GNU bug report logs - #36594
No hint for missing argument

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Message #8 received at 36594 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Ludovic Courtès <ludo <at> gnu.org>
To: Julien Lepiller <julien <at> lepiller.eu>
Cc: 36594 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#36594: No hint for missing argument
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2019 22:40:58 +0200

Julien Lepiller <julien <at> lepiller.eu> skribis:

> When you type an option that requires an argument, but don't provide one, you get an error message that says there is a missing argument. There should brobably be a hint on what values are acceptable. For instance, there is no way to know from "guix package -v" or "guix package --help" what values are accepted. In other cases, there is a --list-something option.
>
> Maybe -v is the only case where it would be useful to do something, because you could guess its existence and not use a verbosity level. Maybe fixing the help message to say --verbosity=[0-5] is enough?

Currently it says:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
$ guix build --help | grep -e -verbo
  -v, --verbosity=LEVEL  use the given verbosity LEVEL
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

We could add “an integer between 0 and 2”, but this was left
non-explicit in case we eventually extend it to -7 to +42.

Maybe there’s a limit on what we can do to help users?  :-)

Ludo’.

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