In Praise Of –Dry-Run
5 days ago
- #dry-run
- #debugging
- #software development
- The author developed a reporting application with a –dry-run option, inspired by similar features in Subversion and Linux commands.
- The –dry-run option prints the steps the application would take without making any changes, serving as a quick sanity check.
- Benefits include safe pre-execution checks and faster testing by avoiding time-consuming report generation.
- A downside is that the dryRun flag slightly pollutes the code by requiring checks in major phases.
- The –dry-run feature is particularly useful for command-invoked applications that create changes, like generating reports.
- The author recommends adding –dry-run early in development to maximize its benefits during the development process.