Bug#895570: devscripts: wrap-and-sort should default to -ast (--wrap-always, --short-indent, --trailing-comma)

On 2024-03-12 00:33, Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, 6 Mar 2024 11:04:01 +0100 Paride Legovini <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Sun, 03 Mar 2024 16:26:41 +0100 Benjamin Drung <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Time to join this discussion. The current default was the preference of
>>> the author 14 years ago. My taste has change a bit since then. I am open
>>> to change the default. --trailing-comma for wrapped lines is a good
>>> idea, --short-indent is okay. I don't like --wrap-always in case there
>>> are only two or three entries.
>>>
>>> The new default should not only based on the preference, but also on
>>> what is used the most. Can someone collect the information: which teams
>>> use which options, how many packages use what?
>>
>> I did some unscientific research on codesearch looking for d/changelog entries
>> mentioning `wrap-and-sort -` (i.e. wrap-and-sort with some options). This is
>> the query:
>>
>> https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=path%3Adebian%2Fchangelog+wrap-and-sort+-&literal=1
>>
>> Apparently -a is the single most used option, very often used together with
>> -s and -t. I found similar results by searching GitHub:
>>
>> https://github.com/search?q=path%3Adebian%2Fchangelog+%22wrap-and-sort+-%22&type=code
>>
>> Looks like salsa (GitLab Free) doesn't allow to do instance-wide code searches.
> 
> I disagree that the new default should be what is used the most. For example
> debhelper versions do not become the default only after they are used the most.
> The thing that makes switching defaults easier for debhelper is the explicit
> opt-in for a new debhelper compat version which we don't have for wrap-and-sort
> and I think it would very much be over-engineering to add such a feature for
> something that is, in my opinion, of very little consequence. Furthermore, I
> would not be surprised if many people using wrap-and-sort use the default
> expecting that this is what is most well-liked by the project (because why else
> would it be the default?). The question was asked in this email sub-thread:
> 
> https://lists.debian.org/[email protected]
> 
> In that thread, same as in this bug, -ast was proposed as the default and
> unless I missed something, there were no objections on debian-devel. Some even
> argued, to make -b the default as well. So instead of asking "what is used
> most" I'd like to ask, are there users of wrap-and-sort without -ast who would
> be strongly against having to pass -AST to overwrite a potential new default?
> 
> That being said, I downloaded all debian/control files for all 36832 source
> packages in Debian and ran the following shell script on them to figure out how
> many source packages comply with which wrap-and-sort set of options:
> 
> for p in control/*; do
> 	rm -f debian/control;
> 	ln -s "../$p" debian/control;
> 	for opt in "" -a -as -ast -astb -at -atb -ab -s -st -stb -sb -t -tb -b; do
> 		wrap-and-sort --dry-run --file=debian/control $opt \
> 			| grep --quiet debian/control \
> 			|| echo $p >> w-a-s$opt;
> 	done
> done
> 
> It's of course still not possible to say whether a control file adheres to a
> certain wrap-and-sort formatting style by accident or intentionally. Also,
> packages can easily fall in multiple categories at the same time, for example
> packages with only a single binary package which comply with -ast will
> automatically also comply with -astb. There are also packages which comply with
> -ast as well as with no options at all simply because they have no
> Build-Depends nor Depends fields in debian/control. Here is the result sorted
> by popularity in ascending order:
> 
>     96 wrap-and-sort -st
>     96 wrap-and-sort -stb
>    434 wrap-and-sort -as
>    465 wrap-and-sort -tb
>    489 wrap-and-sort -t
>    579 wrap-and-sort -atb
>    641 wrap-and-sort -at
>   1341 wrap-and-sort -sb
>   1405 wrap-and-sort -s
>   2381 wrap-and-sort -astb
>   2705 wrap-and-sort -ast
>   2732 wrap-and-sort -b
>   3020 wrap-and-sort
>   3950 wrap-and-sort -ab
>   4089 wrap-and-sort -a
> 
> So, wrap-and-sort -ast is very popular but it is not as popular as the current
> default.

Hi josch and thanks for this analysis. I'll try to recap where we are at this
point, focusing only on -ast (I'll ignore -bk here).

1. This bug (#895570) requests -ast to be the default. The proposal received
mostly positive feedback, however bdrung doesn't like -a in case there are
only two or three entries. He also thinks we should consider what is already
popular.

--> Looks like everybody likes (or is ok with) having -st by default.

2. Using codesearch I looked for what options are the most popular when
w-a-s is mentioned with options in d/changelog. Looks like the most
popular option is -a (often together with others).

3. josch checked how many src packages in the archive are already compliant
with a w-a-s option set, and found results which agree with the above.

The ball goes back to bdrung I'd say. @bdrung: where does your preference
fall given that you don't like "always -a", but that also appears to be
quite popular, which is something you like?

Speaking for myself, my preference goes to -ast by default, but if we can
only reach consensus of -st I'll be happy with that.

Cheers,

Paride