configlet shouldn't *REQUIRE* internet access

[serialhex]

I had some time to do a few things with a track, but no internet access. I had run this command the day before, but upon running it configlet crashes. I was able to set up a hotspot really quickly but, really, it shouldn't need internet access for something like this. Issue a warning that 'problem-specifications' might not be up to date? Sure! But fail completely? Absolutely not.

The exact error:

configlet sync --tests --docs --metadata --filepaths
Updating cached 'problem-specifications' data...
fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/exercism/problem-specifications/': Could not resolve host: github.com

failed to fetch 'main' in problem-specifications directory: 'C:\Users\Welcome\AppData\Local\exercism\configlet\problem-specifications'
exec.nim(68)             execAndCheck
Error: unhandled exception:  [OSError]

This is but one example I can easily show, but all operations should succeed (with warnings if necessary) without internet access, unless the operation itself access the internet (like you don't need internet to git commit but do need it to git pull for instance).

[serialhex]

Just went through the docs and there is an -o option for offline stuff, but IMHO it should work (again, with warnings) without this flag. Feel free to close this if the powers-that-be feel this is unnecessary.

[ee7]

Thanks for creating this issue. Sorry for the inconvenience.

it shouldn't need internet access for something like this. Issue a warning that 'problem-specifications' might not be up to date? Sure! But fail completely? Absolutely not.

I think we really do want configlet sync to exit immediately with an error if it couldn't fetch the latest problem-specifications data and --offline was not passed. configlet sync is used in scripts, and will eventually be used in track CI, and in automated PRs that update exercises - it shouldn't have the potential to quietly behave differently when offline, or if there's a temporary network problem.

So I think we want the current behavior, but with a better error message. It should advise the user to pass --offline if they cannot update prob-specs at the current time. Does that sound OK to you?

[serialhex]

That sounds great! It was only in looking up other things I noticed the -o flag, and I've been burned too many times with software that needs internet access for no good reason that I mistakenly assumed something like that wasn't there. Thank you @ee7!

[ee7]

Great. Thanks again for reporting the problem.

I'll re-open this issue so that it'll be closed automatically when we merge #684.

I've been burned too many times with software that needs internet access for no good reason

Me too. Being able to use configlet offline is important to me.

There was already a good error message for the more obscure situation of "no prob-specs cache, but --offline was passed":

$ configlet sync --offline
Error: --offline was passed, but there is no cached 'problem-specifications' repo at:
  '/home/foo/.cache/exercism/configlet/problem-specifications'
Please run once without --offline to clone 'problem-specifications' to that location.

If you currently have no (or limited) network connectivity, but you do have a local
'problem-specifications' elsewhere, you can copy it to the above location and then
use it with --offline

But configlet didn't cover the case reported in this issue. And there are some similar errors that we'll improve in the future.