Issues with deno outdated

[kuchta]

Version: Deno 2.1.0

deno outdated is very useful command, but either it's documentation could be improved or it's behavior, because right now, it's a bit confusing.

Running deno outdated --latest errors with

error: the following required arguments were not provided:
  --update

But my understanding is --latest is basically counterpart of --compatible flag that can be run without --update flag.

The documentation for --compatible is also a bit confusing, as it often expands the selection, not narrows it as the only word suggests.
--compatible Only output versions that satisfy semver requirements

Running outdated with any selection modifier without --update flag is in it's current implementation quite important, because --update don't ask for any confirmation, which it probably should.

Anyway, I'd rather call this command update since users are used to it from other package managers and get rid of the --update flag and just ask the user for confirmation or introduce --print flag for just printing.

[nathanwhit]

But my understanding is --latest is basically counterpart of --compatible flag that can be run without --update flag.

Ah this is a bit of a misunderstanding, deno outdated without --update already displays dependencies with new latest versions. In other words, adding --latest wouldn't do anything, as it's already the default behavior.

That being said, it's true that it doesn't need to be an error. I'll open a PR to allow it.

The documentation for --compatible is also a bit confusing, as it often expands the selection, not narrows it as the only word suggests.

It should only narrow the selection, if it expands the selection that's a bug. Do you have an example of where that happens? I'm aware of #27038 (where pre release versions are involved), but is there another case you've encountered?

Running outdated with any selection modifier without --update flag is in it's current implementation quite important, because --update don't ask for any confirmation, which it probably should.

Most other tools I'm aware of don't ask for confirmation when updating. Instead, the plan is to add an --interactive flag in Deno 2.2 to allow interactively selecting which versions to update. This is also what most other tools do.

Anyway, I'd rather call this command update since users are used to it from other package managers and get rid of the --update flag and just ask the user for confirmation or introduce --print flag for just printing.

That was an idea we had considered, but the consensus was that deno update would be confusing since it appears similar to deno upgrade (but would behave very differently). But I do understand that it may be different from what people are used to

[kuchta]

Ah this is a bit of a misunderstanding, deno outdated without --update already displays dependencies with new latest versions. In other words, adding --latest wouldn't do anything, as it's already the default behavior.

Ah okay, makes sense...

The documentation for --compatible is also a bit confusing, as it often expands the selection, not narrows it as the only word suggests.

It should only narrow the selection, if it expands the selection that's a bug. Do you have an example of where that happens? I'm aware of #27038 (where pre release versions are involved), but is there another case you've encountered?

Yes, it actually happens with pre-release versions...

Most other tools I'm aware of don't ask for confirmation when updating. Instead, the plan is to add an --interactive flag in Deno 2.2 to allow interactively selecting which versions to update. This is also what most other tools do.

That would probably also do...

Anyway, I'd rather call this command update since users are used to it from other package managers and get rid of the --update flag and just ask the user for confirmation or introduce --print flag for just printing.

That was an idea we had considered, but the consensus was that deno update would be confusing since it appears similar to deno upgrade (but would behave very differently). But I do understand that it may be different from what people are used to

Most other tools I'm aware of (apt-get, HomeBrew) also has this distinction, but I understand that you may not want to do that. It would probably be best if deno upgrade was changed to something that could manage multiple versions and call it that way...

[kuchta]

I've found another confusing behavior of deno outdated

: deno outdated                   

: deno outdated --compatible
┌─────────────┬────────────────┬────────────────┬─────────┐
│ Package     │ Current        │ Update         │ Latest  │
├─────────────┼────────────────┼────────────────┼─────────┤
│ npm:daisyui │ 5.0.0-alpha.47 │ 5.0.0-alpha.48 │ 4.12.22 │
└─────────────┴────────────────┴────────────────┴─────────┘

Run deno outdated --update to update to the latest compatible versions,
or deno outdated --help for more information.

: deno outdated --compatible -u
error: the argument '--compatible' cannot be used with '--update'

Usage: deno outdated --compatible [filters]...

: deno outdated  -u
Updated 1 dependency:
 - npm:daisyui 5.0.0-alpha.47 -> 5.0.0-alpha.48

I would expect deno outdated -u to do nothing if deno outdated outputs nothing and deno outdated --compatible -u to update daisyui to the update version outputed by deno outdated --compatible but -u doesn't work with --compatible