feat: add format option to workspace.list

[ilyichv]

Add --format option to workspace.list. It can be set to:

• pretty (default) - retains the current behavior
• json - outputs the following format:

{
  "projects": {
    "count": 1,
    "projects": [
      {
        "app": "core",
        "path": "packages/core"
      }
    ]
  },
  "workspace_path": "/Users/user/Workspace/myworkspace"
}

---

This feature was inspired by Turborepo’s approach, and in my opinion, it can take this library a step further toward being more useful in CI environments.

[pnezis]

Thanks @ilyichv, workspace.list already has support for json through the --json flag. If you wish it to be printed instead of saved we can update the --json option to also print it on the console. WDYT?

[ilyichv]

Of course! What do you think of --inline option?

[pnezis]

I prefer the --format option of your PR, it matches also the option of workspace.graph. I would say to do the following:

• Add the --format option with pretty and json, as you have already done, defaults to pretty
• If format=json is passed we execute the same code as --json currently does (no formatters needed) and print the output of Workspace.Export.to_json (we may need to extend it a bit to keep only the valid packages)
• We can mark --json as deprecated (to avoid confusion). We can remove the default value from --output and if set, we also save the file. WDYT?

[ilyichv]

Yeah, i'd say also that we can remove --json and in general what concern saving files. Once you have a formatted json you can just
pipe into a file and the magic is done

workspace.list --format json > out.json

[pnezis]

Pipe is not guaranteed to yield a valid json file, if something needs to be compiled first it will also include the compilation output.

[ilyichv]

Agreed, i'll proceed as you suggested then!

[ilyichv]

@pnezis Done! I soft-deprecated --json by marking it in the docs and logging a warn when used. I also added a couple of tests that ensure that everything works properly. LMK what do you think :)

[pnezis]

Looks good @ilyichv, a few nits and we are good to merge.

May I ask how a json output in the console will help your CI pipeline?

[ilyichv]

Looks good @ilyichv, a few nits and we are good to merge.

May I ask how a json output in the console will help your CI pipeline?

We're building a pipeline that leverages on affected packages.
The pipeline was working even with saved file but it looked like a nice improvement. That's the old version

 - name: Detect changes
    id: changes
    run: |
          mix workspace.list --show-status --json --tag scope:app --base "HEAD" --head "HEAD~1"
          echo "workspace.json: $(cat workspace.json)"
          CHANGED_APPS=$(jq -c '[.projects[] | select(.status == "affected" or .status == "modified") | .app]' workspace.json)
          echo "changed-apps=$CHANGED_APPS" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Since we fixed --affected and we'll have the --format this will be more concise.

Besides that I was about to open a discussion in this repo but we may chat on X.
I had something in mind similar to what Turborepo does with prune command, in order to implement that having --format json is essential.

In any case having a convo about that would be great!

[pnezis]

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense.

Besides that I was about to open a discussion in this repo but we may chat on X. I had something in mind similar to what Turborepo does with prune command, in order to implement that having --format json is essential.

In any case having a convo about that would be great!

Glad to discuss about it (both X or here is fine)

[ilyichv]

Thanks for the explanation, makes sense.

Besides that I was about to open a discussion in this repo but we may chat on X. I had something in mind similar to what Turborepo does with prune command, in order to implement that having --format json is essential.
In any case having a convo about that would be great!

Glad to discuss about it (both X or here is fine)

I just texted you on X!