For that matter, it would be nice if software with side effects of this sort disclosed them at runtime by default. For all its faults, this is something npm get

For that matter, it would be nice if software with side effects of this sort disclosed them at runtime by default. For all its faults, this is something npm gets (partly) right. Partly, in this case, because it does print the commands it runs and their output, but it doesn’t tell you why. I’m sure this would be overly verbose for most users, who would likely turn it off, but it would still be educational in terms of the huge set of implicit side effects normal every day software produces.