Re: [PATCH] checkpatch: Change format of --color argument to --color[=WHEN]

[John Brooks <john@fastquake.com>]

On Mon, Jun 05, 2017 at 04:10:30PM -0700, Joe Perches wrote:
> On Mon, 2017-06-05 at 18:27 -0400, John Brooks wrote:
> > The boolean --color argument did not offer the ability to force colourized
> > output even if stdout is not a terminal.
> 
> OK, but why is colorizing output not to terminals desired?

For example, to retain coloured output when using a pager (such as less -R).
Which is convenient for viewing/searching lengthy output from larger patch
sets, or when one is using something that interferes with the ability to scroll
such as screen, tmux, or mosh.

> 
> > Change the format of the argument
> > to the familiar --color[=WHEN] construct as seen in common Linux utilities
> > such as ls and dmesg, which allows the user to specify whether to colourize
> > output always, never, or only when the output is a terminal ("auto").
> > 
> > Because the option is no longer boolean, --nocolor (or --no-color) is no
> > longer available. Users of the old negative option should use --color=never
> > instead.
> 
> In general, I don't mind, but perhaps this option name
> could/should change.
> 
> As is, this also causes a previous command line that worked
> with --color to fail
> 
> $ ./scripts/checkpatch.pl --color foo.patch
> Invalid color mode: foo.patch
> 

Oh, that's pretty bad. I should have thought of that, sorry. I'll see what I
can do to stop it from eating other arguments.

--
John Brooks