UError: Output of Try --help for more information uses full path for util name

[GunterSchmidt]

When one sets the UError usage flag, the error message is appended by:
Try 'util --help' for more information.

But this looks very odd when one starts the utility from somewhere else:

cmp: missing operand after 'cmp'
Try 'Development/diffutils_fork/target/debug/diffutils cmp --help' for more information.

Would it not be better to just output the util name, like:

cmp: missing operand after 'cmp'
Try 'cmp --help' for more information.

This is part of the main macro and could easily be changed:

            // disable rust signal handlers (otherwise processes don't dump core after e.g. one SIGSEGV)
            #[cfg(all(#signals, unix))]
            uucore::disable_rust_signal_handlers().expect("Disabling rust signal handlers failed");
            let result = uumain(args);
            match result {
                Ok(()) => uucore::error::get_exit_code(),
                Err(e) => {
                    let s = format!("{e}");
                    if s != "" {
                        uucore::show_error!("{s}");
                    }
                    if e.usage() {
                        use std::io::{stderr, Write as _};
                        let _ = writeln!(stderr(),"Try '{} --help' for more information.", uucore::execution_phrase());
              -->       // change: let _ = writeln!(stderr(),"Try '{} --help' for more information.", uucore::util_name());
                        // or even better to use translate, this makes it also consistent with errors clap returns
              -->       // let msg_try = uucore::translate!("clap-error-help-suggestion", "command" => uucore::util_name());
                        // let _ = writeln!(stderr(),"{msg_try}");
                    }
                    e.code()
                }
            }

If it is fine with you I would create the PR to use uucore::util_name() and translate!.

This would result in:

cmp: missing operand after 'cmp'
For more information, try 'cmp --help'.

[oech3]

Duplicated with #11343 .

diffutils belongs to different repo. But the report is still valid:

> env -a false cksum --typo
error: unexpected argument '--typo' found

  tip: to pass '--typo' as a value, use '-- --typo'

Usage: false-usage

For more information, try '--help'.

[GunterSchmidt]

Yes, I am working on cmp from diffutils and try to use as much code from coreutils as possible to avoid duplication.

The issue #11343 is a bit different, where instead of env false is printed. I am talking about a situation, where instead of "env" the full path "/home/dev/coreutils/env" is printed. So I don't see it as a duplicate.

[oech3]

...It seems GNU prints full-path for tips and --help...

[GunterSchmidt]

Yes, does also for the util name. But for uutils it was decided* to not do that and only show the util name.
To be consistent, I would remove the path on the Try info as well.

Here is an example:

$ Development/coreutils/target/debug/sort --batch-size=1
sort: invalid --batch-size argument '1'
sort: minimum --batch-size argument is '2'
Try 'Development/coreutils/target/debug/sort --help' for more information.

Most input errors are caught by clap, which does not use that error message with the util name:

$ cargo run -- sum -x
error: unexpected argument '-x' found

  tip: to pass '-x' as a value, use '-- -x'

Usage: sum [OPTION]... [FILE]...

For more information, try '--help'.

• No path, see lib.rs:

static UTIL_NAME: LazyLock<String> = LazyLock::new(|| {
    let base_index = usize::from(get_utility_is_second_arg());
    let is_man = usize::from(ARGV[base_index].eq("manpage"));
    let argv_index = base_index + is_man;

    // Strip directory path to show only utility name
    // (e.g., "mkdir" instead of "./target/debug/mkdir")
    // in version output, error messages, and other user-facing output
    std::path::Path::new(&ARGV[argv_index])
        .file_name()
        .unwrap_or(&ARGV[argv_index])
        .to_string_lossy()
        .into_owned()
});

[oech3]

I like util name only too. But is there any use case that uudoc should generate docs with prefix (at least for completions)?

[oech3]

$ cp /bin/sed /tmp/renamed
$ /tmp/renamed --version
/tmp/renamed (GNU sed) 4.9