dotnet dump -c command dump does not work, parameters must be reversed

[danmoseley]

dotnet dump help indicates that dotnet dump -c somecommand <dump_path> is the right syntax to open a dump and run a command. However this produces Required argument missing for command: analyze. Instead dotnet dump <dump_path> -c somecommand works.

Note the same happens if I use dotnet-dump (with hyphen)

C:\dump>dotnet dump analyze -c clrstack 1.dmp
Required argument missing for command: analyze

analyze:
  Starts an interactive shell with debugging commands to explore a dump

Usage:
  dotnet-dump analyze [options] <dump_path>

Arguments:
  <dump_path>    Name of the dump file to analyze.

Options:
  -c, --command <command>    Run the command on start. [default: System.String[]]
  -?, -h, --help             Show help and usage information


C:\dump>dotnet dump analyze 1.dmp -c clrstack
Loading core dump: 1.dmp ...
OS Thread Id: 0x4680 (0)
        Child SP               IP Call Site
00000030E0FFE100 00007ffb3e583f74 [InlinedCallFrame: 00000030e0ffe100]
00000030E0FFE100 00007ffb2f67896b [InlinedCallFrame: 00000030e0ffe100]
00000030E0FFE0D0 00007FFB2F67896B Interop+Kernel32.ReadFile(IntPtr, Byte*, Int32, Int32 ByRef, IntPtr) [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/Microsoft.Interop.LibraryImportGenerator/Microsoft.Interop.LibraryImportGenerator/LibraryImports.g.cs @ 427]
00000030E0FFE1C0 00007FFB2F67EF60 System.ConsolePal+WindowsConsoleStream.ReadFileNative(IntPtr, System.Span`1<Byte>, Boolean, Int32 ByRef, Boolean) [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/System/ConsolePal.Windows.cs @ 1156]
00000030E0FFE220 00007FFB2F67EDFB System.ConsolePal+WindowsConsoleStream.Read(System.Span`1<Byte>) [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/System/ConsolePal.Windows.cs @ 1114]
00000030E0FFE260 00007FFB2F682954 System.IO.ConsoleStream.Read(Byte[], Int32, Int32) [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/System/IO/ConsoleStream.cs @ 34]
00000030E0FFE2D0 0000023930BB63C2 System.IO.StreamReader.ReadBuffer() [/_/src/libraries/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/IO/StreamReader.cs @ 618]
00000030E0FFE350 0000023930BB57C4 System.IO.StreamReader.Read() [/_/src/libraries/System.Private.CoreLib/src/System/IO/StreamReader.cs @ 337]
00000030E0FFE380 00007FFB2F682D2D System.IO.SyncTextReader.Read() [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/System/IO/SyncTextReader.cs @ 53]
00000030E0FFE3D0 00007FFB2F67B2E9 System.Console.Read() [/_/src/libraries/System.Console/src/System/Console.cs @ 714]
00000030E0FFE400 00007FFA875906D3 Program.<Main>$(System.String[]) [C:\proj\11\Program.cs @ 2]
Ready to process analysis commands. Type 'help' to list available commands or 'help [command]' to get detailed help on a command.
Type 'quit' or 'exit' to exit the session.
> quit

C:\dump>dotnet dump --version
6.0.328102+ab657cc109f93e48d52f6b12cd7f136bb2d0b311

[mikem8361]

This is a known problem in the version of the System.CommandLine package which dotnet-dump uses to parse the command line. I will see if the latest version has this fixed.

[mikem8361]

@jonsequitur, we are currently on version 2.0.0-beta1.20468.1 of System.CommandLine. Has this improved at all?

[danmoseley]

If it's configurable, my vote would be to always have the file as last parameter, as per the Unix standard. But clearly small beans and perhaps that'd be breaking now.

[jonsequitur]

The current behavior as of beta 4 is still a little strange, actually.

But the help customization APIs have made this a lot easier for you to get the help output you want.

The docs for this are here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/commandline/customize-help

[mikem8361]

Jon, this issue is more about the ordering of a string Argument (dump path) and options (-c) that the argument must be first and the -c option after.

The code involved is here.

[jonsequitur]

If it's configurable, my vote would be to always have the file as last parameter, as per the Unix standard. But clearly small beans and perhaps that'd be breaking now.

The parsing behavior has become more flexible so I think there's a good chance we can enable this without breaking the existing parsing, but it's probably worth an in-person discussion so I can make sure I understand the nuances.

[jonsequitur]

Jon, this issue is more about the ordering of a string Argument (dump path) and options (-c) that the argument must be first and the -c option after.

Yeah, I got that after I posted but I homed in on the help weirdness. 😅

I think there are two orthogonal things that can be done:

• Make the parsing smarter to enable the more intuitive syntax, and
• Improve the help so we guide people on how to use the existing syntax.

We can potentially do both but even if we do the first one, the second one is important if we don't want to make a breaking change.