From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:4830:134:3::10]:40913)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <Debian-debbugs@debbugs.gnu.org>) id 1eZmLL-0004NF-Is
	for guix-patches@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:33:09 -0500
Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71)
	(envelope-from <Debian-debbugs@debbugs.gnu.org>) id 1eZmLG-0004l6-M8
	for guix-patches@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:33:07 -0500
Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([208.118.235.43]:44788)
	by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.0:RSA_AES_128_CBC_SHA1:16)
	(Exim 4.71) (envelope-from <Debian-debbugs@debbugs.gnu.org>)
	id 1eZmLG-0004kq-IH
	for guix-patches@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:33:02 -0500
Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2)
	(envelope-from <Debian-debbugs@debbugs.gnu.org>) id 1eZmLG-0000oS-5m
	for guix-patches@gnu.org; Thu, 11 Jan 2018 18:33:02 -0500
Subject: [bug#30053] [PATCH 1/3] Improve appearance of tabular output.
Resent-Message-ID: <handler.30053.B30053.15157135643098@debbugs.gnu.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
In-Reply-To: <878td4nksy.fsf@gnu.org>
References: <CA+xn8YBKpjVYmrhKbR7Y=wZnnfr+ALuEMHo_b5AEFMAOTEkDxA@mail.gmail.com>
	<878td4nksy.fsf@gnu.org>
From: Steve Sprang <steve.sprang@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2018 15:32:35 -0800
Message-ID: <CA+xn8YDjApPwzx_1kR2pTuwVAyajXO+n5KN27WCGNAF2eX+rDg@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
List-Id: <guix-patches.gnu.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/options/guix-patches>,
	<mailto:guix-patches-request@gnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-patches/>
List-Post: <mailto:guix-patches@gnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:guix-patches-request@gnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guix-patches>,
	<mailto:guix-patches-request@gnu.org?subject=subscribe>
Errors-To: guix-patches-bounces+kyle=kyleam.com@gnu.org
Sender: "Guix-patches" <guix-patches-bounces+kyle=kyleam.com@gnu.org>
To: Ludovic =?UTF-8?Q?Court=C3=A8s?= <ludo@gnu.org>
Cc: 30053@debbugs.gnu.org

Hi Ludovic,

On Thu, Jan 11, 2018 at 1:32 PM, Ludovic Court=C3=A8s <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:
> Long time no see!  ;-)

Yeah, it's been a while!

> I have a disappointing explanation I=E2=80=99m afraid: the reason columns=
 look
> this way is because they are tab-separated, which in turn makes it easy
> to filter with =E2=80=98cut=E2=80=99:
>
> --8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
> $ guix package -A | cut -f1 | head
> 0ad
> 0ad-data
> 0xffff
> 4store
> 4ti2
> a2ps
> aalib
> abbaye
> abc
> abcde
> --8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I'm still inserting a tab between columns, so I believe 'cut' still
works as expected in this case. Initially, I was separating columns
with a few spaces, but that broke some of the tests that were relying
on cut, so I switched back to tab.

> An example from the manual (info "(guix) Invoking guix build"):
>
>      guix build --quiet --keep-going \
>        `guix package -A | cut -f1,2 --output-delimiter=3D@`

Argh, this use case fails because of the extra inserted whitespace.

> The idea was to have this shell-scripting-friendly format, and to
> provide fancier output in other commands, such as --search (which is in
> fact script-friendly as well thanks to recutils).
>
> Silly? Awesome? Ugly? What do people think?  :-)

Another potential drawback of this patch is that it tends to make
output lines longer than before. This might make line-wrapping less
pleasant when using smaller terminal windows/screens.

-Steve