We have a bash completion file, which needs to be updated manually: #17282 (comment)
However, given our argparse module and RPCHelpMan, I believe it should be possible to autogenerate it with maybe a python script.
If it should be necessary to run a bitcoind instance as an http server for rpc request to auto-generate the bash completion, this could be implemented as a functional test (written in python).
help method, and adapt the bash completion to be automatic at runtime?
help lookups..
@luke-jr by object-based help, you mean #18531, or did I miss a PR by any chance?
I’d tend to agree with @MarcoFalke here: doing bitcoin-cli -> RPC -> bitcoin-node -> RPC -> bitcoin-cli every time the user types TAB might feel a bit sluggish especially when the node is running on really low-end ARM hardware (plus with loads from other bitcoind threads on top of that).
(and you’d have to have a node running (with RPC configured) to have auto-completion which might not be a great user experience for first-time users)
But both approaches are valid and if enough people think we should call bitcoind for autocomplete, I’d be happy to modify the PR to do that.
@luke-jr by object-based help, you mean #18531, or did I miss a PR by any chance?
I mean something hypothetical where the help is returned as JSON Object similar to how we create it.
I’d tend to agree with @MarcoFalke here: doing bitcoin-cli -> RPC -> bitcoin-node -> RPC -> bitcoin-cli every time the user types TAB might feel a bit sluggish
Doesn’t seem sluggish for SSH over a network…? (scp has tab-completion)
especially when the node is running on really low-end ARM hardware
It can’t do a simple RPC request, but it can run a full node? :p
I mean something hypothetical where the help is returned as JSON Object similar to how we create it.
Ow ok, I see thanks. Yes sure it shouldn’t be complicated to write something like https://github.com/pierreN/bitcoin/blob/feature-auto-cli/test/functional/tool_cli_completion.py inside bitcoind.
Doesn’t seem sluggish for SSH over a network…? (scp has tab-completion)
That’s actually what I had in mind. On really low-end ARM server (I’m using this for example) the first times you try to auto-complete via ssh it takes a few seconds and that’s just annoying. And that is assuming you don’t have a passphrase for your local key (e.g. RPC identifier in the bitcoind case)
It can’t do a simple RPC request, but it can run a full node? :package:
Sorry I wasn’t clear. I just meant it was a latency issue. Yes, auto-completing via RPC requests would work, it just would be slower on low-end hardware.