The `--yes` option is inconsistent and confusing

[jandubois]

This doesn't make any sense:

❯ l clone default clone
? Do you want to start the instance now?  (Y/n)
FATA[0004] interrupt

❯ l delete clone
...

❯ l --yes clone default clone
=> does not start the new instance

Whereas limactl --yes create foo will start the new instance right away.

Same thing for limactl edit:

❯ l edit clone --cpus 3
INFO[0000] Instance "clone" configuration edited
? Do you want to start the instance now?  (Y/n)
FATA[0002] interrupt

❯ l --yes edit clone --cpus 4
INFO[0000] Instance "clone" configuration edited
=> does not start the updated instance

Linguistically yes is not a synonym for "no tty". It is an affirmative. So why doesn't it start the instance?

There are 2 reasonable definitions for --yes:

1. It implies the user presses ENTER to all normally interactive prompts, selecting the default choice.
2. It is only accepted by commands that can start an instance, and it means "yes, start it"

The fact that --tty=false doesn't mean you pick the default choice for prompts makes this even more confusing.

The current definition makes no sense (except on the limactl start command).

This cannot be fixed in a backwards compatible way, so I would like to figure out how (or if) we want to change it for 2.0, when we have a chance to introduce breaking changes.

[jandubois]

AFAICT start, clone, and edit are the only subcommands that will issue a prompt, so I think picking option (2) makes sense. It would turn --yes from a global flag to one for those 3 subcommands.

I think it would be even clearer to leave --yes just for the start command and use --start=false for clone and edit.

These options are really only for scripting, to make it possible for them to not prompt. Explicitly asking not to start the instance is clearer than saying you run without a tty, and relying on the implementation that this means not to start the instance.

limactl edit foo --cpus 3 --no-start
limactl edit foo --cpus 3 --start=false

is much clearer than

limactl edit foo --cpus 3 --yes
limactl edit foo --cpus 3 --tty=false

I would leave --yes as a hidden flag for backwards compatibility until Lima 3.0.

I kind of like the -y flag for limactl start, but even there --yes is not really intuitive. Something like --no-prompt or --prompt=false is much more self-explanatory.

Unfortunately one of the reasons for --yes is that it is much more commonly used interactively, and --tty=false is a bit awkward.

So I don't know, keeping --yes for limactl start seems to be the least bad option so far.

[AkihiroSuda]

SGTM:

• Add --start=BOOL to the commands that conditionally start an instance. Probably this should not be the global limactl flag
• Deprecate --yes=BOOL

It does not seem necessary to hide the deprecated flags.

I guess we can also safely rename --tty=BOOL to --prompt=BOOL, but "prompt" may rather sound like an AI prompt in this era ?