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Bug 1983144

Summary:	request for more useful feedback when an unknown subscription-manager argument is typed
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9	Reporter:	John Sefler <jsefler>
Component:	subscription-manager	Assignee:	mhorky
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:	Red Hat subscription-manager QE Team <rhsm-qe>
Severity:	low	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	9.0	CC:	mhorky, redakkan
Target Milestone:	beta	Keywords:	Triaged
Target Release:	9.0	Flags:	pm-rhel: mirror+
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:	subscription-manager-1.29.21-1.el9	Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2022-05-17 15:58:13 UTC	Type:	Bug
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description John Sefler 2021-07-16 16:12:10 UTC

Description of problem:

After the recent move from optparse to argparse (https://github.com/candlepin/subscription-manager/commit/eef1bb13f8924af9539f98330465c110f2df92b5), the subscription-manager command line response when bad arguments are supplied has changed a little.  For example:

________________On RHEL-9:________________________________
[root@rhel9 ~]# subscription-manager attach --sku=RH00069
cannot parse argument: --sku=RH00069
[root@rhel9 ~]# echo $?
64
[root@rhel9 ~]# 

________________On RHEL-8:________________________________
[root@rhel8 ~]# subscription-manager attach --sku=RH00069
Usage: subscription-manager attach [OPTIONS]

subscription-manager: error: no such option: --sku
[root@rhel8 ~]# echo $?
2
[root@rhel8 ~]# 


Use this RFE to improve the response.  In my opinion, the rhel9 exit code of 64 (which represents EX_USAGE) is better, while the rhel8 stderr printing of a usage statement is a good clue to the user that they typed something wrong.  Maybe an automatic display of the --help output is better?  Maybe all the --help is too much?
Use this RFE to design a more friendly response that helps the user understand that the argument option that was typed is wrong and provides a little help.

Note that this applies to all of the subscription-manager modules.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
[root@rhel9 ~]# rpm -q subscription-manager
subscription-manager-1.29.17-1.el9.x86_64
[root@rhel8 ~]# rpm -q subscription-manager
subscription-manager-1.28.19-1.el8.x86_64

Comment 2 John Sefler 2021-07-16 18:15:33 UTC

Here is another difference in response when arguments are incomplete after the move from optparse to argparse...

________________On RHEL-9:________________________________
[root@rhel9 ~]# subscription-manager repo-override --repo
usage: subscription-manager repo-override [OPTIONS]
subscription-manager: error: argument --repo: expected one argument
[root@rhel9 ~]# echo $?
2
[root@rhel9 ~]# 


________________On RHEL-8:________________________________
[root@rhel8 ~]# subscription-manager repo-override --repo
Usage: subscription-manager repo-override [OPTIONS]

subscription-manager: error: --repo option requires 1 argument
[root@rhel8 ~]# echo $?
2
[root@rhel8 ~]# 


Note the capitalization difference in "usage"/"Usage" was reported in bug 1975641

Comment 4 John Sefler 2021-10-14 23:19:21 UTC

Preliminary testing...

[root@kvm-07-guest23 ~]# rpm -q subscription-manager
subscription-manager-1.29.19-1.git.57.bfd5f1c.el9.x86_64

[root@kvm-07-guest23 ~]# rpm -q subscription-manager --changelog | grep 1983144
- 1983144: More useful feedback on unknown argument (mhorky)

[root@kvm-07-guest23 ~]# subscription-manager attach --sku=RH00069
subscription-manager: error: no such option: --sku=RH00069
[root@kvm-07-guest23 ~]# echo $?
64
[root@kvm-07-guest23 ~]# 

VERIFIED: The stderr response of "subscription-manager: error: no such option: --sku=RH00069" closely matches the feedback originally reported on RHEL-8.
VERIFIED: The exitCode of 64 (EX_USAGE) is more accurate than 2.

The RHEL-9 response from comment 2 remains unchanged.

Comment 9 Rehana 2021-12-01 12:04:48 UTC

Verifying on : 
==========

# subscription-manager version
server type: This system is currently not registered.
subscription management server: 3.2.21-1
subscription management rules: 5.41
subscription-manager: 1.29.21-1.el9

# rpm -q subscription-manager --changelog | grep 1983144
- 1983144: More useful feedback on unknown argument (mhorky)

# subscription-manager attach --sku=RH00004
subscription-manager: error: no such option: --sku=RH00004

# echo $?
64

Both message and Exit codes issues have been resolved. Moving the bug to Verified!

Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2022-05-17 15:58:13 UTC

Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (new packages: subscription-manager), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2022:3984