GNU bug report logs - #70691
30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use eshell-term-name as default

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
To: bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org
Subject: 30.0.50;
 [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 06:40:25 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi,

Since emacs-29 the Eshell has been enhanced for the ansi-color a lot.
And the function `eshell-exec-visual` can support the executables with
colors, eg VIM, tmux...
I have tested the "/bin/ls --color=tty", "/bin/grep --color=tty" ...
and other executables in Eshell with "export TERM=eshell-color", they
all work great.

So we can safely export eshell's "TERM" with `eshell-term-name` to
support executables with colors.
I attached the patch, please help review it. Thanks.

[0001-Eshell-s-TERM-env-varible-use-eshell-term-name-as-de.patch (text/x-patch, attachment)]

Message #8 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>, Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50;
 [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 01 May 2024 15:15:03 +0300

> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 06:40:25 +0000
> 
> Since emacs-29 the Eshell has been enhanced for the ansi-color a lot.
> And the function `eshell-exec-visual` can support the executables with
> colors, eg VIM, tmux...
> I have tested the "/bin/ls --color=tty", "/bin/grep --color=tty" ...
> and other executables in Eshell with "export TERM=eshell-color", they
> all work great.
> 
> So we can safely export eshell's "TERM" with `eshell-term-name` to
> support executables with colors.
> I attached the patch, please help review it. Thanks.

Thanks.

The fact that we can safely do that does not yet mean we _should_ do
it.  In my book, setting TERM is a user preference, more or less.
IOW, this is a change in the default behavior.

Jim, WDYT?

Message #11 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use
 eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 15:51:54 +0000

On Wed, May 1, 2024 at 12:15 PM Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> wrote:
>
> > From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
> > Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 06:40:25 +0000
> >
> > Since emacs-29 the Eshell has been enhanced for the ansi-color a lot.
> > And the function `eshell-exec-visual` can support the executables with
> > colors, eg VIM, tmux...
> > I have tested the "/bin/ls --color=tty", "/bin/grep --color=tty" ...
> > and other executables in Eshell with "export TERM=eshell-color", they
> > all work great.
> >
> > So we can safely export eshell's "TERM" with `eshell-term-name` to
> > support executables with colors.
> > I attached the patch, please help review it. Thanks.
>
> Thanks.
>
> The fact that we can safely do that does not yet mean we _should_ do
> it.  In my book, setting TERM is a user preference, more or less.
> IOW, this is a change in the default behavior.
>
> Jim, WDYT?
The patch tries to uniform the behavior of "eshell" and "eshell-exec-visual".
When I tried the eshell visual commands, I noticed its experience is
better than eshell, and I figured out the eshell exec visual gives
TERM with "eshell-term-name", but eshell didn't do that.
And this patch will not affect the users who customized their TERM
environment in eshell profile or eshell hook functions.

Message #14 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use
 eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 11:19:39 -0700

On 5/1/2024 5:15 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
>> Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 06:40:25 +0000
>>
>> Since emacs-29 the Eshell has been enhanced for the ansi-color a lot.
[snip]
>>
>> So we can safely export eshell's "TERM" with `eshell-term-name` to
>> support executables with colors.
>> I attached the patch, please help review it. Thanks.
> 
> The fact that we can safely do that does not yet mean we _should_ do
> it.  In my book, setting TERM is a user preference, more or less.
> IOW, this is a change in the default behavior.
> 
> Jim, WDYT?

Unfortunately, I don't think this is the right way to do things (or else 
I'm just not understanding some part of it). The docstring for 
'eshell-term-name' says, "Name to use for the TERM variable when running 
visual commands," and its value defaults to 'term-term-name'. For visual 
commands (which use term.el), the terminal can do a lot more than just 
setting colors, such as moving the cursor around. "Normal", non-visual 
Eshell can't do that, so I think using the same setting for $TERM would 
be wrong.

We could make Eshell set $TERM to "dumb-emacs-ansi", which should have 
the correct terminal settings. I believe that terminfo has been 
upstreamed into ncurses.

However, I think if you want colors, it's best to change 
'comint-terminfo-terminal' instead to "dumb-emacs-ansi" (and then Eshell 
will use that setting automatically). I *don't* think we should change 
'comint-terminfo-terminal' by default though; that would be pretty 
invasive. Maybe we could use the Customize interface to make selecting 
"dumb-emacs-ansi" a matter of just checking a box, instead of typing it 
out by hand?

Message #17 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
To: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use
 eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 19:37:08 +0000

On Wed, May 1, 2024 at 6:19 PM Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 5/1/2024 5:15 AM, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> >> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
> >> Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 06:40:25 +0000
> >>
> >> Since emacs-29 the Eshell has been enhanced for the ansi-color a lot.
> [snip]
> >>
> >> So we can safely export eshell's "TERM" with `eshell-term-name` to
> >> support executables with colors.
> >> I attached the patch, please help review it. Thanks.
> >
> > The fact that we can safely do that does not yet mean we _should_ do
> > it.  In my book, setting TERM is a user preference, more or less.
> > IOW, this is a change in the default behavior.
> >
> > Jim, WDYT?
>
> Unfortunately, I don't think this is the right way to do things (or else
> I'm just not understanding some part of it). The docstring for
> 'eshell-term-name' says, "Name to use for the TERM variable when running
> visual commands," and its value defaults to 'term-term-name'. For visual
> commands (which use term.el), the terminal can do a lot more than just
> setting colors, such as moving the cursor around. "Normal", non-visual
> Eshell can't do that, so I think using the same setting for $TERM would
> be wrong.
>
> We could make Eshell set $TERM to "dumb-emacs-ansi", which should have
> the correct terminal settings. I believe that terminfo has been
> upstreamed into ncurses.
>
> However, I think if you want colors, it's best to change
> 'comint-terminfo-terminal' instead to "dumb-emacs-ansi" (and then Eshell
> will use that setting automatically). I *don't* think we should change
> 'comint-terminfo-terminal' by default though; that would be pretty
> invasive. Maybe we could use the Customize interface to make selecting
> "dumb-emacs-ansi" a matter of just checking a box, instead of typing it
> out by hand?

Thank you for the explanation, very clear.
Please feel free to ignore the patch and close this ticket. Thanks

Message #20 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
To: Jim Porter <jporterbugs <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use
 eshell-term-name as default
Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 19:49:18 +0000

> it's best to change 'comint-terminfo-terminal' instead to "dumb-emacs-ansi"
And the "dumb-emacs-ansi" is included in the `ncurses-term` package
(ncurses-term-6.1 in my local).

Message #23 received at 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
Cc: 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, jporterbugs <at> gmail.com
Subject: Re: bug#70691: 30.0.50; [PATCH] Eshell's TERM env varible use
 eshell-term-name as default
Date: Thu, 02 May 2024 09:07:16 +0300

tags 70691 notabug wontfix
close 70691
thanks

> From: Lin Sun <sunlin7.mail <at> gmail.com>
> Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 19:37:08 +0000
> Cc: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>, 70691 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> 
> Thank you for the explanation, very clear.
> Please feel free to ignore the patch and close this ticket. Thanks

Done.

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