microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

Option for dry run

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Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Many package managers have an option to simply show me what is going to occur, for example winget upgrade --all --dry-run might show me what is going to happen without actually changing the packages on the disk; including, possibly, running some pre-check stuff like checking hashes or downloading the packages to prep them for install/upgrade. Basically a pre-flight check.

Note that this is similar to seeing available versions from winget list, but would be slightly different, effectively somewhere in between winget list to find packages with available upgrades and winget upgrade --all which would do the full upgrade.

Contributor guide

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First steps

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  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by comparing the existing winget list and winget upgrade --all command flows. Define the dry-run boundary, including whether pre-checks, hash checks, or downloads occur, and specify what output must report without changing packages on disk; completion requires an agreed design and corresponding CLI behavior.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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