Show command and branch alias in help information

[RobSmyth]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Users do not see command and branch alias when I use the "-h" or "--help" options.
They are only useful if a user knows they exist.

Describe the solution you'd like
Add to help information displayed in the same manner that option aliases are shown.
For example, "ver" below is an alias for "versioning":

USAGE:
    git2semver [OPTIONS] <COMMAND>

OPTIONS:
    -h, --help       Prints help information
    -v, --version    Prints version information

COMMANDS:
    versioning,  ver    Solution versioning commands (Alias 'ver')
    changelog           Generate changelog command

Describe alternatives you've considered
None.

Additional context
Discussion 1851 was raised first to check if there ways to do this.

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Please upvote 👍 this issue if you are interested in it.

[patriksvensson]

Sounds like a reasonable suggestion 👍
However, this should be possible to disable via a setting.

[RobSmyth]

Hi @patriksvensson,

I wonder if an option to disable it would be useful. I have difficulty thinking of a scenario were a an alias is added that should not be known to end users (that is, no visible in the help). Do you have a scenario in mind?

The nearest scenario I can think of is that a developer is depreciating a branch/command name (renaming). In that case a dev can leave the old command and mark it as hidden and add a new command which only differs by name. Benefits are the old command can be marked in code as obsolete and this is the same solution I have used when moving commands to a branch.

[patriksvensson]

The reason would be that I personally want to be able to have alias for commands without them appearing in the help docs, like it is now 😄

[RobSmyth]

The reason would be that I personally want to be able to have alias for commands without them appearing in the help docs, like it is now 😄

I'm curious ... why? If no alias then same as now, if an alias is added why would you want that to be hidden? It kinda seems to me that an alias is kinda useless if a user does not know about it.

Up to you of course, I do not see it as a blocker, just curious. Only reply if you feel like it ... I can survive without knowing :-)

[RobSmyth]

@patriksvensson - forget my question I found a reason to satisfy my question, I now understand need.

FYI, Scenario: A dev may want to hide an alias wen it is added alias to covert variations such as plural, case sensitiviy, etc. IMO kinda ungood but from an app point of view there is a use.

[bartvanandel]

I just noticed that the official documentation already shows aliases in the help text, e.g., Register Commands with Metadata says (excerpt):

app.Configure(config =>
{
  config.AddCommand<AddCommand>("add")
    .WithDescription("Add a new item")
    .WithAlias("a");
}

giving output:

COMMANDS:
    add (a)              Add a new item

Has this been implemented but not released yet?

[bartvanandel]

The reason would be that I personally want to be able to have alias for commands without them appearing in the help docs, like it is now 😄

@patriksvensson Like so (suggestion)?

app.Configure(config =>
{
  config.AddCommand<AddCommand>("add")
    .WithDescription("Add a new item")
    .WithAlias("a", /* visible: */ false);
}

For default alias visibility you could just add another global configuration value.

[bartvanandel]

@patriksvensson Just checked the output of a CLI with the latest versions of the Spectre.Console libraries (0.55), it's still not showing the command aliases. What am I overlooking?

[patriksvensson]

@bartvanandel Not sure what you mean. This issue is still open.