Re: [PATCH] remote: align --verbose output with spaces

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Dec 17, 2024, 20:21 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqr066ysa6.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <Z2F7VAsTjfBCVCrG@ArchLinux>

shejialuo <shejialuo@gmail.com> writes:

> On Tue, Dec 17, 2024 at 12:39:36PM +0000, Wang Bing-hua via GitGitGadget wrote:
>> From: Wang Bing-hua <louiswpf@gmail.com>
>> 
>> Remote names exceeding a tab width could cause misalignment.

If all of them are named with ten ASCII characters, on a terminal with fixed-width font, things will still display aligned ;-)

>> Align --verbose output with spaces instead of a tab.
>> 
>
> Good enhancement.

With a Devil's advocate hat on, a change like this will completely break tools when they are reading the "--verbose" output and expecting that the fields are separated with a TAB (in other words, the tab is *not* about alignment in the first place for them).

Now with that hat off.

For users with that many remotes where the alignment of URLs in the interactive "git remote -v" output matter, I am not sure if this change is a real improvement enough that it is worth the possible risk of breaking existing tools. With that many remotes defined, wouldn't they be doing "git remote -v" piped to "grep '^name<TAB>'" or something? That use case would break with the change, too.

Thanks.