plots show: targets are required but help output indicates otherwise [qa]

[jorgeorpinel]

Bug Report

Help output indicates targets are optional, but an error is thrown if not provided:

λ dvc plots show -h
usage: dvc plots show [-h] [-q | -v] [-t [TEMPLATE]] [-o OUT] [-x X] [-y Y] [--no-csv-header] [--show-json] [--title TITLE] [--xlab XLAB]
                      [--ylab YLAB]
                      [targets [targets ...]]
...
positional arguments:
  targets               Metrics files to visualize. Shows all plots by default.

λ dvc plots show
ERROR: Datafile or template is not specified.

• I assume targets are indeed required so they should be printed without [] in the usage, and the param description should not read "Shows all plots by default."
  UPDATE: Improve the error message when there are no plots in the workspace.

  • and update docs (figure out exact behavior first)

• Also note that the error uses the term "Datafile" which is confusing as it's no longer the name of the argument — Let's probably review this term all over the code base, not just in this one message?

Please provide information about your setup

DVC 1.0.0a6+283718

[efiop]

Without targets it should collect and show all plots. Might be caused by #3911 CC @Suor

[jorgeorpinel]

OK. Well I don't have any plots when I run it. How do you register plots? Did we end up adding an option for dvc run? I'm still a bit lost in the 1.0 changes, sorry!

[skshetry]

@jorgeorpinel, we have --plots and --plots-no-cache option in the dvc run.

[Suor]

I didn't change this behavior, we still show all plots. Besides those options in run we can use dvc plots modify on any out to mark it as plot and add some props.

[jorgeorpinel]

So maybe the problem here is that when there are no plots in the project, e.g. in a new DVC repo, the error message is misleading? Maybe it should check for this particular condition and have a special error message. If that's the case I wouldn't call this a p0 🙂

[efiop]

Confirmed. This is something that I've missed initially.

(dvc-3.8.3) ➜  dvc git:(fix-1545) ✗ dvc plots show                                     
ERROR: Datafile or template is not specified.                                          
                                                                                       
Having any troubles? Hit us up at https://dvc.org/support, we are always happy to help!

This is a p0.