated to reflect that, and NormalizeArgumentsTests covers the new behavior.

[mkrueger]

AI closed it - we're still debating the change. We're letting the PR open.