Short subcommands

[fkarg]

Use case

When subcommands are used a lot, you'd like them to be short (nmcli d w c <CON>). But short ones are hard to learn in the beginning (what does w stand for, again?), so you would like to allow the long one as well. Creating two with the same descriptions and effects is just weird and has higher potential for errors.

Wanted solution

In short, allow the following:

...
.subcommand(SubCommand::with_name("list")
            .about("list sub-selected elements")
            .short("ls")
    ...
)
...

This would then show up like this (or similar, no strong preference):

SUBCOMMANDS:
    list|ls     list sub-selected elements

I'm fine with them not being available in autocompletion or otherwise.

Application

I would really like this for something I'm about to make, and I plan to use subcommands a bit. So this would increase the usability considerably.

Bonus-feature: allow 'minimal matching' globally, to fuzzy match to the one fitting most - if there are multiple matching ones left, ask which one was meant (similar to the miss-spelling of arguments currently).

Bonus-feature2: (Auto?-)generate unique shorter versions of all available (sub-)commands (/arguments?)

Those would be pretty awesome.

Edit: Changed example to list|ls instead of add|a before, for clarity, as a way to shorten for a already exists (AppSettings::InferSubCommands, it's pretty awesome!).

[CreepySkeleton]

We have AppSettings::InferSubcommands which looks a lot like what you're asking for. Mind checking it out?

[fkarg]

Ah, wow, I was unaware of that. That is really awesome! Well, this solves it only sort of. I would like to be able to exactly specify at least one shortened one, e.g. ls instead of list, which is currently not working - and there is no setting for that, as far as I can tell.

[CreepySkeleton]

alias?

[fkarg]

Ah. Yes. Thank you.

Maybe a general recommendation: Even though it is in the documentation, I was apparently unable to find it. Maybe make a full referenced feature-list somewhere or cross-reference these 'similar' features?

[pksunkara]

I have been thinking about appending the issue template with a small FAQ
about alias, conflicts, required etc...

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[opeolluwa]

is there a way to derive this? my implementation looks like this

use clap::{Parser, Subcommand};
use commands::{
    download::DownloadCommands, email::EmailCommands, gitignore::GitIgnoreCommands,
    readme::ReadmeCommands, sms::SmsCommands,
};

use crate::commands;

#[derive(Parser)]
#[command(author, version, about, long_about = None)]
#[command(propagate_version = true)]
pub struct Utils {
    #[command(subcommand)]
    pub command: Commands,
}

impl Utils {
    pub fn run() {
        let utils = Utils::parse();

        match utils.command {
            Commands::GitIgnore(git_ignore) => git_ignore.parse(),
            Commands::Readme(readme) => readme.parse(),
            _ => panic!(),
        }
    }
}

#[derive(Subcommand)]
pub enum Commands {
    /// download files, videos, etc
    Download(DownloadCommands),
    /// send email
    Email(EmailCommands),
    /// generate project readmes
    Readme(ReadmeCommands),
    ///send SMS
    Sms(SmsCommands),
    /// handle git operations
    // Git(GitCommands),
    /// include .gitignore
    GitIgnore(GitIgnoreCommands),
}

[epage]

Everything from the builder API is available for derives. See https://docs.rs/clap/latest/clap/_derive/index.html#terminology

[opeolluwa]

@epage I had read thru before now, O can't seem to find the fast of the documentation that talks about short variant of subcommands

[epage]

We intentionally do not document how every builder method can be used in the derive api but instead describe how to use builder methods in the derive API.

This approach to documentation is being tracked in #4090

[nbari]

How do you print the alias when using --help? I am testing using clap 4.4.6, alias work but when using --help it only prints the Commands:

Commands:
    test:          Test command

But how to print something like:

Commands:
    test (t)       Test command

[epage]

Aliases are hidden by default. You need to use Command::visible_alias

[nbari]

Hi, many thanks 👍

[opeolluwa]

Is there a way to achieve with derive API

[epage]

Any builder method may be used as an attribute, see https://docs.rs/clap/latest/clap/_derive/index.html#terminology

[scouten]

The answer to @opeolluwa's question was not at all obvious to me from the "terminology" link shared above.

For those looking for a quick unblock, the cheat code is this:

#[derive(Subcommand)]
pub(crate) enum Command {
    /// Do something which might have a long name or a short name
    #[clap(alias("short"))]  // <-- this is the cheat code!
    SubcommandWithALongName(long_name_command::Args),
}

As mentioned by @epage earlier in this discussion thread, there's an issue tracking the team's approach to documentation. I'm not a fan of this approach and I've shared my thoughts in the issue thread: #4090 (comment)

I encourage others to do likewise.