Package: aptitude Version: 0.7.6-1 Severity: normal Dear Maintainer,
version 0.7.6 changed the way output formatting is handled for the CLI version, and I consider that a regression. I use something like `aptitude search '~N' > t; less t`. This used to truncate the output, but aptitude honored the `-w` switch, thus `aptitude search -w $COLUMNS > t; less t` worked in 0.7.4. 0.7.6 no longer allws that. Even specifying an output format using `-F` is silently ignored as soon as the output is redirected or piped. I consider that a regression. Actually, I never really understood why aptitude tried to recognize this situation in the first place. If the idea is to allow an easier parsing, the caller should simply use a proper -F argument (of course; this also no longer works with 0.7.6). Or perhaps add a `-m|--machine- friendly` parameter that forces this output format. So please reconsider your decision wrt. redirection detection. Minimally, I would expect that `-F` is honored. But ideally aptitude should just stop trying to be too smart here and simply produce the same output independent of if it goes to a terminal or something else. -- Package-specific info: Terminal: xterm-256color $DISPLAY is set. which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude aptitude version information: aptitude 0.7.6 Compiler: g++ 5.3.1 20160220 Compiled against: apt version 5.0.0 NCurses version 6.0 libsigc++ version: 2.6.2 Gtk+ support disabled. Qt support disabled. Current library versions: NCurses version: ncurses 6.0.20160213 cwidget version: 0.5.17 Apt version: 5.0.0 aptitude linkage: linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffce48d8000) libapt-pkg.so.5.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.5.0 (0x00007fb4cf6d7000) libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007fb4cf4a7000) libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007fb4cf27c000) libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007fb4cf076000) libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007fb4ced79000) libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007fb4ceaa2000) libboost_iostreams.so.1.58.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.58.0 (0x00007fb4ce888000) libboost_filesystem.so.1.58.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_filesystem.so.1.58.0 (0x00007fb4ce66f000) libboost_system.so.1.58.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_system.so.1.58.0 (0x00007fb4ce46a000) libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007fb4ce066000) libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007fb4cde49000) libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007fb4cdacd000) libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007fb4cd7c8000) libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007fb4cd5b2000) libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fb4cd20d000) libutil.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x00007fb4cd00a000) libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007fb4cce06000) libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007fb4ccbee000) libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007fb4cc9d3000) libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007fb4cc7c3000) liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007fb4cc59f000) liblz4.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblz4.so.1 (0x00007fb4cc38d000) librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007fb4cc184000) libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007fb4cbf7f000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x0000557edcb25000) -- System Information: Debian Release: stretch/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (500, 'unstable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 4.4.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (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 0.7.6-1 ii libapt-pkg5.0 1.2.3 ii libboost-filesystem1.58.0 1.58.0+dfsg-5+b1 ii libboost-iostreams1.58.0 1.58.0+dfsg-5+b1 ii libboost-system1.58.0 1.58.0+dfsg-5+b1 ii libc6 2.21-9 ii libcwidget3v5 0.5.17-4+b1 ii libgcc1 1:5.3.1-9 ii libncursesw5 6.0+20160213-1 ii libsigc++-2.0-0v5 2.6.2-1 ii libsqlite3-0 3.11.0-1 ii libstdc++6 5.3.1-9 ii libtinfo5 6.0+20160213-1 ii libxapian22v5 1.2.22-1 Versions of packages aptitude recommends: ii aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc] 0.7.6-1 ii libparse-debianchangelog-perl 1.2.0-8 ii sensible-utils 0.0.9 Versions of packages aptitude suggests: pn apt-xapian-index <none> pn debtags <none> ii tasksel 3.34 -- no debconf information