remove usage is unclear

[cgalo5758]

Issue Kind

Unclear documentation

Existing Link

https://python-poetry.org/docs/cli/#remove

Description

It is not entirely clear what remove does and it would be helpful to be more explicit about the action that remove performs. From the current documentation, while it does mention that "The remove command removes a package from the current list of installed packages." It should explicitly add that it doesn't actually uninstall packages.

I imagine this would prevent some confusion around issues such as #648 and #468.

Additionally, I am not noticing any difference between the actions performed using remove with or without --lock. They update both pyproject.toml and poetry.lock. If there are side effects of remove, it'd also be nice to know what those are (Like why does remove update and resolve dependencies? Why does "Package operations" without --lock say "0 removals" despite the packages being removed?)

[dimbleby]

It should explicitly add that it doesn't actually uninstall packages

But it does. I don't know whether this makes you more right or more wrong!

Anyway, if you want docs improvements the way to do it is to submit a pull request with the change you want to see. It doesn't have to be perfect first time, folk will review before merging.

[cgalo5758]

But it does.

Oh yeah. you are right... I just tried it. Okay, I still think this documentation on remove should be edited. My assumption, based on it as it currently is, is that it only removes them from poetry.lock and pyproject.toml.

I can open up a pull request and:

• write in that it does uninstall packages.
• removes them from poetry.lock and pyproject.toml.

What I am still not sure about is why using the "--lock" flag edits both poetry.lock and pyproject.toml (it literally says "Do not perform operations (only update the lockfile)"). Is this a bug that I should open another issue for or is the documentation not clear?

Also, what are the "operations" that the documentation refers to?

[dimbleby]

'--lock` does make it "not actually uninstall packages" ie it just updates the lock file

[abn]

Also, what are the "operations" that the documentation refers to?

In this context, an operation is an action poetry takes for the project - install, uninstall, skip (no action). Feel free to raise a documentation change when you are ready. Specifics can be discussed there.

Closing this for now as I believe your questions have been answered. Feel free to start a discussion on GitHub and/or on Discord to discuss further or if you need help around how to make the changes.

[github-actions]

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