mdbook init force flag documentation is wrong

[joshrotenberg]

The documentation for the force flag for the init subcommand states "Skips confirmation prompts", but it actually only affects whether a prompt is given if the --theme flag is present and the theme directory exists. It has no effect on the prompts for creating the .gitignore or getting the book name (which, ok, isn't technically a "confirmation" prompt).

The easiest fix is to just update the documentation. Another fix might be to make the .gitignore prompt also respect the flag so that the "confirmation" part is technically right. It might also be helpful to add a flag for creating the .gitignore and the book title too to round things out and make book initialization fully prompt free if someone desires.

Something like this. If --force is specified, in addition to the current behavior, init the book with the defaults for --with-gitignore and --with-title.

mdbook-init v0.4.8
Creates the boilerplate structure and files for a new book

USAGE:
    mdbook init [FLAGS] [dir]

FLAGS:
        --force             Skips confirmation prompts
    -h, --help              Prints help information
        --theme             Copies the default theme into your source folder
    -V, --version           Prints version information
        --with-gitignore    Creates a .gitignore file [default: true]
        --with-title        Set the book title [default: "my book"]

ARGS:
    <dir>    Directory to create the book in
             (Defaults to the Current Directory when omitted)

[ehuss]

Hm, looks like this was changed as part of #491, but there doesn't seem to be an explanation why. I would say the original intent is that it avoids all prompts. I agree that --force should probably not do any prompts.

[joshrotenberg]

Thoughts on adding the extra flags as well to make it possible to supply an answer for book name and .gitignore creation as part of the fix here? Or do you prefer to just make force do what it says and use defaults for those (and maybe call them out in the documentation string)?

[ehuss]

Preferably have separate PRs.

As for the flags, how about --title=... and --ignore=git or --ignore=none?

[joshrotenberg]

As for the flags, how about --title=... and --ignore=git or --ignore=none?

I went with --gitignore as a boolean. If we wanted to support other .ignore file types, though, --ignore=<type> is probably better ... but the only other one I know is .hgignore.

The next step would be to set defaults and check --force first for both args:

• if --force, set default
• if is_present, set from command line value
• otherwise prompt

[ISSOtm]

What's the status on this?

[seanpoulter]

I just found this issue. Would you welcome a PR? What default would you want for the title, Example book like the docs?

[seanpoulter]

@rustbot claim

[ehuss]

I'm not certain about the defaults, but I'll suggest:

• Assume --ignore=none
• Set BookConfig.title to None (no title)

[seanpoulter]

Thanks @ehuss. I've got a PR #2057 up.