uv sync --no-clean

[ibraheemdev]

Summary

Adds a --no-clean flag to uv sync that keeps extraneous installations. This is the default in uv run and uv add, but not in uv sync or uv remove. This means you need to run an explicit uv sync/remove to clean the virtual environment.

Could use some tests.

[zanieb]

I'm not sure I love the name. Are there some examples of the flag in other tools?

[ibraheemdev]

The name is from a Poetry proposal, although it was not accepted. Most other tools have the opposite default behavior, so I don't know of much prior art here.

[zanieb]

I don't think we have a clear concept of "tracked" and it doesn't have a negative which follows our typical "no" prefix. I think a user could change the default sync behavior via configuration and want to opt-in to removal via the CLI and that should be natural.

Just to throw some ideas out....

• --no-remove-untracked / --remove-untracked
• --allow-untracked / --no-allow-untracked
• --no-remove-extra-packages / --remove-extra-packages
• --no-remove-unknown / --remove-unknown
• --no-clean / --clean
• --no-remove / --remove
• --untracked <remove | warn | ignore>
• --extra-packages <remove | warn | ignore>

[zanieb]

@ibraheemdev can we separate fixing run and add so we can release without figuring out a name? Alternatively we can just use something and break it later if we want.

[ibraheemdev]

--clean and --no-clean are synonymous with commands from other tools (cargo clean, yarn cache clean), so I think that makes sense for now.

[zanieb]

It's a little weird because it refers to the cache in those cases but the actual environment in this one. I'm fine to try it out though.

[ibraheemdev]

There's also pdm sync --clean.

[zanieb]

That's where I saw it :D