output is line-wrapped

The attached screen capture does show the old clients output, which is not line-wrapped (at least not in a way that shows here) whereas the new-style openstack client is wrapped as if in a 80x25 terminal...

this seems related to https://github.com/openstack/cliff/commit/e7c3c622759d4e9af09947dfb8a7faf52edaad07 and bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-cliff/+bug/1485847

@Vincent, can you confirm that using "--max-width <some number>" fixes the issue? I'm wondering why cliff is detecting such a small area for your application

Yes this bug is actually related to those cited, but on the opposite end.

I want to be able to disable the terminal size settings detection, and yes --max-width can help with that.

But it would even be better if an environment variable could do the same, so that I can set it only once per session's needs, and make that hidden from the view of my students, to avoid polluting the already steep learning curve with cosmetic options.

@Vincent, do you want to show the output of the command as-is in the notebook, or are you trying to parse the results?

I would support adding an environment variable to disable the size-setting feature of the table formatter entirely.

I just suggested the same thing here https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-cliff/+bug/1485847/comments/7

Vincent, jupyter-notebook must be doing some magic to pretend there is a tty. An easy workaround for this would be to pipe your openstack commands to cat (assuming you can make this transparent to notebook users).

But yes, I'd support an env var to turn off tty detection

I'm not parsing output, just displaying it in the notebook. Piping through cat would be no better than using --max-width, though.

So either it's enhanced with an env. var. or I'd rather use the CLI parameter.

I volunteer doing it (add env var(s)) if the idea is pre-approved upfront.

@vincent, you have my vote for env var :)

You could probably get away with just changing:

https://github.com/openstack/cliff/blob/d171567ebad8a1579597cefc3d96a9686722ae5b/cliff/formatters/table.py#L28

from: default=0,
to: default=os.environ.get('MAX_WIDTH', None)

or something like that

Thanks for finding the right place in the code, but the really contentious thing will be the env. var. naming, no ? :-)

Proper naming is hard and opinionated, I'd vote for OS_ prefixing to avoid namespace collisions...

I'd have something in the name that explains which width we are talking about : TERM or OUT, or...

What about OS_MAX_TERM_WIDTH ?

Fix proposed to branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/312462

Fix proposed to branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/312469

Change abandoned by Vincent Legoll (<email address hidden>) on branch: master
Review: https://review.openstack.org/312462
Reason: missing import

Reviewed: https://review.openstack.org/312469
Committed: https://git.openstack.org/cgit/openstack/cliff/commit/?id=c59f04465cff2d2d147491d5ec521e8b769bd377
Submitter: Jenkins
Branch: master

commit c59f04465cff2d2d147491d5ec521e8b769bd377
Author: Vincent Legoll <email address hidden>
Date: Sat May 7 18:33:35 2016 +0200

    Add CLIFF_MAX_TERM_WIDTH envvar to complement --max-width

    Some cliff clients tailors their output according to characteristics
    of the terminal they outputs text to. They detect the width of the
    terminal in order to pretty print text properly cut to line length.

    There are situations where the output is not in a "real" terminal
    but in some kind of emulation or redirected layer for which this
    line length interpretation is not ideal. For example in a bash
    jupyter-notebook.

    There already exist the --max-width CLI parameter to allow that
    to be customized, but there are cases where you don't want to
    use an additional parameter. So add an environment variable
    that has the same meaning, to help avoiding the use of
    --max-width.

    Without the parameter nor the envvar, the behaviour should stay
    the same as before the patch, i.e. the output is cut to terminal
    line length. The envvar is then used to give the parameter's
    default value, so the parameter will stay being the final one
    deciding of the behaviour when used.

    Add mock'ed testing for the new CLIFF_MAX_TERM_WIDTH envvar.
    Add mock'ed tests to ensure parameter vs envvar priority.
    Add testing for actual parameter parsing & priority vs envvar.²

    This has been discussed in:
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-openstackclient/+bug/1577368
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/python-cliff/+bug/1485847/comments/7

    Closes-Bug: 1577368
    Related-Bug: 1485847

    Change-Id: I0ab988ea0e7087960a9bfb2353f46918f0333a53
    Signed-off-by: Vincent Legoll <email address hidden>

This issue was fixed in the openstack/cliff 2.1.0 release.