`gs` conflicts with existing command (ghostscript)

[guyboltonking]

When installing using homebrew, I get a conflict because I have ghostscript (which has been known as gs for a very long time). Would it be possible to choose a different name? I've worked around this by symlinking the binary as git-spice into my ~/bin (and changing the completions using:

git-spice shell completion fish | sed -e 's/__complete_gs/__complete_git_spice/' -e 's/-c gs/-c git-spice/' | source

...), but I imagine it will hit other people.

[dvogt23]

yes, for me as well. Would be great to be able to create a git subcommand for spice as git absorb doing it.

[abhinav]

Hey folks, thanks for creating the issue.

I understand that the ghostscript conflict is inconvenient. I'm willing to amend the installation instructions with a warning and a workaround for ghostscript users, but I have a strong preference for keeping the current name. Renaming is not an option I'm currently open to. The current name and direct invocation (as opposed to a git subcommand) better matches the user experience I want from this tool.

RE: fixing completions with sed:
Oh, that shouldn't be necessary. The command should use its own name even when renamed. Let me fix that.

[guyboltonking]

The current name and direct invocation (as opposed to a git subcommand) better matches the user experience I want from this tool.

That's a shame, because it works fine as a git subcommand as well (ln -s /opt/homebrew/Cellar/git-spice/0.8.0/bin/gs ~/bin/git-spice and you're done), and I think you'll have users (obviously I'm projecting here, but I do know at least one other developer with the same philosophy) who deliberately do not use abbreviations for already existing commands and would prefer to lean on completion for discovery. Your preferred UX excludes those users, and creates complications for people who either already have ghostscript installed, or install it in future (looking at brew uses --eval-all gs, I see imagemagick listed, which brew info tells me has ~63000 installs in the last 30 days).

In terms of a workaround, could you lean on homebrew options to provide a --with-git-subcommand option (so the default is your preferred UX, but the workaround works within homebrew instead of needing a manual symlink step)?

[abhinav]

In terms of a workaround, could you lean on homebrew options to provide a --with-git-subcommand option (so the default is your preferred UX, but the workaround works within homebrew instead of needing a manual symlink step)?

I considered that, and I don't know how strict the policy is, but per that section of the Formula Cookbook:

Note: options are not allowed in Homebrew/homebrew-core as they are not tested by CI.

Feel free to try anyway if you're up for it; if they accept the PR, I have no opposition to an install-time flag for this.

[guyboltonking]

Feel free to try anyway if you're up for it; if they accept the PR, I have no opposition to an install-time flag for this.

Is the intent for this to find its way to homebrew-core then? I thought this was still your tap at https://github.com/abhinav/homebrew-tap/blob/main/git-spice.rb (happy to submit a PR, just wondering where)?

[abhinav]

Oh, I thought you were talking about the existing homebrew-core formula.
git-spice was added to homebrew-core in September (Homebrew/homebrew-core#191536).
I hadn't updated the installation instructions to refer to that because I hadn't gotten the automated brew bump-formula-pr workflow working right until, well, today.

For my Homebrew tap: goreleaser generates and pushes that formula. Goreleaser doesn't seem to have a means of adding options, but, it supports publishing multiple formulas.

So, I guess we have two options:

• Try to add the --with-git-subcommand option into homebrew-core.
• Publish a second git-spice-alt (or something better named) formula with goreleaser. (So mostly a copy-paste of the existing brews entry, but with a custom install step that installs the binary under a different name. Configuration reference.)

I'm open to either/both.

[guyboltonking]

Ah, lightbulb moment! I strongly suspect that the homebrew maintainers mean it about options in homebrew-core, which means that the other path of an alternative formula is the more likely solution. I have no idea how to go about that, and I completely understand if you don't have the bandwidth to do it yourself.

[abhinav]

I have no idea how to go about that, and I completely understand if you don't have the bandwidth to do it yourself.

I completely understand!
I can put this on my backlog for if/when I have time/inspiration.
Meanwhile, if you or someone else would like to take a stab:

git-spice/.goreleaser.yml

Lines 58 to 72 in a72ce6e

	brews:
	- repository:
	owner: abhinav
	name: homebrew-tap
	token: "{{ .Env.HOMEBREW_TAP_GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
	commit_msg_template: "{{ .ProjectName }}: Update formula to {{ .Tag }}"
	commit_author:
	name: Abhinav Gupta
	email: mail@abhinavg.net
	homepage: https://abhinav.github.io/git-spice/
	description: "A tool for stacking Git branches."
	license: "GPL-3.0-or-later"
	skip_upload: auto
	test: |
	system "#{bin}/gs --version"

That's the Homebrew tap configuration for git-spice.
Based on goreleaser documentation for Homebrew taps, my guess is you'd add a second entry to that list with a different name, and a different configuration for the install step.