Enhancement default behavior of color

[Brice Raffestin]

Hi,

I am wondering if it is possible to change the behavior of the option color/no-color.
By default, with more than 20 lines, it will create a pager with the color activated because the default of color is True:

 reportseff  --since d=7

ESC[1m     JobIDESC[0m ESC[1m   State   ESC[0m ESC[1m   ElapsedESC[0m ESC[1m TimeEff ESC[0m ESC[1m CPUEff ESC[0m ESC[1m MemEff ESC[0m
  15113138 ESC[32m COMPLETED ESC[0m   00:37:55 ESC[31m  0.0%   ESC[0m ESC[32m 94.6%  ESC[0m ESC[31m  0.1%  ESC[0m
  15116136 ESC[32m COMPLETED ESC[0m   00:37:55 ESC[31m  0.0%   ESC[0m ESC[32m 94.7%  ESC[0m ESC[31m  0.1%  ESC[0m
  15119524 ESC[32m COMPLETED ESC[0m   01:37:30 ESC[31m  0.0%   ESC[0m  67.3%   ESC[31m  0.2%  ESC[0m
[...]

I think it will be easier to use reportseff for an user, if it let the default value of color of the function echo_via_pager which is "autodetection".

So the library will detect if it can display the color or not.

In my example, I modify a bit the function main by the following code :

    if entries > 20:
        if args.color :
          click.echo_via_pager(output,args.color)
        elif not args.color:
          click.echo_via_pager(output,args.color)
        else:  
          click.echo_via_pager(output)
    else:
        if args.color :
          click.echo(output, color=args.color)
        else:
          click.echo(output)

Where args.color is equal to None (instead of True) if the option is not set.

So with this "solution" :
--> reportseff --since d=7 will output in color on my shell without need of pipe.
--> reportseff --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file without color.
--> reportseff --color --since d=7 will output ANSI color codes on my shell, need to pipe with less -R to be readable.
--> reportseff --color --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file the ANSI color codes need to use the option -r to be readable.
--> reportseff --no-color --since d=7 will output without color on my shell.
--> reportseff --no-color --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file without the color.

The current behavior :
--> reportseff --since d=7 will output ANSI color codes on my shell, need to pipe with less -R to be readable.
--> reportseff --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file the ANSI color codes, need to use the option -r to be readable.
--> reportseff --color --since d=7 will output ANSI color codes on my shell, need to pipe with less -R to be readable.
--> reportseff --color --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file the ANSI color codes, need to use the option -r to be readable.
--> reportseff --no-color --since d=7 will output without color on my shell.
--> reportseff --no-color --since d=7 >output_reportseff will write in the file without the color.

So it will only change de default behavior, if you don't set the option color/no-color.

I have seen what you have write here https://github.com/troycomi/reportseff#my-output-is-garbled-with-esc0m-all-over-wheres-the-color, but it seems to me more user friendly with my approach. What do you think about that?

I hope it is understandable, thanks for your tool again !

[Troy Comi]

Yes, I also think the current usage causes problems, but it may be jarring to see color on a test set but nothing when there are more than 20 entries.

Can you set the less default: export LESS="-R" and check if click picks up that it can display color? If it does not, we can recommend aliasing reportseff as reportseff --color. But what happens if you run reportseff --color --no-color, e.g. running the alias with no color?

[Brice Raffestin]

export LESS="-R"
reportseff --partition common --user=braffest --since w=2 |less  --> no color
reportseff --partition common --user=braffest --since w=2 --color |less  --> color

reportseff --partition common --user=braffest --since w=2 --no-color --color   --> no color  (with and without pipe less)
reportseff --partition common --user=braffest --since w=2 --color --no-color   --> color  (with and without pipe less)

I don't understand why do you want to use less here. I also don't understand why do you want to use an alias.

reportseff --since d=7 will output in color on my shell without need of pipe. It will use a new pager ( as you have wrote in your current code).

The default behavior will display a new pager with colors, and without needing of less. So in my opinion, we don't need piping anymore and don't need to alias reportseff.

[Troy Comi]

Interesting, I remember without forcing color the pager wouldn't have color, which is why I overwrote the default in the first place. I was assuming your reportseff example was fewer than 20 lines. Let's make the change.

Do you want to work on a PR or should I? The README and unit tests may need some work as well.

[Brice Raffestin]

Yeah, my output was for more than 20 lines.

I will try to do it in the next days.