simple command to list all user installed items (not installed only as dependency)

[vassudanagunta]

Verification

• This issue's title and/or description do not reference a single formula e.g. brew install wget. If they do, open an issue at https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/issues/new/choose instead.

Provide a detailed description of the proposed feature

There should be a simple way to get a list of all the things one installed intentionally (as opposed to auto installed as a dependency).

As I state in my StackOverflow answer to the above linked question:

If you just want the short list of what you specifically installed, brew leaves ‑r will work for most cases:

> brew leaves -r

git
less
node
sqlite

brew leaves lists things installed that aren't dependencies (leaves in the above tree), and the ‑r filters the list to those thing you specifically requested.

I said "most cases" because it won't include things that you installed manually but are no longer leaves. This happens when you install another thing that depends on something you originally installed manually. For example, if I had installed readline manually, brew leaves ‑r would show it at first, but not after I install node or sqlite.

For a lot of people, "leaf" and "installed manually" will be the same thing. But the more you install the more likely this will be wrong.

What is the motivation for the feature?

Both brew update and brew outdated list everything installed that is outdated. But I only want to consider updating packages that I specifically installed, and leave decisions about updating dependencies to the packages that depend on them. I can't remember which things are which.

How will the feature be relevant to at least 90% of Homebrew users?

For the same reasons brew list, brew deps, brew uses --installed, brew leaves and brew leaves -r are relevant: Users want to understand what is installed, and why it is installed. But none of the aforementioned commands answer the question, "What are all the things that I installed?", the answer to which is important per my motivation above, and probably for many other motivations.

What alternatives to the feature have been considered?

As noted in my StackOverflow answer the desired list can be achieved via the unintuitive and complex brew bundle dump --file -. I would never have figured this out without lots of research and searches, which prompted me to write both the Stack Overflow question and my increasingly popular answer.

[apainintheneck]

I don't think we need a separate command for this behavior but adding an option to brew list sounds reasonable to me. I'm imagining porting the--installed-on-request switch used in brew leaves over to brew list.

[vassudanagunta]

brew list -r certainly meets the requirement of "simple command", and adding a switch to filter the output of an existing command keeps the command set simple. The consistency with brew leaves -r is an additional plus.

Makes me wonder if, in retrospect, brew list --leaves would have been better than adding brew leaves, i.e. a single parameterized list command. e.g. brew list -l -r to list all leaves that were user installed.

[MikeMcQuaid]

I'm imagining porting the--installed-on-request switch used in brew leaves over to brew list.

Makes sense, agreed, to cover the case where a user wants to see non-leaves dependencies. Adding help wanted.

Makes me wonder if, in retrospect, brew list --leaves would have been better than adding brew leaves, i.e. a single parameterized list command. e.g. brew list -l -r to list all leaves that were user installed.

🤷🏻 maybe. Too late now, not gonna be removed.

[vassudanagunta]

Wow, that was fast. Thank you @ZhongRuoyu! And also @apainintheneck and @MikeMcQuaid for being so receptive. I will update the StackOverflow answer later today.