Bug#759772: Allow format strings to require fixed width for optional arguments

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Control: tags -1 + wontfix


Hi Benny,

2014-08-30 07:15 Benny Baumann:

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.11-1
Severity: minor

Let's assume the following format string for package lists:

   %c%a%M%S %?i %p# %Z %10D %10I %4r %20v %20V %t

Now configure some packages with explicit preferences along the lines of:

   $ cat /etc/apt/preferences
   Package: linux-image-* linux-headers-* linux-firmware-* firmware-* *-firmware
   Pin: release a=experimental
   Pin-Priority: 1000

   Package: linux-image-* linux-headers-* linux-firmware-* firmware-* *-firmware
   Pin: release a=unstable
   Pin-Priority: 950

   Package: *
   Pin: release a=testing
   Pin-Priority: 900

   Package: *
   Pin: release a=stable
   Pin-Priority: 800

   Package: *
   Pin: release a=experimental
   Pin-Priority: 750

   Package: *
   Pin: release a=unstable
   Pin-Priority: 700

When browsing the various categories you will see various most packages without
any priority, as desired. But when looking into a section with kernel images,
development headers or firmware packages in them, mixed with other, you will
see stairs and other effects with misalignment of the columns.

It would be cool if you could ask Aptitude to skip the value as is now, but
still reserve a certain amount of space for it anyway.


If I understood this correctly, this works as documented [1].  The field
is there, only that it tries to use only the necessary space, so for
each line/row it can have different widths.

Pin priority has well known boundaries, so it's easy to specify the
width instead: "%4i".  In that case, packages without anything to show
will have the column empty, but still be there with the necessary width
to not produce strange visual effects.


Changing the current behaviour can break existing assumptions and is not
desirable at this point unless there are more compelling cases.

For example, if width of the field is only set for all rows after
calculating the widest that can be possibly needed, it's an unneccesary
extra computation most of the time.  And in any case, if any in the list
of packages present in the view (even if folded or out of the visible
area at the moment) has pin priority needing N=4 spaces, it is
equivalent to setting the field width to %4i to start with, so there
would be no advantage in this case.


So marking as +wontfix for the time being.


[1] http://aptitude.alioth.debian.org/doc/en/ch02s05s01.html

   "Placing a question mark (?) between the % and the character
   identifying the escape causes the column's “basic” width to vary
   depending on its content. Note that the resulting columns might not
   line up vertically!"


Cheers.
--
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo 

Bug#759772: Allow format strings to require fixed width for optional arguments

[Benny Baumann]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.11-1
Severity: minor

Let's assume the following format string for package lists:

%c%a%M%S %?i %p# %Z %10D %10I %4r %20v %20V %t

Now configure some packages with explicit preferences along the lines of:

$ cat /etc/apt/preferences
Package: linux-image-* linux-headers-* linux-firmware-* firmware-* 
*-firmware
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 1000

Package: linux-image-* linux-headers-* linux-firmware-* firmware-* 
*-firmware
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 950

Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 900

Package: *
Pin: release a=stable
Pin-Priority: 800

Package: *
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 750

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 700

When browsing the various categories you will see various most packages without
any priority, as desired. But when looking into a section with kernel images,
development headers or firmware packages in them, mixed with other, you will
see stairs and other effects with misalignment of the columns.

It would be cool if you could ask Aptitude to skip the value as is now, but
still reserve a certain amount of space for it anyway.

Regards,
BenBE.

-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: screen
$DISPLAY not set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.6.11 compiled at Jun  9 2014 20:46:57
Compiler: g++ 4.8.3
Compiled against:
  apt version 4.12.0
  NCurses version 5.9
  libsigc++ version: 2.2.11
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 5.9.20140712
  cwidget version: 0.5.17
  Apt version: 4.12.0

aptitude linkage:
linux-vdso.so.1 (0x7fffa67fc000)
libapt-pkg.so.4.12 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.4.12 
(0x7f1358d05000)
libncursesw.so.5 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 
(0x7f1358acf000)
libtinfo.so.5 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 
(0x7f13588a4000)
libsigc-2.0.so.0 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 
(0x7f135869f000)
libcwidget.so.3 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 
(0x7f1358398000)
libsqlite3.so.0 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 
(0x7f13580d6000)
libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 = 
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 (0x7f1357ebe000)
libxapian.so.22 = /usr/lib/libxapian.so.22 (0x7f1357ab3000)
libpthread.so.0 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 
(0x7f1357895000)
libstdc++.so.6 = /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 
(0x7f135758a000)
libm.so.6 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x7f1357289000)
libgcc_s.so.1 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 
(0x7f1357072000)
libc.so.6 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x7f1356cc9000)
libutil.so.1 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x7f1356ac6000)
libdl.so.2 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x7f13568c1000)
libz.so.1 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x7f13566a9000)
libbz2.so.1.0 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 
(0x7f1356499000)
liblzma.so.5 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x7f1356275000)
librt.so.1 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x7f135606d000)
libuuid.so.1 = /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x7f1355e67000)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x7f135969b000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'stable'), (750, 'experimental'), (700, 
'unstable'), (500, 'oldstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common   0.6.11-1
ii  libapt-pkg4.121.0.6
ii  libboost-iostreams1.55.0  1.55.0+dfsg-2
ii  libc6 2.19-9
ii  libcwidget3   0.5.17-1
ii  libgcc1   1:4.9.1-4
ii  libncursesw5  5.9+20140712-2
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a2.2.11-4
ii  libsqlite3-0  3.8.5-2
ii  libstdc++64.9.1-4
ii  libtinfo5 5.9+20140712-2
ii  libxapian22   1.2.18-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
pn  aptitude-doc-en | aptitude-doc  none
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl   1.2.0-1
ii  sensible-utils  0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index  none
ii  debtags   1.12.1
ii  tasksel   3.20

-- debconf-show failed


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