git/list[1] front-page[2] threads[3] people[4] search[5] about
 

[PATCH] pager: set COLUMNS to term_columns()

From
Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Date
May 11, 2018, 09:25 UTC
Message-ID
<20180511092515.GA9567@sigill.intra.peff.net>
In-Reply-To
<CACsJy8CE2tnhH6eds6ZePyMxFXGnnyHDkWjSBbJz97BmYFr-gg@mail.gmail.com>
On Fri, May 11, 2018 at 10:43:45AM +0200, Duy Nguyen wrote:
Show 13 quoted lines
> > As an aside, I was confused while looking into this because I _thought_
> > I had COLUMNS set:
> >
> >   $ echo $COLUMNS
> >   119
> >
> > But it turns out that bash sets that by default (if you have the
> > checkwinsize option on) but does not export it. ;)
> 
> Yep. This confused me too and I was "f*ck it I don't want to deal with
> this tty crap again". I'll leave the term_columns() fix to you then,
> and limit this patch to the "while at there" part which should be
> fixed anyway.

Heh. OK, here it is. I wondered why we didn't notice this earlier and elsewhere (like in "git -p help -a"). The answer is that git-tag is the only program that uses the column filter. Everybody else does it in-process.

-- >8 --
Subject: [PATCH] pager: set COLUMNS to term_columns()

After we invoke the pager, our stdout goes to a pipe, not the terminal, meaning we can no longer use an ioctl to get the terminal width. For that reason, ad6c3739a3 (pager: find out the terminal width before spawning the pager, 2012-02-12) started caching the terminal width.

But that cache is only an in-process variable. Any programs we spawn will also not be able to run that ioctl, but won't have access to our cache. They'll end up falling back to our 80-column default.

You can see the problem with:
  git tag --column=row

Since git-tag spawns a pager these days, its spawned git-column helper will see neither the terminal on stdout nor a useful COLUMNS value (assuming you do not export it from your shell already). And you'll end up with 80-column output in the pager, regardless of your terminal size.

We can fix this by setting COLUMNS right before spawning the pager. That fixes this case, as well as any more complicated ones (e.g., a paged program spawns another script which then generates columnized output).

Signed-off-by: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
---
 pager.c | 11 ++++++++---
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
diff --git a/pager.c b/pager.c
index 92b23e6cd1..226828f178 100644
--- a/pager.c
+++ b/pager.c
@@ -109,10 +109,15 @@ void setup_pager(void)
 		return;
 
 	/*
-	 * force computing the width of the terminal before we redirect
-	 * the standard output to the pager.
+	 * After we redirect standard output, we won't be able to use an ioctl
+	 * to get the terminal size. Let's grab it now, and then set $COLUMNS
+	 * to communicate it to any sub-processes.
 	 */
-	(void) term_columns();
+	{
+		char buf[64];
+		xsnprintf(buf, sizeof(buf), "%d", term_columns());
+		setenv("COLUMNS", buf, 0);
+	}
 
 	setenv("GIT_PAGER_IN_USE", "true", 1);
 
-- 
2.17.0.984.g9b00a423a4
Previous: Duy NguyenNext: Nguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy
Message 4 of 6 in “tag: fix column output not using all terminal space”
  1. tag: fix column output not using all terminal spaceNguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy, May 11, 2018
  2. Jeff KingMay 11, 2018
  3. Duy NguyenMay 11, 2018
  4. pager: set COLUMNS to term_columns()Jeff King, May 11, 2018
  5. column: fix off-by-one default widthNguyễn Thái Ngọc Duy, May 11, 2018
  6. Duy NguyenMay 11, 2018

Read the whole thread, see it on lore, or plain text.

$ cat FOOTERMessages come from the public archive at lore.kernel.org/git, fetched every hour. The front page is chosen and written each morning by an AI editor and can be wrong; the threads themselves are the record. About and API. For agents: an MCP server at https://gitlist.dev/mcp, and any thread, story or person page as Markdown by adding .md to its URL (or sending Accept: text/markdown). Details in /llms.txt.