Multiline expressions in .actrc

[wooseopkim]

Act version

0.2.74

Feature description

.actrc performs basic expansion, but its syntax is quite simple. I really appreciate its simplicity for making the format reliable and readable. However, one more functionality would be of great help in my view. It's Bash style multiline expression. In bash, \ is often used to escape newlines, splitting long expressions into multiple lines. I think act also could benefit from its power. This feature would be specifically useful in case of arguments like --container-option which may have long values.

As of now we have to:

--container-option --volume /path/to/somewhere:/var/run/something --privileged --gpus all

It would be much more readable if we could:

--container-option \
  --volume /path/to/somewhere:/var/run/something \
  --privileged \
  --gpus all

Given that --container-option was first introduced with an initial intention of deprecating multiple parameters, it seems reasonable to assume the argument could grow pretty lengthy. For this reason, I suggest multiline expressions for .actrcs.

[panekj]

I don't like this and I would like to never expand .actrc parsing in any way. If you need to have more custom formatting, you should use a shell script for that.

[wooseopkim]

I don't like this and I would like to never expand .actrc parsing in any way. If you need to have more custom formatting, you should use a shell script for that.

I see what you're trying to say, and I think you got a solid point. Still I think this humble suggestion is worth measuring its gains (flexibility and readability) against losses (e.g. maintaining burdens and possible error sources). Certainly more than "I dont' like this" or something.