[Aptitude-devel] Bug#834402: aptitude: search loses column format when redirected or piped

[Javier Cantero]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.3-1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

Compare this:

	$  aptitude search "~i aptitude"
	i   aptitude                                                    0.8.3-1        - gestor de paquetes basado en terminal
	i A aptitude-common                                             0.8.3-1        - architecture independent files for the aptitude package manager

with the same output piped through `less`:

	$  aptitude search "~i aptitude" | less
	i  aptitude 0.8.3-1 - gestor de paquetes basado en terminal
	i A aptitude-common 0.8.3-1 - architecture independent files for the aptitude package manager

The same happens if the output is redirected to a file:

	$  aptitude search "~i aptitude" > kk.txt
	$  cat kk.txt 
	i  aptitude 0.8.3-1 - gestor de paquetes basado en terminal
	i A aptitude-common 0.8.3-1 - architecture independent files for the aptitude package manager

I've already read the discussion in #815690. but the thing is: piping to
more/less is a very common usage of aptitude search (since the lists of
packages tend to be very long), not just a special case for automatic
processing of the output. It's really annoying to have to remember to add
an arbitrary[*] width using `-w` in every `aptitude search ... | less`,
especially when it's a significant deviation from previous behaviour.


[*] arbitrary because usually it doesn't matter the actual width


-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.8.3
Compiler: g++ 6.1.1 20160802
Compiled against:
  apt version 5.0.0
  NCurses version 6.0
  libsigc++ version: 2.8.0
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 6.0.20160625
  cwidget version: 0.5.17
  Apt version: 5.0.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fffd27cc000)
	libapt-pkg.so.5.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.5.0 (0x00007faf90684000)
	libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007faf90454000)
	libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007faf90229000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007faf90022000)
	libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007faf8fd25000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007faf8fa20000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.61.0 (0x00007faf8f808000)
	libboost_filesystem.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_filesystem.so.1.61.0 (0x00007faf8f5ef000)
	libboost_system.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_system.so.1.61.0 (0x00007faf8f3ea000)
	libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007faf8efe6000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007faf8edc9000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007faf8ea47000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007faf8e742000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007faf8e52c000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007faf8e18a000)
	libutil.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x00007faf8df87000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007faf8dd83000)
	libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007faf8db6b000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007faf8d950000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007faf8d740000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007faf8d51c000)
	liblz4.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblz4.so.1 (0x00007faf8d30a000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007faf8d101000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007faf8cefc000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00005571f0e7b000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (600, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.6.6-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=es_ES.utf8, LC_CTYPE=es_ES.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common            0.8.3-1
ii  libapt-pkg5.0              1.3~pre3
ii  libboost-filesystem1.61.0  1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-iostreams1.61.0   1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-system1.61.0      1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libc6                      2.23-4
ii  libcwidget3v5              0.5.17-4+b1
ii  libgcc1                    1:6.1.1-11
ii  libncursesw5               6.0+20160625-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0v5          2.8.0-2
ii  libsqlite3-0               3.13.0-1
ii  libstdc++6                 6.1.1-11
ii  libtinfo5                  6.0+20160625-1
ii  libxapian22v5              1.2.23-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
pn  libparse-debianchangelog-perl  <none>
ii  sensible-utils                 0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index                <none>
pn  aptitude-doc-en | aptitude-doc  <none>
pn  debtags                         <none>
ii  tasksel                         3.35

-- no debconf information

-- 
                       Saludos de Javier <jcantero at escomposlinux.org>


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