[PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by default.

[PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by default.

[Sam Foxman]

Automatic color should be enabled by default because it makes command
output much easier to read, especially `ip addr` with many interfaces.
Color is enabled only in interactive use, scripts are not affected.
---
 ip/ip.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/ip/ip.c b/ip/ip.c
index 8c046ef1..aad6b6d7 100644
--- a/ip/ip.c
+++ b/ip/ip.c
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	const char *libbpf_version;
 	char *batch_file = NULL;
 	char *basename;
-	int color = 0;
+	int color = COLOR_OPT_AUTO;
 
 	/* to run vrf exec without root, capabilities might be set, drop them
 	 * if not needed as the first thing.
-- 
2.34.1

Re: [PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by default.

[Petr Machata]

Sam Foxman <elasticvine@protonmail.com> writes:

> Automatic color should be enabled by default because it makes command
> output much easier to read, especially `ip addr` with many interfaces.
> Color is enabled only in interactive use, scripts are not affected.

tc and bridge should do the same.

FWIW, `ls' on Fedora is aliased to `ls --color=auto' by default. My
guess is that the reason that it's not auto by default was the
performance hit resulting from having to stat every file.

iproute2 tools do not have that issue -- overhead from those escape
sequences must surely be noise? So it would IMHO make sense to default
to color output for iproute2 tools.

> ---
>  ip/ip.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/ip/ip.c b/ip/ip.c
> index 8c046ef1..aad6b6d7 100644
> --- a/ip/ip.c
> +++ b/ip/ip.c
> @@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
>  	const char *libbpf_version;
>  	char *batch_file = NULL;
>  	char *basename;
> -	int color = 0;
> +	int color = COLOR_OPT_AUTO;
>  
>  	/* to run vrf exec without root, capabilities might be set, drop them
>  	 * if not needed as the first thing.

Re: [PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by default.

[Petr Machata]

Sam Foxman <elasticvine@protonmail.com> writes:

> Automatic color should be enabled by default because it makes command
> output much easier to read, especially `ip addr` with many interfaces.
> Color is enabled only in interactive use, scripts are not affected.

And BTW for v2, if any, please ditch the terminating period on the
subject line.

Re: [PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by default.

[Stephen Hemminger]

On Mon, 11 Sep 2023 04:45:23 +0000
Sam Foxman <elasticvine@protonmail.com> wrote:

> From: Sam Foxman <elasticvine@protonmail.com>
> To: netdev@vger.kernel.org
> Cc: Sam Foxman <elasticvine@protonmail.com>
> Subject: [PATCH iproute2-next] Enable automatic color output by
> default. Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2023 04:45:23 +0000
> 
> Automatic color should be enabled by default because it makes command
> output much easier to read, especially `ip addr` with many interfaces.
> Color is enabled only in interactive use, scripts are not affected.
> ---
>  ip/ip.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Changing the default is likely to make existing users upset.
If there was a generic way to ask for color (ie across ls, ethtool, etc)
then iproute2 could follow that.

For now if you want automatic color just use aliases like almost every
Linux distro does now for ls.

This change gets a no from me.