Add forc --list

[adlerjohn]

Lists commands, similar to cargo --list

[adlerjohn]

@ControlCplusControlV has requested to work on this, ref: #482 (comment)

[adlerjohn]

This is no longer necessary to implementation completions, though it may be independently useful.

[mitchmindtree]

I think this would still be quite useful for downstream tooling. E.g. the forc-documenter could use this to generate all the modules (rather than having to list them in the index.md).

We should also consider including available plugin commands in the output (I think cargo --list does this) so that downstream tools can process these altogether. Perhaps a flag could be provided for omitting plugins from the output.

[ra0x3]

• Gonna unassign myself (for now) due to this largely being covered in Add forc plugins command flag to print versions and descriptions of each plugin in a table #1215.
• Of course we can always come back and complete this if the need is there

[mitchmindtree]

Labelled as low-priority as forc-documenter will use distinct forc --help and forc plugins commands for documenting each anyway, and this isn't really blocking anything, but will still be useful command to have in the future.

[eightfilms]

Would it be a good time to re-prioritise this issue? I think as we start to move plugins into their own repos (#2608, #2609) we might get more questions of "why is XYZ feature not listed under forc help?", which we are already starting to get now, since forc deploy and forc run have been moved into the forc-client plugin. We also have forc-wallet which already does not show up as a command in core forc.

cargo prompts you to 'see all commands with --list', which I think we can follow as a guide here perhaps.

[mitchmindtree]

@bingcicle we do have the forc plugins command, e.g.

[mindtree@minddesk:~/programming/nix/fuel]$ forc plugins
Installed Plugins:
forc-deploy
forc-run
forc-fmt
forc-explore
forc-wallet
forc-lsp

[mindtree@minddesk:~/programming/nix/fuel]$ forc plugins --describe
Installed Plugins:
  forc-deploy           No description found for this plugin.
  forc-run              Run script project. Crafts a script transaction then sends it to a running node
  forc-fmt              Forc plugin for running the Sway code formatter.
  forc-explore          Forc plugin for running the Fuel Block Explorer.
  forc-wallet           A forc plugin for generating or importing wallets using BIP39 phrases.
  forc-lsp              Forc plugin for the Sway LSP (Language Server Protocol) implementation.

[mindtree@minddesk:~/programming/nix/fuel]$ forc plugins --paths --describe
Installed Plugins:
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-deploy               No description found for this plugin.
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-run          Run script project. Crafts a script transaction then sends it to a running node
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-fmt          Forc plugin for running the Sway code formatter.
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-explore              Forc plugin for running the Fuel Block Explorer.
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-wallet               A forc plugin for generating or importing wallets using BIP39 phrases.
  /nix/store/x7zxpmqp10mgh5jcx22v4l7naxl3jwsd-fuel-latest/bin/forc-lsp          Forc plugin for the Sway LSP (Language Server Protocol) implementation.

It is a little minimal and janky, but perhaps this is enough to get by for now? That said, if you'd like to improve this as a part of your fuelup plugin standardization work I think that makes sense. In retrospect, plugins probably isn't the best name for this command as it lists the plugin commands, not the plugins themselves.

If we do go with list instead, I think it could be worth separating those commands provided by plugins from those that are native to forc, as I think cargo --list can be a little confusing as it's unclear which commands are native and which are provided by plugins.

[eightfilms]

if you'd like to improve this as a part of your fuelup plugin standardization work

Nope, this doesn't affect fuelup standardization work and I don't think it's some urgent work, it was just something that came up in my mind. It's true that forc plugins exist but I think it isn't immediately obvious that forc deploy as a command comes as part of forc-client which is a plugin, and that people expect deploy to show up as a command when they do forc help.

But yeah, you're right, we can let people know that those commands are plugins and they can see them using the forc plugins command.

[adlerjohn]

This issue was initially meant as a stepping stone to #482, which was implemented by other means. Can this issue be closed?

[eightfilms]

Sounds good, I revived the issue again with my comment above after noticing some devs running into the no such subcommand: 'deploy' error message, especially after the deploy and run commands were extracted out of forc. We can always open this back up if we think a feature like this is useful.