Exit code changed for command showing help message when arguments are not provided

[mscheltienne]

Defining a simple entry-point group:

from __future__ import annotations

import click

from .sys_info import run as sys_info


@click.group()
def run() -> None:
    """Main package entry-point."""  # noqa: D401


run.add_command(sys_info)

And executing the corresponding command without an arguments shows the help message, e.g.

$ my_click_cmd
Usage: my_click_cmd [OPTIONS] COMMAND [ARGS]...

  Main package entry-point.

Options:
  --help  Show this message and exit.

Commands:
  sys-info  Run sys_info() command.

But now returns exit code 2 instead of 0 as in click<8.2.0. $ my_click_cmd --help, providing explicitly the --help option returns the same message with exit code 0.

Is this an intended backward incompatible change (undocumented in the changelog), or an introduced bug?

[davidism]

The issue #1394 was discussed, then addressed by the PR #1489, it's intentional. --help is a deliberate request for that output, and so is treated as a successful run with 0. no_args_is_help is essentially a usage error, and so acts the same with 2.

We'll update the release notes.

[dostuffthatmatters]

@davidism Thank you very much for your work on click. But I consider changing exit codes a breaking release. We have to release a new version of a software used by many production systems because our software cannot be installed anymore because click is not pinned.

I agree that a non-zero exit makes sense. But please do not fix this in a non-breaking release.

[davidism]

Here's our version policy, which has remained the same for the last decade at least: https://palletsprojects.com/versions

The B number is considered a "feature" release. Increasing this number indicates adding new features, and may deprecate existing code or remove previously deprecated code.

When writing an application, you must use a tool like pip-compile to pin your application's full dependency tree. This gives you reproducible deployments, allowing you to control when you get updates.

[Rowlando13]

The command no_args_is_help is relevant. click command