update suggested default recipe to include a justfile option

[jpbochi]

This is an update to documentation, with a better recipe suggestion.

---

I had a justfile with the following content:

# as suggested at [Listing Available Recipes](https://just.systems/man/en/chapter_22.html)
default:
  @just --list

pwd:
  pwd

Then, I tried to run .j (aliased to just -f ~/.justfile -d . as suggested at User justfiles), and got the following error:

$ .j
error: No justfile found
error: Recipe `default` failed on line 4 with exit code 1

Running .j pwd worked. The issue if that .j would run the default recipe, which executes just --list without passing the --justfile option again.

[casey]

Good idea!

[jpbochi]

@casey Is this better?

[casey]

Is just -f /some/distant/justfile a problem? I think just will switch its working directory and find the justfile.

[jpbochi]

in the case of that .j alias, the directory is already set. I don't think there's other solution to combine both (the alias and the list recipe, I mean).

[jpbochi]

A more generic feature that just may need is an alternative to this $(MAKE) $(MFLAGS) for calling a "sub" just.

Maybe, a just() function could be equivalent to {{just_executable()}} --justfile {{justfile()}}. Then, recommend that any recursive just calls are made with {{just()}} instead of plainly just.

[casey]

We definitely need something like. I want some way of running a just command in the middle of a recipe, but we haven't figured out the syntax yet.

[casey]

I'm having trouble reproducing the behavior you mentioned. I created a justfile in foo/.justfile, which has just --list in the first recipe, calling just -f foo/.justfile seems to work, it successfully calls just and lists the recipes in the justfile.

[jpbochi]

The output below may help.

Notice that:

1. the jj alias includes a -d . option, as is suggested at https://just.systems/man/en/chapter_63.html#forwarding-alias;
2. all executions of jj did echo just --list, meaning it's running the recipe from ~/justfile
3. when pwd is inside my home (e.g. ~/src/), jj works as intended.
4. when pwd is outside of ~, I get a No justfile found coming from the default recipe;
5. when pwd is in a directory with another justfile, it lists recipes from that directory instead.

The only way I see to prevent the unintended behavior (4 and 5) is by changing the recipe to say just --justfile {{justfile()}} --list.

$ cat ~/justfile
default:
  just --list

pwd:
  pwd

$ type jj
jj is aliased to `just -f ~/justfile -d .'

$ cd ~/src
$ jj
just --list
Available recipes:
    default
    pwd

$ cd /
$ jj
just --list
error: No justfile found
error: Recipe `default` failed on line 2 with exit code 1

$ cd ~/src/jp/just/
$ jj
just --list
Available recipes:
    build
    build-book
    changes                   # add git log messages to changelog
    check
    c                         # alias for `check`
    …

[casey]

Ah, okay, sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that it was just the -f flag that would make things not work, but it's the -d flag. I'm actually leaning towards not changing the recipe, and just adding the note, mentioning that if you have a non-default justfile name or different directory, you'll need to to add --justfile {{justfile()}}.

[jpbochi]

@casey I'm cool with that, too. The current example would work as is for the majority of cases, and there's value in keeping them simple.

I updated the code with that now.

[casey]

Nice! I added the -d flag to the first example, since that's needed to get it to break.