Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 6 Apr 2019 14:58:23 -0600
From:      "@lbutlr" <kremels@kreme.com>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Column widths FROM / WHAT in w(1)
Message-ID:  <82580E12-C2F5-45FB-AAFC-8538B5CE0FCD@kreme.com>
In-Reply-To: <20190406153319.36f41b8f.freebsd@edvax.de>
References:  <20190406153319.36f41b8f.freebsd@edvax.de>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 6 Apr 2019, at 07:33, Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> wrote:
>=20
> System: FreeBSD 12.0-p3 i386.
>=20
> I recently discovered that the WHAT column in the output
> of the "w" command has become unusable, and "man w" does
> not seem to indicate any user control for the formatting
> of the columns.
>=20
> The column WHAT now can only show up to 3 (in words: three)
> characters on a standard 80-column terminal. I will put a

How long has it been since an 80 column terminal was standard? Even back =
as far as the late 80s the majority of terminals I used were 132 columns =
and if you were stuck on an ADM-3a you got off it as quickly as =
possible, and now I don't even know where you would find an 80 column =
terminal.

> ruler on top for illustration:
>=20
> =
....+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....=
+....8
> USER       TTY      FROM                                      LOGIN@  =
IDLE WHAT
>=20
> Things like "xinit" become "xin", and any longer command
> cannot be easily identified anymore. Columns 79 and 80
> aren't used at all.
>=20
> For comparison: On an older system, I get this layout:
>=20
> =
....+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....=
+....8
> USER             TTY      FROM              LOGIN@  IDLE WHAT
>=20
> This is more than 20 characters for the WHAT field.

Does it depend on the contents of "From"? Hmm, no, it doesn't seem too. =
however, I will say that getting the from field cut-off in `w` is a lot =
more of an issue than the WHAT column, I think.

Have you looked at xo_parse_args?

You could always output as json or xml and do your own thing.

> Any idea on how to get the old layout of w back, instead
> of increasing the terminal width?


--=20
"Oh damn", said Maladict.




Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?82580E12-C2F5-45FB-AAFC-8538B5CE0FCD>