deprecate --help -v

[richo]

the verbose option to help shows only a few extra lines, so just show
them all by default and save some time and keystrokes

The diff that -v introduced on the output of rustc --help was only:

--- /tmp/help   2015-02-18 10:49:59.000000000 -0800
+++ /tmp/help-v 2015-02-18 10:50:03.000000000 -0800
@@ -34,10 +34,16 @@
                         Set a codegen option
     -V --version        Print version info and exit
     -v --verbose        Use verbose output
+    --extern NAME=PATH  Specify where an external rust library is located
+    --sysroot PATH      Override the system root
+    -Z FLAG             Set internal debugging options
+    --color auto|always|never
+                        Configure coloring of output: auto = colorize, if
+                        output goes to a tty (default); always = always
+                        colorize output; never = never colorize output

 Additional help:
     -C help             Print codegen options
     -W help             Print 'lint' options and default settings
     -Z help             Print internal options for debugging rustc
-    --help -v           Print the full set of options rustc accepts

[rust-highfive]

r? @huonw

(rust_highfive has picked a reviewer for you, use r? to override)

[alexcrichton]

While there are not particularly many more options in --help -v today, it is planned that likely many new flavorful options to the compiler will land there instead of in --help. (e.g. this was designed with future extensibility in mind).

[richo]

Sure. I guess the counterargument is that it's a fairly bizarre feature, especially when it masks some interesting options, eg if I wanted to know how to uncolor the output the first thing I would try would be

rustc --help | grep color

My intuition is that this should be removed, and reconsidered if the help text is getting out of control. I'm pretty sure that a middleground solution, like leaving all the plumbing around, but still showing the whole help message is the worst outcome. As it stands, the verbose output is only 49 lines.

[alexcrichton]

cc @brson, @pnkfelix, @cmr (we discussed this at the work week)

[emberian]

I'm pretty neutral on this issue. I have sympathy for both arguments, but I think that hiding arguments might be more annoying than having lots of output in the long run.

[huonw]

r? @alexcrichton (reassigning, also ping)

[richo]

ping?

[bors]

☔ The latest upstream changes (presumably #23298) made this pull request unmergeable. Please resolve the merge conflicts.

[richo]

Is it worth me rebasing this?

[alexcrichton]

My feelings here haven't changed, but you may want to reach out to @brson or @pnkfelix on IRC to get their feeling on this as well.

[pnkfelix]

I'm with @alexcrichton ; I think the situation now is a better foundation for the future than unifying the two.

[brson]

Heh, my feelings are mixed too. I think the current design is definitely a surprise, since it's uncommon, but compilers have bazillions of options, and keeping them organized is a noble goal.

My inclination is to stick with the status quo, and revisit later if it continues to be an issue.

I'll take the liberty of closing. Thanks @richo.