I'm using gentoolkit-0.2.0_pre10 I working on bug #62644 and I am unable to use equery instead of etcat, because I can't get the information that I need from equery. For the revdep-rebuild script, I'm looking for the slot information. The following illustrates the issue that I'm having. You will notice that in the second command, the slot information that I'm looking for is not present. garath ~ # equery -q list -i -p -o sys-libs/db * installed packages [I--] [ ] sys-libs/db-3.2.9-r10 (3) [I--] [ ] sys-libs/db-4.2.52_p2 (4.2) [I--] [ ] sys-libs/db-1.85-r2 (1) [I--] [ ] sys-libs/db-4.1.25_p1-r4 (4.1) * Portage tree (/usr/portage) [-P-] [ ] sys-libs/db-1.85-r1 (1) [-P-] [ ~] sys-libs/db-4.2.52_p1 (4.2) [-P-] [ ] sys-libs/db-3.2.9-r7 (3) [-P-] [ ] sys-libs/db-4.0.14-r2 (4) [-P-] [ ] sys-libs/db-4.0.14-r3 (4) [-P-] [ ] sys-libs/db-4.1.25_p1-r3 (4.1) * overlay tree (/usr/local/portage) garath ~ # equery -q list -i -p -o sys-libs/db | cat * installed packages sys-libs/db-3.2.9-r10 sys-libs/db-4.2.52_p2 sys-libs/db-1.85-r2 sys-libs/db-4.1.25_p1-r4 * Portage tree (/usr/portage) sys-libs/db-1.85-r1 sys-libs/db-4.2.52_p1 sys-libs/db-3.2.9-r7 sys-libs/db-4.0.14-r2 sys-libs/db-4.0.14-r3 sys-libs/db-4.1.25_p1-r3 * overlay tree (/usr/local/portage) Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. equery list -i -p -o sys-libs/db 2. equery list -i -p -o sys-libs/db | cat Actual Results: Output when passing through a pipe differs Expected Results: The output should be the same. Portage 2.0.51_rc9 (default-x86-2004.2, gcc-3.3.4, glibc-2.3.4.20040808-r1, 2.6.8-gentoo-r4 i686) ================================================================= System uname: 2.6.8-gentoo-r4 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 1.80GHz Gentoo Base System version 1.5.3 Autoconf: sys-devel/autoconf-2.59-r4 Automake: sys-devel/automake-1.8.5-r1 Binutils: sys-devel/binutils-2.15.92.0.2 Headers: sys-kernel/linux26-headers-2.6.8.1 Libtools: sys-devel/libtool-1.5.2-r5 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86" AUTOCLEAN="yes" CFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" COMPILER="" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xkb /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.2/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/env /usr/kde/3.3/share/config /usr/kde/3.3/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/share/config /var/bind /var/qmail/control" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium4 -O2 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="autoaddcvs ccache distlocks fixpackages sandbox" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/ http://gentoo.osuosl.org http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acpi alsa apache2 arts artswrappersuid audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts cdr crypt cups dvd encode f77 fam fbcon foomaticdb gdbm gif gpm gtk gtk2 imlib java javascript jpeg kde libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mmx motif mozilla moznocompose moznoirc moznomail mpeg ncurses nls nptl oggvorbis opengl pam pda pdflib perl png ppds python qt quicktime readline sasl sdl slang spell sse ssl tcltk tcpd tiff truetype usb x86 xml2 xmms xprint xv zlib linguas_en"
No, the output should not be the same. There is a lot of cruft in the "visual" output that is not desirable in a tool-oriented environment. However, automatically switching to tool-mode when the no tty is available may not be correct behaviour. I will make the distinction clearer, and will poll -dev and -user for opinions on what is to be considered "sensible defaults".
I agree with the "cruft" as in this case I am using it in a tool-oriented environment. From reading through your code, I know that this was a conscious design decision and I don't diagree with it. The specific issue that I have at the moment is that I can't get the information I need from within my updated revdep-rebuild script. The information that I am specificily looking to retrieve is the slot information. A better description would be that not all information available when running equery interactively is available in the tool-oriented enviroment. If I can get the information interactively, I should be able to get to the same information when calling equery from a tool.
Yes, I certainly agree that all information available in interactive mode should indeed be available in tool mode. If it isn't, it's a bug and should be fixed. So, I'll just fix this bug. then:)
Additionally if I might add this to this bugreport, an option to pause after every page might be nice, since `equery | more` will remove color and the mentioned first two columns.
