Bug 373167

Sorry, I don't understand what is the expected behavior for you.

  There is an alias column showing the repository URI and a name column for an alternative symbolic denotation in comparence to the repository number.

alias: repository-uri
name,number: used to refer to this repository

The rename operation is supposed to change the name or the number of a given repository. In a fact by now it hides the repository uri instead of performing a re-name. Changing the number should affect the order in which repositories are listed by 'zypper repos' and displayed by the user interface of the respective YaST-module.

It is not supposed to work like that. The number has no meaning other than to identify a repository in the _current_ listing in order to use it as a short argument in --repo option or *repo commands.

renamerepo changes the alias. If the URI is used as an alias it is just a coincidence (e.g. yast uses URI if it can't come up with a better alias).

renamerepo does not hide URI. To list the repos and their URIs, you can currently use zypper -v repos. This will be changed soon to something more convenient like zypper repos -u for url, -a for all available information, -p for priority, etc.... see Bug 364391

I am not sure what the alias column is supposed to be good for at all.
It should not be displayed by default. Instead I would expect the URI to be displayed as by rug.

Regardless of that re**name** is for sure supposed to change the name not the alias.

last but not least: 
  Reordering the repo-list at the zypper commandline as well as for the YaST user interface (though this is an indpendent issue in regards to renaming) is for my mind best to be provided by the same command as renaming. 
  Stating the positional number where the repo should show up in the repo list is that way the best solution to provide a directive for reordering - simply put the positional number in place of the name identifier.

.

Sorry for the harum-scarum but things are really somewhat confusing as they are now.

(In reply to comment #4 from Elmar Stellnberger (AT/K))
> I am not sure what the alias column is supposed to be good for at all.

The repository is identified by alias (or by number or URI) in the *repo commands and --repo options - it is essential. 

> It should not be displayed by default. Instead I would expect the URI to be
> displayed as by rug.

The text console is somewhat limited when it comes to readability, many users _complained_ about the URI displayed by default. I would go for -u option to display URIs as it is not that essential. First you need to know what repositories you have defined so that you can manipulate them. If you need to know their exact location for whatever purpose you will invoke zypper repos with -u or -a.

> Regardless of that re**name** is for sure supposed to change the name not the
> alias.

Well not. Although i agree it's confusing. Maybe we should drop the renamerepo command and add --alias and --name options to the modifyrepo command.

> last but not least: 
>   Reordering the repo-list at the zypper commandline as well as for the YaST
> user interface (though this is an indpendent issue in regards to renaming) is
> for my mind best to be provided by the same command as renaming. 
>   Stating the positional number where the repo should show up in the repo list
> is that way the best solution to provide a directive for reordering - simply
> put the positional number in place of the name identifier.

What would that be good for? What about adding an aption to the repos command to sort by alias, name and priority, or even URI? IMO adding means to manually assign unique numbers to the repositories in order to sort them is meaningless.

  
>>(In reply to comment #4 from Elmar Stellnberger (AT/K))
>> I am not sure what the alias column is supposed to be good for at all.
>The repository is identified by alias (or by number or URI) in the *repo
>commands and --repo options - it is essential. 

It is somewhat clear that YaST will need an internal identifier to join its own data with and to maintain the identifyability of a repo after renaming or changes to the URI (f.e. to employ another mirror), but please call this one id, ident or somehow else. No data base designer will ever join towards a column called name.

>> It should not be displayed by default. Instead I would expect the URI to be
>> displayed as by rug.
>The text console is somewhat limited when it comes to readability, many users
>_complained_ about the URI displayed by default. I would go for -u option to
>display URIs as it is not that essential. First you need to know what
>repositories you have defined so that you can manipulate them. If you need to
>know their exact location for whatever purpose you will invoke zypper repos
>with -u or -a.

