vcs export --exact reports tag names instead of commit hash about vcstool HOT 7 CLOSED

Yeah. I can take a stab at it. Probably next week.

I haven't looked at the codebase much yet, so I'm not sure if this makes sense.

But rather than changing all the backends, I could have the command line parser split the --exact-with-tags convenience option into two separate options on the command object: the existing .exact and a .with_tags. All the other backends would ignore the with_tags flag and maintain the same behavior.

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I think when the --exact parameter is specified, it is preferable to provide the commit hash.

The behavior to return tags when available is intentional (see #98). Since tags are intended to be immutable and significantly more readable they are being used by --exact if the current hash has exactly one tag pointing to it.

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I don't know about all vcs tools, but tags frequently aren't all that immutable. For instance, they are frequently used to mark the latest_stable version or some such thing, with the tag being moved as someone or CI decides that a new version is now passing the tests.

I'm pretty sure they can be moved in Git, so, for right or wrong, if somebody moves the tag, the --exact option is not so exact anymore.

Having the tag is a nice feature most of the time, but, it disagrees with the docs for the --exact parameter.

"export" command parameters:
  --exact            Export exact commit hash instead of branch names

If you want to keep this behavior, maybe another option, something like --hash-only could be used to disable the tag lookup feature?

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I'm pretty sure they can be moved in Git, so, for right or wrong, if somebody moves the tag, the --exact option is not so exact anymore.

Sure, you can also rewrite history in git - still something to consider not doing ;-)

Having the tag is a nice feature most of the time, but, it disagrees with the docs for the --exact parameter.

Agreed, clarifying the help text would certainly be good 👍

If you want to keep this behavior, maybe another option, something like --hash-only could be used to disable the tag lookup feature?

Adding another option to toggle the behavior to always return hashes vs. potentially tags if they are unique would be good. Since the change has only landed recently I am not too concerned about changing the behavior (if we think that makes more sense). I am just not sure what the right names for the two options would be --exact and ? --hash-only seems very git specific...

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After thinking about it I think it is more natural if --exact always outputs hashes and a new option --exact-with-tags (naming up for discussion) for the current behavior (unique tags when available, fallback to hashes).

The new option could either be standalone or require also to pass --exact. The former seems more user friendly but will require all existing backends to check for the new option and at least do the same as for the existing option.

@crdelsey Would you be willing to contribute a pull request for this new option?

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@crdelsey Friendly ping.

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Resolved by #115.

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