On 3 September 2013 09:22, Ulrich Mueller <u...@gentoo.org> wrote: > I'd consider any tool as broken if it outputs escape sequences when > the output doesn't go to a terminal. (Unless such output was > explicitly asked for.) >
However, what about when output is going to a terminal *and* a log file? It seems smarter to output escape sequences in that case. Additionally, although many people find escape sequences in log files useless, I find them somewhat useful, for instance, if somebody uploads a logfile with escape sequences in it, I can just run the file into "less -R" or "less -r" depending on my mood and see the log file *Exactly* as the user saw it. I can see why you might not like it if you're reading it in a non-escape aware editor, but I don't really use editors for reading log files, that strikes me as doing something wrong. And it is quite simple to remove escape sequences from log files if I desire it. using: app-text/ansifilter zcat /var/log/portage/build/app-accessibility/at-spi2-core-2.6.3:20130825-143158.log.gz | ansifilter using perl and Term::ANSIColor ( standard issue with Perl itself ) zcat /var/log/portage/build/app-accessibility/at-spi2-core-2.6.3:20130825-143158.log.gz | perl -MTerm::ANSIColor=colorstrip -ple '$_ = colorstrip($_)' -- Kent
