Intuitive and consistent soar CLI

[misog]

Hi, you are doing very good job :)

I was playing with soar and found some issues in CLI format. Here is my experience.

When I run soar i krita then this is displayed:

Multiple packages found for krita
[1] krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.next-2025-03-22:pkgcache
[2] krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable-5.2.9:pkgcache
[3] krita#runimage.alpine.krita-5.2.9:pkgcache

Okay... I installed the 1. by typing "1" and ENTER. It was installed successfully.

Then I wanted to install another (stable) version.

I tried soar i krita again...

But I could not install it:

[WARN] krita is already installed - skipping
No packages to install

Okay, but this message does not answer to me:
a) Which one exactly is installed?
b) How to specify the exact version for the installation process?
c) Why there is not interactive picker anymore to install another one if there was previously?

Then I tried to specify full name which was presented by soar i krita before:

soar i krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable-5.2.9:pkgcache
[ERROR] Package krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable-5.2.9:pkgcache not found
No packages to install

I entered the exact full name which I choosed before and it does not work now?

Okay, maybe I need to omit the pkgcache part:

soar i krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable-5.2.9
[ERROR] Package krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable-5.2.9 not found
No packages to install

Nothing...

Maybe omit the version?

soar i krita#gitlab.com.krita.krita.stable

Now it worked.

a) Why it does not work with full name if that is what soar i krita gave in the first install?
b) Why it does not work with version in the name?

Then I learned I can specify soar i krita#all and soar i #something

a) But why to use some magic all string in the location of package ID to get package options?
b) And why soar i #something installs ALL (typically huge amount of packages) and not display options?

I found it little bit not intuitive and it could be polished to be intuitive and consistent :)

Expected behavior

Be more intuitive and consistent. Instead of wild syntax use well defined syntax and flags.

[QaidVoid]

Which one exactly is installed?

When trying to re-install a package, it outputs the exact input provided by the user instead of parsed full package name. I'll need to look into how to show all installed packages without cluttering the UI.

How to specify the exact version for the installation process?

The search result provides the full package name that can be copied. But yeah, it'd probably make sense to display the full package names on install same as in the search output.

Why there is not interactive picker anymore to install another one if there was previously?

The assumption is that users generally wants to install only one variant of the package at a time, so trying to install the same package again is probably a mistake, so they're forced to provide the full package name.
I'll add a flag/config option for forced prompt.

But why to use some magic all string in the location of package ID to get package options?

It's simplification of #pkg_id syntax to install all package in the pkg_id without having to remember the pkg_id

And why soar i #something installs ALL (typically huge amount of packages) and not display options?

Almost all operation is non-interactive as of now. I do need to add interactive flag to display the packages to be installed.

[misog]

I know there are technical reasons. I was just vibe testing it and wondering about UX reasons.

Later I was thinking about possible usecases. This is my subjective preference how I would like to use a package manager. Maybe voting would give more data what is the general/majority preference.

A: Install package of specified exact identifier consisting of package, version, source, etc..

• Show error E1 if the exact identifier has not valid format
• Show error E2 if the exact identifier has valid format but such package of such version of such ... does not exist
• This usecase will be usually used when copy-pasting commands from web or used by other programs or AI tools
• Multiple packages of the same name with different version, source, ... supported
• lpm install <full-identifier>

B: Install package of specified non-exact identifier consisting only of subset/prefix of package, version, source, etc...

• Show error E3 if the non-exact identifier has not valid format
• Always show options to select the one (or more) packages to install as the non-exact identifier is not exact
• This usecase will be usually used by humans who know just the package name, but do not know available versions, sources, etc...
• This should not be replacement for searching usecase, just quick neat helper to install the right thing
• Multiple package versions allowed, always show options even if installed (with notice, or list of installed packages)
• lpm install <partial-identifier>

C: Search packages of specified exact or non-exact identifier

• Wildcard/regex support
• Flags for great UX of search, output modifications, etc...
• lpm search <partial-identifier> --format json

[Azathothas]

Most of these inconsistent/non-intuitive behaviors are only noticed when people use soar directly/interactively.
We will try shipping a TUI, which would account for some of these.

Ref: https://github.com/metafates/brewer