Suggested improvements to the update process

[adamcunnington-mlg]

Unless I am misunderstanding the intended use of the update process, I think that there might be 3 missing features which would really improve the update experience:

1. When prompted to overwrite a file, instead of just [Y/n] options, have [Y/n/v] where v is for view and it prints out the diff and then prompts the [Y/n/v] again. cruft update works in this way and it's nice
2. Provide an option to skip tasks. In my case, the tasks do freezing of requirements and installation. I don't want to do this during most updates - especially as the tasks get run twice during an update
3. Default to correct Y/n during overwrite prompts. Currently, it defaults to yes but this default should be i) indicated e.g. emboldened/coloured and ii) False if the file has not changed more recently in the template source. This feels like the most significant point to me - if my destination has made changes to a file, I don't want to overwrite those changes with the template version - I must be misunderstanding what is happening here because this feels fundamental

Thanks for the consideration / your time in responding to these.

[pawamoy]

if my destination has made changes to a file, I don't want to overwrite those changes with the template version - I must be misunderstanding what is happening here because this feels fundamental

Indeed it can be counter-intuitive, but this "overwrite" does not mean you lose your local changes, as they will be re-applied after the local files have been updated.

I believe all these (valid) points are covered by the plans @yajo already has, namely to entirely remove this "overwrite prompt" feature, and to allow finer-grained execution of tasks.

[adamcunnington-mlg]

Ok, great news, thanks for that.

There is probably also a way to avoid this double execution of a lot of the workload that happens during an update - but great to know something is in development - are there any more details on what is expected and when? Just to manage my expectations and excitement! Loving copier so far.

Thanks

[pawamoy]

You can follow the task issue here: #240.
The suggestion to remove the overwrite prompts was mentioned here: #562 (comment), and leads to this PR that was merged: #807. So I think we're one release away from it?

[adamcunnington-mlg]

Thanks @pawamoy, I'll do that and I'll close this issue, thank you.

[yajo]

Well, #807 is a bit a different story. It's about having inline merge conflict markers. However it paves the way to not need overwrite prompts anymore too.

I maintain Copier in my free time. I try to commit some hours to it like about once every 2 weeks. Right now I'm focused on finishing #585 before the next release. But as you can guess, there's no real schedule. Help is always appreciated!