Convert short options to long ones, 2023 edition

[aschmolck]

Motivation

e.g. nix-env -e subversion => nix-env --uninstall subversion

The aim is to make the documentation less cryptic for newcomers and the long
options are more self-documenting.

The change was made with the following script:

https://github.com/aschmolck/convert-short-nix-opts-to-long-ones

and sanity checked visually.

Context

This is a 2023 update to #1280.

Checklist for maintainers

Maintainers: tick if completed or explain if not relevant

• agreed on idea
• agreed on implementation strategy
• tests, as appropriate
  • functional tests - tests/**.sh
  • unit tests - src/*/tests
  • integration tests - tests/nixos/*
• documentation in the manual
• documentation in the internal API docs
• code and comments are self-explanatory
• commit message explains why the change was made
• new feature or incompatible change: updated release notes

Priorities

Add 👍 to pull requests you find important.

[roberth]

Even as a big fan of long options, I have to agree with Eelco's comment on an earlier iteration that some short flags should actually be used, because they're used so frequently that they're worth learning even for a beginner.
After all the learning curve has two dimensions and we have to make a tradeoff between adding a small bump early or heaving to learn something twice (or like 1.5×, whatever).
For me the bumps that are worth taking early are

• -A for attribute
• nix-store -q for query, question, whatever, doesn't even matter. I feel like associating this is easy because few prominent words start with q. Only query/question and queue come to mind.
• Maybe -f for file if we're going to teach with the new cli before flakes

All of the other flags, I think we should teach with long names.

I suppose there could be disagreement about which short flags. If there is, let's err on the long side. Otherwise pick 3 or 4, but I'd say no more than that.

[aschmolck]

@roberth I agree that for a few common and intuitive option make sense to abbreviate them. With the "new" nix command (which didn't exist when I sent the original PR years ago), the problem has been greatly reduced in any case.

I'm happy to keep the short form -A for --attr and -q for --query (even if these only occur in nix-env and friends, not the new nix command, I think) and -f for --file as you suggest. If no one objects, I will make this change. Is anything else required to merge this?

[fricklerhandwerk]

I actually object. In particular, since nix-env is still the only stable command for profiles and tutorials and third party documentation all over the place suggesting its use, query and attr do help understanding what these things do. I'm for expanding all flags. The manual should be super explicit.

[aschmolck]

In that case, I would suggest we go with @roberth's suggestion that if there is [disagreement] let's err on the long side and merge as is. I feel pretty confident that this change represents an overall improvement, even if there remain slight differences in preferences.

[roberth]

I can't tell if the changes to release notes are accurate, especially old ones. It'd be possible to accidentally change them to long options that didn't exist in those releases. So for historical accuracy it'd be better to leave those untouched. (Or did you/someone actually research this?)

Other than that, I don't care too deeply about keeping the frequently used ones.

[Ericson2314]

That sounds good to me; let's keep the old release notes as is, and do the rest.

Thanks @aschmolck for bearing with us so long after the first PR!

[aschmolck]

Done!