For sure I have experienced the same problem.
  Nevertheless the basic problem is not that the URI is displayed. It does not seldomly provide useful information not only in case of an ambiguously named repository(that for we basically desire a rename), but also for the case that the user needs the URI like when it comes to open the repository by a browser, to check for the response time of the server, whether it is reachable at all or to whois it.
  The basic problem is for sure that all columns together are broader than the with of the text console, which causes line wraps and the content to be almost illegible. That is why I have added the following to my bashrc:
:: alias rug='rug --no-abbrev'
It will crop the URI before it can exceed the line, reveal as much as possible of it(usually still enough to open a browser quickly) and more important that reveals the server in use.
  So that is in a fact a matter of overlonglyness or line excessions respectively.

>>> Regardless of that re**name** is for sure supposed to change the name not 
>>> the alias.
>Well not. Although i agree it's confusing. Maybe we should drop the renamerepo
>command and add --alias and --name options to the modifyrepo command.

Now what else?
What you supposed to be the alias should become the name.
What you supposed to be the name is in deed an internal identifier the user is not interested in at all.
Drop the id-column out!!
It worsens the problem of overlong columns.
No unnecessary information ought to be displayed here.
And the URI should be cropped where the line ends - as already argued.

>> last but not least: 
>>   Reordering the repo-list at the zypper commandline as well as for the YaST
>> user interface (though this is an indpendent issue in regards to renaming) 
>> is for my mind best to be provided by the same command as renaming. 
>>   Stating the positional number where the repo should show up in the repo
>> list is that way the best solution to provide a directive for reordering - 
>> simply put the positional number in place of the name identifier.
>What would that be good for? What about adding an aption to the repos command
>to sort by alias, name and priority, or even URI? IMO adding means to manually
>assign unique numbers to the repositories in order to sort them is >meaningless.

That would possibly deserve its own discussion.
* Assigning priorities is for sure no bad idea.
* Nevertheless that will just provide limited means to sort the repos.
* Sorting of repos will and has already become increasingly important as more and more sources become available and used by a better performant pkg-mgm.
* Basically the user just wants to group repos by their purpose and to sort repos by their importance as well as the resulting overall shape of their zypper repos display line.
* Sorting in linear order by positional insertion(zypper) or mouse drags(yast) is straight forward and provides a feasible solution to manage to suffice all three sort-criteria.
* It can be provided by the same command as rename-repo. That is orthogonal. No own command has to be remembered. The user, if not resource-empty, will have a try on this anyway (whether documented or not).
* It is just a natural desire to reorder. We can reorder the pencils on the table, etc. It would be awkward if that was forbidden.

.

(In reply to comment #8 from Elmar Stellnberger (AT/K))
> It is somewhat clear that YaST will need an internal identifier to join its own

it is internal for yast, but for zypper it's quite external.

> data with and to maintain the identifyability of a repo after renaming or
> changes to the URI (f.e. to employ another mirror), but please call this one
> id, ident or somehow else. No data base designer will ever join towards a
> column called name.

ALIAS not name. Although alias does not evoke an identifier as well... but we just picked up the YUM 'standard'.

>   The basic problem is for sure that all columns together are broader than the
> with of the text console, which causes line wraps and the content to be almost
> illegible. That is why I have added the following to my bashrc:
> :: alias rug='rug --no-abbrev'

This will be implemented also in zypper in the future. We are already tracking this.

> Drop the id-column out!!
> It worsens the problem of overlong columns.
> No unnecessary information ought to be displayed here.

Please read once again what i wrote in comment #7.

> >>   Stating the positional number where the repo should show up in the repo
> >> list is that way the best solution to provide a directive for reordering - 
> >> simply put the positional number in place of the name identifier.
> >What would that be good for? What about adding an aption to the repos command
> >to sort by alias, name and priority, or even URI? IMO adding means to manually
> >assign unique numbers to the repositories in order to sort them is >meaningless.
> 
> That would possibly deserve its own discussion.

Yes, i suggest to take this to opensuse-softwaremgmt@opensuse.org mailing list.

> * Assigning priorities is for sure no bad idea.
> * Nevertheless that will just provide limited means to sort the repos.
> * Sorting of repos will and has already become increasingly important as more
> and more sources become available and used by a better performant pkg-mgm.