I noticed this behaviour some days ago, when trying to grep through the output of equery. So, my opinion about this issue is: the output of a command should be the same when sending through a pipe or printed to stdout. An exception to this may be some colorization stuff, but content and formatting should be exactly the same. The fundamental principle of Unix systems to use pipes to further process the output of commands will be broken if not.
One easy solution would be: take whatever output you don't want sent into a pipe, and print it on stderr instead. A lot of programs display runtime stuff in stderr that shouldn't be part of the program's output (i.e. status bars). You could also have a quiet mode that disabled even that output, so stderr was only error output (in case someone really doesn't want to see it).
> One easy solution would be: take whatever output you > don't want sent into a pipe, and print it on stderr instead. No! If there is no error you have no business writing to stderr. That just makes things worse. Nor is it correct to produce different information when connected to a pipe. It breaks "more" and (as we have seen) it breaks scripts. If there need to be different output formats, they should be selected by arguments.
This itch has been bothering me for awhile, so I took a crack at modifying equery for the list command to have the behavior that I would like to see as both a user and a tools writer. At this point, I haven't looked at changing the behavior for the other commands, because I would like some feedback. I changed it so that the same output is sent when going through a pipe as when not going through a pipe. I made the --quiet option even more quiet, and I added a --delimited-output (-d) option for use when sending through a pipe to make it easier to parse the output from a tool. The --delimit-output is only active when using a pipe and using it implies --quiet. I will attach patches for the equery in gentoolkit-0.2.0 and cvs Here is the example output: pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree realplayer [ Searching for package 'realplayer' in all categories among: ] * installed packages [I--] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1 (0) * Portage tree (/usr/portage) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r7 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r6 (0) [-P-] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3 (0) [-P-] [M~] media-video/realplayer-10.0.2 (0) * overlay tree (/usr/local/portage) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608 (0) pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree realplayer | more [ Searching for package 'realplayer' in all categories among: ] * installed packages [I--] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1 (0) * Portage tree (/usr/portage) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r7 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r6 (0) [-P-] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3 (0) [-P-] [M~] media-video/realplayer-10.0.2 (0) * overlay tree (/usr/local/portage) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608 (0) pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery --quiet list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree realplayer [I--] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r7 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r6 (0) [-P-] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3 (0) [-P-] [M~] media-video/realplayer-10.0.2 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608 (0) pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery --quiet list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree realplayer | more [I--] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r7 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r6 (0) [-P-] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3 (0) [-P-] [M~] media-video/realplayer-10.0.2 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608 (0) pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree --delimited-output realplayer [ Searching for package 'realplayer' in all categories among: ] * installed packages [I--] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1 (0) * Portage tree (/usr/portage) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r7 (0) [-P-] [M ] media-video/realplayer-8-r6 (0) [-P-] [ ] media-video/realplayer-10.0.3 (0) [-P-] [M~] media-video/realplayer-10.0.2 (0) * overlay tree (/usr/local/portage) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297 (0) [--O] [ ~] media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608 (0) pvarner@garath ~/src/equery $ ./equery list --installed --portage-tree --overlay-tree --delimited-output realplayer | more I: : :media-video/realplayer-10.0.3-r1:0 P:M: :media-video/realplayer-8-r7:0 P:M: :media-video/realplayer-8-r6:0 P: : :media-video/realplayer-10.0.3:0 P:M:~:media-video/realplayer-10.0.2:0 O: :~:media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.366:0 O: :~:media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.1.436:0 O: :~:media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.0.297:0 O: :~:media-video/realplayer-bin-10.0.2.608:0
Created attachment 54877 [details, diff] Patch for equery in gentoolkit-0.2.0
Created attachment 54878 [details, diff] Patch for equery in CVS
Since I'm the only one complaining at the moment and I had no feedback from the patch, marking as later.
He, I have the same problem and this tools was the first in my life breaking the rule 'What I see (at the command line) is what I get (in a pipe)' and I *fully* agree with the statement "If there need to be different output formats, they should be selected by arguments". So, is there a time frame where equery will produce the same output in scripts as at the command line ?
equery in gentoolkit-0.2.1 has a --no-pipe switch to turn off the pipe detection. That will fix things for most people. Where I'm looking for feedback is if I should add a --delimited option, to delimit the output for easier parsing.
Re-resolving as later
Reopening for resolution
This is fixed in gentoolkit-0.3.0_rc10 with the new --format option
