[WIP] Refs #29392 -- Added command line short option -s for specifying setting.

[carltongibson]

PR #9933 (for ticket #29392) removed the ability to use abbreviations of the shared options in commands. The key one there is --settings.

Why? Because you couldn't define a command with e.g. a --set option, as this was getting swallowed as --settings by the first pre-run parser. (This even though it's unambiguous to the final command parser.)

Someone at DjangoCon (who will remain anonymous 🙂) said this was a usability back-step: in the shell they were used to doing something like --s and having it work.

The example provided in the bug report struck me (and still does) as compelling. I think it was the right fix (correctness trumping convenience) but I'm opening this to discuss.

This PR adds a short option -s to --settings. The hope is, that's the best of both worlds.

BC Issues:

• makemessages already uses -s. It does this for --symlinks. I'd argue moving it to --settings is a win (--settings is always in use, --symlinks how often?) (Discuss)
• User-land commands may be using -s. Again, I'd probably be happy to steal that. (Discuss.)

Other options:

• Leave it as-is.
• Revert the change from Fixed #29392 -- Disallowed use of abbreviated forms of --settings and --pythonpath management command options. #9933.

Todo to merge:

• Update 2.1 release notes with extra changes.
• Update django-admin.txt with changes to --settings in general and makemessages in particular.
• ...anything else...?

Is this worth A) a new ticket, B) a post to Django Developers?

[carltongibson]

@rpkilby: PING. You did #9933, so your input is important here.

[apollo13]

Haha, so this is embarrassing. I wanted to check if and why -s worked before just to realize that I have been complaining about a non existing issue: I had shell magic set up for me which expanded -s to --settings for manage.py and django-admin 😭 It's impressive how little helper can go into muscle memory and feel like they have been ever in Django itself.

Sorry for wasting your time @carltongibson -_-

[apollo13]

I honestly didn't know that --s would actually work (or --sett for that matter). Either way, my initial problem was loosing -s which I thought short forms ment but which didn't exist either way (see my comment above).

[apollo13]

Also I didn't mean to close the PR -- if you still have strong feelings for it please reopen. I find `--s` weird and am happy with not adding `-s` given the backwards issues we'd introduce

…

On June 6, 2018 4:07:54 PM GMT+02:00, Carlton Gibson ***@***.***> wrote: @carltongibson requested your review on: django/django#10029 [WIP] Refs #29392 -- Added command line short option `-s` for specifying setting.. -- You are receiving this because your review was requested. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #10029 (comment)

[carltongibson]

Hey @apollo13. Thanks for the follow up. No issues on the confusion. I prefer to double check.

Personally I’m not fussed by the -s, so we can leave it. 👍

[MarkusH]

FWIW, I ran into the "some prefix of 'settings' works" behavior the other day. I wouldn't mind having a -s again, though.

[apollo13]

@MarkusH I cheked in 1.11 -- -s never existed. The prefix stuff is weird at best :D

[carltongibson]

...-s again...

Yes. The only option is to add it. I can see the appeal of that. I think we could make the case for the breaking change (and for 2.1 would be a good time given #9933), but I'd want someone to champion that (as I haven't got time/bandwidth/energy for the flack/discussion).

I republished my branch in case someone wants to drive this forward: I'm happy to finish the PR, but I don't want to do the politics 😃.

[rpkilby]

I feel a bit silly, but for such a small change, I'm finding myself quite strongly opposed to it. The utility of the settings short option seems marginal at best, and I don't think the breaking change is worth the tradeoff.

• In my experience, it's not common to use --settings in day to day use (where a -s shorthand would be most relevant). I've tended to use --settings in combination with supervisor or other cases where the command is written to a config file and ran indirectly.
• If for whatever reason I need to use --settings and it's clumsy/annoying to keep repeating it, I just set the DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE environment variable (possibly with autoenv or direnv).
• In terms of starting characters for words in the English language, "s" is the 5th most common, representing about ~6.5% of all words. In projects I've worked on, I have a tendency to expose administrative functions as management commands. Losing this short option would be annoying.

[carltongibson]

Losing this short option would be annoying.

I think that's probably the swinger. No doubt loads of people would be affected.