list all environments on local machine (flox envs)

[ghudgins]

When I don’t remember what environments I’ve created,
I need a way to see where all my environments are
So I can navigate to the directory with the environment I want
AND I can copy and paste the directory path to use with --dir

When I am looking at a list of my local and managed environments,
I need to quickly see which environments are activated,
So I can check that it’s working as I expected.

Acceptance Criteria

flox envs : shows local env names (w/owner if managed) and their path; show active envs in a list first, with the most recently activated env in bold

• Does not include envs in floxhub that have not been pushed or pulled from the local machine.
• Does not include any .flox directories that have been created with git pull but not yet used

flox envs --active : shows only active envs

flox envs --json : active and inactive environments and all their info in JSON format

flox envs --active --json : contents of _FLOX_ACTIVE_ENVIRONMENTS - only active environments and all their info

See Notion for output for each command:
https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#f36eea0623564801a7ec717f11203c65

[ghudgins]

+1 from user research today

[ysndr]

Sample implementation in #988

[ghudgins]

+1 from https://discourse.flox.dev/t/some-notes-for-people-migrating-to-flox-0-9-0/830

[jennymahmoudi]

@ysndr @ghudgins apologies for the slowness here. I wanted to take a holistic look before introducing a new command.
Please review and comment on the design options in Notion:
https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4

[ysndr]

@jennymahmoudi can you validate this from the design/product side?

[jennymahmoudi]

On the envs output, there is some additional formatting I had in the design - any issues with updating these?

1. Indent the environments under the title
2. Add sparkle emoji to the Active title (I had ✨ Active ✨ , but we can keep the longer title and just add one emoji to the beginning: ✨ Active environments:

A few more related things, not sure if they are handled separately or not:

1. Should the envs command be listed in help yet? I didn't see it.
2. The flox plain command should also have a different output, but it looks like that's unchanged. See https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#fe0b8d9a5e8c449c82d1e07b2df976d8

[ysndr]

Indent the environments under the title

done

Add sparkle emoji to the Active title (I had ✨ Active ✨ , but we can keep the longer title and just add one emoji to the beginning: ✨ Active environments:

TBF there are two examples if this in the notion:

1. ✨ Active ✨: https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#5f8ccf0ae7e1473db58cab91a90f2296
2. Active environments: https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#c98d0cb23481404abe9d54f469306321

lets go with ✨ Active environments as a mix of both that also does not have a 1/3 ration of emojis ^^

But is it then Inactive, or Inactive Environments or 💤 Inactive Environments?

Besides, ✨ was defined as the emoji for a "created" message, do we need to have another look at the emoji guidelines, maybe use 🟢 Active Environments (and 🟠 Inactive Environments) or ▶️ Active Environments and ⏸️ Inactive Environments (the other ⏯️ emoji does not seem to render correctly in zenhub)

Should the envs command be listed in help yet? I didn't see it.

added, let me know if the command should go into the main section instead, for now its under Additional Commands

The flox plain command should also have a different output, but it looks like that's unchanged.

yep forgot about that, added now

#1370

[jennymahmoudi]

TBF there are two examples if this in the notion:

1. ✨ Active ✨: https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#5f8ccf0ae7e1473db58cab91a90f2296
2. Active environments: https://www.notion.so/floxdev/View-environments-CLI-design-8f68c6465e944cba8f3ab474b1785ca4?pvs=4#c98d0cb23481404abe9d54f469306321

lets go with ✨ Active environments as a mix of both that also does not have a 1/3 ration of emojis ^^

My thinking at the time was to differentiate the Active list from the Inactive list with the sparkle, so when there was just one list (--active), it wasn't needed. 🤷 I'm good with how you have it now (emoji every time we say Active).

But is it then Inactive, or Inactive Environments or 💤 Inactive Environments?

Inactive Environments 👍

Besides, ✨ was defined as the emoji for a "created" message, do we need to have another look at the emoji guidelines, maybe use 🟢 Active Environments (and 🟠 Inactive Environments) or ▶️ Active Environments and ⏸️ Inactive Environments (the other ⏯️ emoji does not seem to render correctly in zenhub)

I don't think we need to pick a different emoji. Some emojis will be reserved for specific situations (like the ❌ for errors and 🗑️ for delete), just like some colors in FloxHub are (like red for errors). But I think emojis like ✨ can be used for multiple scenarios for emphasis, similar to how a primary color or other text styling like bold can be used throughout FloxHub.

If this causes any confusion between init and activate, we can revisit.

Should the envs command be listed in help yet? I didn't see it.

added, let me know if the command should go into the main section instead, for now its under Additional Commands

Additional commands makes sense. 👍

[jennymahmoudi]

looks good!