ipfs/kubo

`ipfs key rm` & `ipfs name publish` error out on empty stdin rather than doing nothing

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#4904 opened on Apr 1, 2018

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help wantedkind/enhancementtopic/commands

Description

Version information:

go-ipfs version: 0.4.13- Repo version: 6 System version: amd64/linux Golang version: go1.9.4

Type:

Bug

Description:

ipfs key rm and ipfs name publish (and probably other ipfs commands) will, if invoked with no positional arguments, expect input from stdin, presumably so you can pipe in the output of other ipfs commands without needing to faff around with xargs.

The problem is that when input is empty, these commands fail:

$ ipfs name publish </dev/null
ipfs: Reading from /dev/stdin; send Ctrl-d to stop.
Error: invalid 'ipfs ref' path
$ ipfs key rm </dev/null
ipfs: Reading from /dev/stdin; send Ctrl-d to stop.
Error: invalid 'ipfs ref' path

Which is a problem when (as is often the case) the command generating the input may legitimately produce empty input, e.g. ipfs key list | grep remove-me | ipfs key rm.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
go
Domain
clibackend
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
under 1 hour
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Go programmingIPFS CLI basics
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
70
Research direction
Investigate the stdin reading logic in the `key rm` and `name publish` commands. The issue occurs when stdin is empty; the commands should handle this by doing nothing. Look at the code in the `core/commands/` directory, specifically `key.go` and `name.go` files. The fix should check if stdin has any input before attempting to parse, and if not, exit without error.