'ag' name conflicts with well know search utility 'Silver Searcher'

[strobe]

Describe the bug

 ~> npm install -g @asyncapi/generator
npm WARN deprecated fsevents@2.1.3: Please update to v 2.2.x
npm WARN deprecated mkdirp@0.3.5: Legacy versions of mkdirp are no longer supported. Please update to mkdirp 1.x. (Note that the API surface has changed to use Promises in 1.x.)
/usr/local/bin/asyncapi-generator -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@asyncapi/generator/cli.js
npm ERR! code EEXIST
npm ERR! syscall symlink
npm ERR! path ../lib/node_modules/@asyncapi/generator/cli.js
npm ERR! dest /usr/local/bin/ag
npm ERR! errno -17
npm ERR! EEXIST: file already exists, symlink '../lib/node_modules/@asyncapi/generator/cli.js' -> '/usr/local/bin/ag'
npm ERR! File exists: /usr/local/bin/ag
npm ERR! Remove the existing file and try again, or run npm
npm ERR! with --force to overwrite files recklessly.

How to Reproduce

on macos do

brew install ag
npm install -g @asyncapi/generator

and as result you get

npm ERR! EEXIST: file already exists, symlink '../lib/node_modules/@asyncapi/generator/cli.js' -> '/usr/local/bin/ag```

[github-actions]

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[derberg]

@strobe I don't see any option other than use generator with npx instead, at least at the moment. We plan to work this year on generic CLI for asyncapi that does asyncapi validate or asyncapi generate or asyncapi add so this will be the time we will work on a different name of the cli.

do you see any other solution?

[strobe]

the main problem with this issue that a lot of tools (like emacs stuff) relayed on 'ag' command and will use a generator instead so a possible solution could be to come up with some more specific name/symlink like 'asgen', 'async-gen', 'asyng'.

do you see any other solution?
I believe at least for macOS is possible to add a flag to 'brew' installation to don't make a symlink

[derberg]

at the moment we already support 2 different names, so instead of ag you can use asyncapi-generator
https://github.com/asyncapi/generator/blob/master/package.json#L7-L8

I have to shamefully admit I have no idea how this information can help you 😅 but maybe some workaround would work with it for now?

[strobe]

workaround would work with it for now?

my workaround is very simple - I removed 'ag' and switched my configs to use different searcher app the 'ripgrep (rg)'
(but probably that doesn't acceptable for everyone)

More general workounds as you mention usage via 'npx' (but I not tested that it works with preinstalled 'ag' in system) or via 'docker'.

[derberg]

npx is separate, it is like installing ag on-demand only for the moment you need to run npx, not global install.

basic example -> https://github.com/asyncapi/generator#cli-usage-with-npx-instead-of-npm

[github-actions]

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[derberg]

I'm gonna close this one, we will not introduce any name changes to the current CLI as we already started working on a new one -> asyncapi/cli#1 and it will not be ag but asyncapi, which will solve this problem once we release and deprecate ag