Improve consistency in list-like CLI arguments

[hiltontj]

Problem statement

We don't have a standard convention for CLI args that accept lists of things.

In the influxdb3 create table command, we parse tags as space-separated list, e.g.,

influxdb3 create table --tags tag1 tag2 ...

In the influxdb3 create last_cache command, we parse key columns as comma-separated list, e.g.,

influxdb3 create last_cache --key-columns tag1,tag2

We should make these args accept a consistent form.

Proposed solution

I think we should use space-separated lists. This seems to be a more conventional use of clap (see how it is implemented in the create table command here) and CLI commands in general. For example,

ls dir1 dir2 file1 file2
rm file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
cp file1.txt file2.txt /target/directory/
grep "pattern" file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt
# ... etc.

Therefore, we would need to update the following commands:

• Distinct Cache (link)
• Last Cache (link)
• Generally, places where the SeparatedList type is used, which extends to Enterprise.

Alternatives considered

Use comma-separated lists. As per #25811, we had one internal user try to create a table with

influxdb3 create table cats --tags color,thickness ...

which leads to the creation of a table with a single tag "color,thickness" instead of two tags "color" and "thickness", and then writes to the database were not working for them because their line protocol assumed the latter.

Additional context

There may be an argument towards one solution or the other based on user expectation of tag/field naming conventions.

It is worth noting that both comma and space are allowed in tag names so long as they are escaped.

[pauldix]

What would the arguments look like for test plugin and create trigger? Currently it's a comma separated list of key/value pairs, which are separated by =

[hiltontj]

What would the arguments look like for test plugin and create trigger? Currently it's a comma separated list of key/value pairs, which are separated by =

Another similar example is the --fields argument in create table, which takes field names and their types, separated by :.

In that case it expects the key/value pair together, but still uses space-separation between key/value pairs, e.g.,

influxdb3 create table cats --database pets --fields name:utf8 weight:uint64

I suppose that is acceptable as well for the plugin CLIs?

[pauldix]

Sure, I think that's acceptable for args as well? It would be good to have consistency here.