> > Instead of adding several options, wouldn't it be possible to let "-p" > > accept a string argument with formatting information similar to the way > > the date command works. This would be extensible in the future and > > could include the following interpretted sequences (among others) > > > > %u - url > > %n - pkgname > > %v - pkgver-pkgrel > > %s - size > > > > I don't know how difficult it would be to code but that seems the most > > elegant to me, rather than hardcoding the output format and having to > > worry about extensibility and breakage in the future. > > > > This might not make sense though in terms of "non-download" vs "all" > > but as pointed out, "-yy" and "-cc" mean "all", so "-pp" should too. > > I'm not sure how the double flag would work with accepting an argument. > > Maybe there should be an additional argument "--print-format" which > > accepts the string, but then we're back to extra argument silliness > > again (although that would enable "-p" to easily default to printing > > URLs). > > > > As far as backwards compatibility with "--print-uris" goes, I would > > suggest breaking it if a better solution is found. Holding back better > > design because people can't slightly modify a few simple scripts is not > > a valid justification imho. > > > > hmm I think I like all these suggestions, I will give it a try :) > > It should indeed not break too much all scripts using -Sp. They might > just need to switch to -Spp if they want all packages. > and for a different output one could use -Sp or -Spp with an > additional --print-format '%n' > (then probably -p --print-uris needs to be renamed to -p --print) > > 1. Yeah, it's a good idea I think, I thought for something similar with -Si, -Qi, to print out the given line with an option instead of the all, like -Si --packager, --depends, etc..
2. -p --print doesn't seem so good for me, because it would be more talative like -p --print-uris. But in generally, it would be a good idea to keep -p option as a general printer option with more suboption to it.