Noun-verb CLI

[roberth]

The nixops command is a bit chaotic.

• Command list is growing rather long, making commands hard to find.
• Some options make command behave quite differently, such as deploy --copy, whereas other options only tweak small aspects of a command. This makes some functionality hard to find.
• Some commands are ambiguous words, like create which could have been about resources, but is about deployments.
• Some verbs apply to multiple kinds of objects, like list, plan, or even deploy. This makes for a more consistent experience.

Some suggestions:

list -> deployment list create -> deployment create modify --name -> deployment rename rename -> resource rename set-args -> deployment set-arguments delete -> deployment delete destroy --include x -> resource destroy x destroy -> deployment destroy deploy -> deployment switch deploy --include x -> resource switch deploy --dry-run -> deployment build --dry-run deploy --test -> deployment activate deploy --boot -> deployment switch-for-boot deploy --plan -> deployment plan

Some top-level commands are ok when they're frequently used or for the purpose of backward compatibility.

nixops ssh = nixops resource ssh nixops deploy =~ nixops deployment switch nixops create = nixops deployment create but deprecated

Plan:

1. Do not delay NixOps 2 release. (just to be clear)
2. Add nouns
   • implementation
   • docs
   • tests!
3. Get feedback
4. Release
5. Get feedback
6. Repeat
7. Deprecate some commands and give good suggestions