fix(install): --with-short-names flag stop working

[davinkevin]

Hi,

First, thanks for this tool which is very useful ❤️

I've installed it on a new computer and I have, when trying to install the short name version the following result with brew:

Λ\:~ kevin $ brew install kubectx --with-short-names
Warning: kubectx: this formula has no --with-short-names option so it will be ignored!
==> Downloading https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx/archive/v0.6.2.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/kevin/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/495459e571c461c6b441a3687e94d26fd7a3a69128bd06b56ec8231ba0089054--kubectx-0.6.2.tar.gz
==> Caveats
Bash completion has been installed to:
  /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d

zsh completions have been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions

fish completions have been installed to:
  /usr/local/share/fish/vendor_completions.d
==> Summary
🍺  /usr/local/Cellar/kubectx/0.6.2: 12 files, 32.4KB, built in 2 seconds

So the --with-short-names isn't available and we can't access the kctx command line. Is it normal? Is it a bug on the installation or the documentation which should be updated?

Thanks

[ahmetb]

Hmm looks like this happened in the Homebrew repo. Homebrew/homebrew-core@f01c536

See Homebrew/homebrew-core#31510 for some of the rationale. I'm still trying to parse the explanation myself. Open to any ideas about how to fix this.

[ahmetb]

Looks like options are gone, for good. We need to find alternatives.

We could easily tell people to do alias kctx=kubectx but the main complaint we got was "it gets in the way of tab completion when we do kubeTab" which we won't be able to solve with that.

[naseemkullah]

Could you make the "official" commands kctx and kns and if people choose to, they could alias kubectx=kctx and alias kubens=kns?

[ahmetb]

According to brew analytics, only 20% of the people use —with-short-names option, so I don’t think distributing with the short names by default is a good idea. https://formulae.brew.sh/analytics/install/365d/

[naseemkullah]

Ah, good point.

[Hengjie]

Perhaps another brew package can be replicated with that option on as default? So technically you can install both if you wanted both commands to run, or just one if you prefer one of it.

[ahmetb]

Perhaps another brew package can be replicated with that option on as default?

This is a good suggestion, but I'm not positive about replicating the package management formula. We get stuff like automatic releases and install analytics with Homebrew, and I intend to keep it that way.

[przemolb]

Why this option (with short names) has been removed ?

[ahmetb]

Homebrew removed options on formulas.

[przemolb]

so maybe you change a name of the package ? kctx is way more convenient that kubectx :-)

[ahmetb]

so maybe you change a name of the package ? kctx is way more convenient that kubectx :-)

That's subjective, and I disagree. 75% users installed via Homebrew use the long form, and you can always do alias kctx=kubectx in your shell profile. Not to mention, none of the Linux distribution options offer the --with-short-names feature.

You can also download kubectx file, and save it to your /usr/local/bin as kctx, it should still work as it doesn't have dependencies to other files.

In this case, Homebrew screwed us, I wish it offered some means of keeping this functionality. I thought of forking the brew formula and hosting it myself as a tap, but that's suboptimal and we lose brew features like auto-version-bump, analytics and discoverability.

[dotLou]

This isn't a full solution, but I've gotten around this by adding to my ~/.zshrc (~/.bashrc should work too) file:

if [ $(command -v kubectx) ] && ! [ $(command -v kctx) ]; then
  CMD="$(which kubectx)"
  ln -s $CMD /usr/local/bin/kctx || alias kctx=$CMD
fi
if [ $(command -v kubens) ] && ! [ $(command -v kns) ]; then
  CMD="$(which kubens)"
  ln -s $CMD /usr/local/bin/kns || alias kns=$CMD
fi

I do the symlink first because that actually works for things like kctx - whereas that didn't work for me with the alias but I fall back on the alias in case /usr/local/bin is inaccessible.

[ahmetb]

@dotLou if you're putting things in your bashrc/zshrc, you might as well just create an alias instead of making a permanent symlink. :)

The main reason why people asked for shorter names like kctx is because when they type kube and hit TabTab for shell completion, instead of getting kubectl they also got kubectx so it wouldn't automatically complete to kubectl because it had multiple options.

[przemolb]

so maybe you change a name of the package ? kctx is way more convenient that kubectx :-)

That's subjective, and I disagree. 75% users installed via Homebrew use the long form, and you can always do alias kctx=kubectx in your shell profile. Not to mention, none of the Linux distribution options offer the --with-short-names feature.

Are you 100% sure they know that it can be installed and used with short name ? I am pretty sure that if it was by default they wouldn't use the long name.

[dotLou]

@dotLou if you're putting things in your bashrc/zshrc, you might as well just create an alias instead of making a permanent symlink. :)

So you got me thinking about the || alias stuff, but I got that from another bit of code that's weirder. I had an issue with alias kctx="kubectx " with the space, but I don't actually need that in this case (I do use that for things like alias k="kubectl " so I can use it inside of things like watch k get pods as it doesn't work without the space.. anyway).

So for those watching, just do:

if [ $(command -v kubectx) ] && ! [ $(command -v kctx) ]; then
  alias kctx=kubectx
fi
if [ $(command -v kubens) ] && ! [ $(command -v kns) ]; then
  alias kns=kubens
fi

[max-lobur]

Simplest fix: max-lobur/dotfiles@722238e

[ahmetb]

If you alias, then somehow mask the kubectx/kubens executables (so kube/tab/tab completion doesn’t bring it up) you’re good to go. 👍🏼

[max-lobur]

@ahmetb I use k for kubectl so I don't have that issue :)

[gordonbondon]

I've added this to remove full names so that they don't appear in completion. Now I just need to remember to update versions in bash profile :) :

if [ $(command -v kubectx) ]; then
  brew unlink kubectx
  version=$(brew info kubectx --json | jq -r '.[].versions.stable')
  ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/kubectx/$version/bin/kubectx /usr/local/bin/kctx
  ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/kubectx/$version/bin/kubens /usr/local/bin/kns
  ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/kubectx/$version/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectx /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubectx
  ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/kubectx/$version/etc/bash_completion.d/kubens /usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/kubens
fi

Updated my snippet to include version detection and fix for completion

[ahmetb]

@gordonbondon you can use brew info kubectx --json | jq -r '.[].linked_keg' to retrieve version string.

[arbourd]

I think this can be closed as aliasing is the only real path forward here if using homebrew :)