confusing output from `show` command

[backwardspy]

confusing output from `show` command

[fdncred]

I also don't like how shells --help lists show in the usage above. If I had my way, it would look more like this.

❯ shells --help
Display current working directories.

Usage:
  > shells (an alias to `show`)

Flags:
  -h, --help - Display the help message for this command

Another thing that bothers me is that help shells is different than shells --help.

❯ help shells
Alias for `show`

Alias: shells

Expansion:
  show
❯ shells --help 
Display current working directories.

Usage:
  > show

Flags:
  -h, --help - Display the help message for this command

[fdncred]

These are the commands that are available without doing a use std in the repl.

nushell/crates/nu-std/src/lib.rs

Lines 54 to 67 in b1cf0e2

	# Define the `std` module
	module std
	# Prelude
	use std dirs [
	enter
	shells
	g
	n
	p
	dexit
	]
	use std pwd
	"#;

You'll notice that show isn't in there but its alias shells is.

❯ shells --help
Display current working directories.

Usage:
  > show

Flags:
  -h, --help - Display the help message for this command

However, I do agree that this stuff should work better.

[NotTheDr01ds]

Yes, it's confused me in the past as well, and I only now think I'm starting to grok it. Put slightly differently, those aliases are defined in std. It's possible for an alias in a module to:

• point to a command in that module
• still be valid even if the original command itself hasn't been imported

Those aliases are imported at startup, but the original commands they point to are not.

However, I do agree that this stuff should work better.

+1 ;-)

(Rough thinking without any validation or research) Perhaps the original commands should also be imported? Or just reverse the alias and command names?

[backwardspy]

interesting, thanks for the added context! that does make sense.
so this isn't a bug, just some potentially confusing help messages.

[ErichDonGubler]

As @fdncred noted, this issue applies to all commands in the shells category. Not only are they exposed in a "prelude", these aliases are presented like other built-ins in documentation, too.

Oddly, the officials docs pages for dexit and enter on the Wayback Machine). Example screenshots showing the resolved drop and add commands in the Usage section¹:

Footnotes

1. A keen observer might note that there's other incorrect help, i.e., the dexit has a Subcommands section that appears to be incorrectly re-used from the drop built-in. I've filed an issue for this at #13278. ↩

[fdncred]

Oddly, the officials docs pages for dexit and enter on the Wayback Machine). Example screenshots showing the resolved drop and add commands in the Usage section1:

I'm guessing that this is because exit and enter used to be normal nushell Rust commands. Changing them to the stdlib, which is all nushell scripting, was one of our first attempts at moving commands from Rust to nushell scripting. Although, it could be because the code has changed so much and there's a bug too.