That's what priorities are about.

> * Basically the user just wants to group repos by their purpose and to sort
> repos by their importance as well as the resulting overall shape of their
> zypper repos display line.

By importance: implemented (priority). By purpose: if you need this open a separate enhancement bug for this to dicuss it separately.

> * Sorting in linear order by positional insertion(zypper) or mouse drags(yast)
> is straight forward and provides a feasible solution to manage to suffice all
> three sort-criteria.

I caught only by-prio and by-purpose sort criteria, what was the third?

> * It can be provided by the same command as rename-repo. That is orthogonal.
> No own command has to be remembered. The user, if not resource-empty, will have a
> try on this anyway (whether documented or not).

renamerepo for sorting? i don't get that. There already is modifyrepo which fits better.

> * It is just a natural desire to reorder. We can reorder the pencils on the
> table, etc. It would be awkward if that was forbidden.

I'm not really sure. Maybe. But as i said, you can file an enhancement request for this we will get more opinions and discuss it. Or even better, start a thread at opensuse-softwaremgmt@opensuse.org ML and mention this bug there. Please don't discuss this in this bug further.

See also Bug 364391.

 So the alias is meant as id for YaST and it should be shown by default.
>> :: alias rug='rug --no-abbrev'
>This will be implemented also in zypper in the future. We are already tracking
> this.
 Can we agree this bug to be about some additional cmdln-options for zypper repos?
 Some people will prefer a display mode that is more old style related - with denomination and uri column whereby the repository URI either being displayed as a whole or being continued at least to the end of the line (i.e. strip at eol).
 I do not want to comment on which column will refer to what as long as both columns alias and name end up in showing some symbolic name thus hiding the real URI which actually is a bug (users need to know about the URI, no question, or is there any?).

  In deed I should previously have moved with the reordering issue out to a more appropriate place. It should not be of concern in here any more.

6  | Ja        | Ja            | rpm-md | KDE4-Desktop                                                             | KDE4-Desktop          

Not really useful, or is it?

* Anyhow, URI needs to be displayed (bug).
* It should be possible to fit the output lines to the actual line length of the console (enh).

(In reply to comment #11 from Elmar Stellnberger (AT/K))
>  So the alias is meant as id for YaST and it should be shown by default.
> >> :: alias rug='rug --no-abbrev'
> >This will be implemented also in zypper in the future. We are already tracking
> > this.
>  Can we agree this bug to be about some additional cmdln-options for zypper
> repos?

already implemented, see bug Bug 364391.

>  Some people will prefer a display mode that is more old style related - with
> denomination and uri column whereby the repository URI either being displayed
> as a whole or being continued at least to the end of the line (i.e. strip at
> eol).

I understand that you would prefer this. But as i already said, other people will complain exactly about the URI _shown_ by default. That was the reason to hide it from the default view. But use can use the -u option to display it.

As for the abbreviation of URIs in the list, we are already tracking that feature in our internal feature tracking tool, so no need to keep this bug open for that.

>  I do not want to comment on which column will refer to what as long as both
> columns alias and name end up in showing some symbolic name thus hiding the
> real URI which actually is a bug (users need to know about the URI, no
> question, or is there any?).

Yes, they need to know, no question about it. It's just not in the default view. You need to use -u. I believe most people are quite comfortable with this, since they use the 'repos' command to get the number or alias for use in --repo option or repo handling commands (e.g. to enable/disable a repo or autorefresh for the repo). They don't need to know the URI for their everyday usage, just on special occasions, what do you think?

Can i close this bug now? :O)

>   In deed I should previously have moved with the reordering issue out to a
> more appropriate place. It should not be of concern in here any more.

OK, thanx.

  If suchalike* appropriate command line options exist* in the newest alpha release, then I should mark it as resolved, since it is an easy thing to seize any option as default by bashes*_alias-builtin, although I can not test that alpha release at the moment (*don`t be frightened it`s just a gmnsm); may reopen later on if things(at least both issues mentioned in Comment #12) should not apply as expected.