From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
To: Jeff King <peff@peff.net>
Cc: "Junio C Hamano" <gitster@pobox.com>,
git@vger.kernel.org,
"Felipe Contreras" <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>,
"Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason" <avarab@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] doc: explain the use of color.pager
Date: Wed, 19 May 2021 12:53:39 -0700 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <YKVsw3uqb66ifzvd@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <YKTXlTjwOUi4W+R8@coredump.intra.peff.net>
Jeff King wrote:
> The current documentation for color.pager is technically correct, but
> slightly misleading and doesn't really clarify the purpose of the
> variable. As explained in the original thread which added it:
>
> https://lore.kernel.org/git/E1G6zPH-00062L-Je@moooo.ath.cx/
>
> the point is deal with pagers that don't understand colors.
Missing "to" before "deal". More importantly, I think I'd find a
reference to the commit or a quotation from the affected user more
helpful than a reference to the mailing list archive, since that would
make this a bit more self-contained. (Especially since I think this
is un-subtle enough that chasing through the mailing list thread
doesn't add much to my life. :))
[...]
> --- a/Documentation/config/color.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/config/color.txt
> @@ -127,8 +127,9 @@ color.interactive.<slot>::
> interactive commands.
>
> color.pager::
> - A boolean to enable/disable colored output when the pager is in
> - use (default is true).
> + A boolean to specify whether `auto` color modes should colorize
> + output going to the pager. Defaults to true; set this to false
> + if your pager does not understand ANSI color codes.
I quite like the "set this to false if your pager does not understand
ANSI color codes" part --- short and to the point.
The sentence before takes me long enough to understand that I don't
think we've gotten the wording right yet. Before I suggest some
wording, let's make sure I understand the behavior correctly:
- unlike other color.* settings, this can only be "true" or "false".
It cannot be "auto".
- in other color.* settings, "auto" means "colors are used only when
stderr goes to a terminal". A pager typically ultimately writes to
a terminal, but (1) it's not guaranteed to (e.g., xless writes to
its own window instead) and (2) more importantly for us, it's not
guaranteed to write terminal escapes as is.
- so this setting can be used to answer "for the sake of evaluating
color settings, should we treat output that is going to a pager as
going to a terminal?"
If I understood correctly, how about some text like the following?
A boolean to specify whether `auto` color modes should colorize
output going to a pager, in addition to their behavior of
colorizing output going to a terminal. Defaults to true; [etc]
Side note, not about this patch: we treat pager.color as a synonym for
color.pager. Is that something we want to document, or is that an
instance of being extra friendly when the user makes a typo?
Thanks,
Jonathan
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-05-19 19:53 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-05-19 9:17 [PATCH] doc: explain the use of color.pager Jeff King
2021-05-19 10:41 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-19 19:53 ` Jonathan Nieder [this message]
2021-05-19 20:39 ` Felipe Contreras
2021-05-19 22:47 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-05-20 6:36 ` Junio C Hamano
2021-05-20 8:33 ` Jeff King
2021-05-20 15:05 ` Jonathan Nieder
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