Description

Before this PR, help commands uses the name from a command's declaration rather than the name in the scope. This is problematic when trying to view the help page for the main command of a module. For example, std bench:

use std/bench
help bench
# => Error: nu::parser::not_found
# => 
# =>   × Not found.
# =>    ╭─[entry #10:1:6]
# =>  1 │ help bench
# =>    ·      ──┬──
# =>    ·        ╰── did not find anything under this name
# =>    ╰────

This can also cause confusion when importing specific commands from modules. Furthermore, if there are multiple commands with the same name from different modules, the help text for both will appear when querying their help text (this is especially problematic for main commands, see #14033):

use std/iter
help iter find
# => Error: nu::parser::not_found
# => 
# =>   × Not found.
# =>    ╭─[entry #3:1:6]
# =>  1│ help iter find
# =>    ·      ────┬────
# =>    ·          ╰── did not find anything under this name
# =>    ╰────
help find
# => Searches terms in the input.
# => 
# => Search terms: filter, regex, search, condition
# => 
# => Usage:
# =>   > find {flags} ...(rest) 
# [...]
# => Returns the first element of the list that matches the
# => closure predicate, `null` otherwise
# [...]
# (full text omitted for brevity)

This PR changes help commands to use the name as it is in scope, so prefixing any command in scope with help will show the correct help text.

use std/bench
help bench
# [help text for std bench]
use std/iter
help iter find
# [help text for std iter find]

use std
help std bench
# [help text for std bench]
help std iter find
# [help text for std iter find]

Additionally, the IR code generation for commands called with the --help text has been updated to reflect this change.

This does have one side effect: when a module has a main command defined, running help <name> (which checks help aliases, then help commands, then help modules) will show the help text for the main command rather than the module. The help text for the module is still accessible with help modules <name>.

Fixes #10499, #10311, #11609, #13470, #14033, and #14402.
Partially fixes #10707.
Does not fix #11447.

User-Facing Changes

• Help text for commands can be obtained by running help <command name>, where the command name is the same thing you would type in order to execute the command. Previously, it was the name of the function as written in the source file.
  • For example, for the following module spam with command meow:

    module spam { 
        # help text
        export def meow [] {}
    }

    • Before this PR:
      • Regardless of how meow is used, the help text is viewable by running help meow.
    • After this PR:
      • When imported with use spam: The meow command is executed by running spam meow and the help text is viewable by running help spam meow.
      • When imported with use spam foo: The meow command is executed by running meow and the help text is viewable by running meow.
• When a module has a main command defined, help <module name> will return help for the main command, rather than the module. To access the help for the module, use help modules <module name>.

Tests + Formatting

• 🟢 toolkit fmt
• 🟢 toolkit clippy
• 🟢 toolkit test
• 🟢 toolkit test stdlib

After Submitting

N/A