asdftools info --help not very informative

[pllim]

$ asdftool info --help
usage: asdftool info [-h] [--max-rows MAX_ROWS] [--max-cols MAX_COLS] [--show-values] [--no-show-values] filename

Print a rendering of an ASDF tree.

positional arguments:
  filename             ASDF file to render

options:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --max-rows MAX_ROWS  maximum number of lines
  --max-cols MAX_COLS  maximum length of line
  --show-values
  --no-show-values

I have no idea what any of the options really mean. I don't see any option to only list the tree one level down.

p.s. Why can't --show-values and --no-show-values be combined into a single flag? They sound mutually exclusive.

[braingram]

It looks like those options correspond to options for the asdf._convenience.info function which contains slightly more information: https://github.com/asdf-format/asdf/blob/a9e3ad714453c7cd3e3671c860db8b8c3e19f89a/asdf/_convenience.py#L24-L40

Suggestions and/or PRs to improve this are appreciated. I'm not familiar with nor do I use asdftool and it's not high on my list of priorities. If it's use is required for something you're doing please let me know and I can reassess.

[perrygreenfield]

I agree that the help on this tool should be improved. As for the last line of your comment, did you mean "can" instead of "can't"?

[pllim]

If it's use is required for something you're doing

I just wanted a quick glance at the file structure like fitsinfo you get to use for FITS files. But I also don't need to see all the way down the tree. I just wanted the extension names (data, err, etc).

did you mean "can" instead of "can't"?

Now that I see the docstring, I think one of them should not exist at all.

[perrygreenfield]

Would an option like show-all-big-data be useful, where it just shows the path to arrays or tables that are sizable (e.g., not arrays that are 40 elements long)?

[pllim]

show-all-big-data

Not really, what if my data is actually small subarray or dummy test data that is very small?