change default log level to WARNING

anarcat commented

2022-11-18 16:20:30 +00:00

The default foot output looks like this, in Debian testing "bookworm"
at the time of writing:

anarcat@angela:pubpaste$ foot true
info: main.c:421: version: 1.13.1 +pgo +ime +graphemes -assertions
info: main.c:428: arch: Linux x86_64/64-bit
info: main.c:440: locale: fr_CA.UTF-8
info: config.c:3003: loading configuration from /home/anarcat/.config/foot/foot.ini
info: fcft.c:338: fcft: 3.1.5 +graphemes -runs +svg(nanosvg) -assertions
info: fcft.c:377: fontconfig: 2.13.1, freetype: 2.12.1, harfbuzz: 5.2.0
info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=8.00pt/8px, dpi=75.00
info: wayland.c:1353: eDP-1: 2256x1504+0x0@60Hz 0x095F 13.32" scale=2 PPI=205x214 (physical) PPI=136x143 (logical), DPI=271.31
info: wayland.c:1509: requesting SSD decorations
info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Bold.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00
info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00
info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Bold.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00
info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00
info: terminal.c:700: cell width=19, height=39
info: terminal.c:588: using 16 rendering threads
info: wayland.c:859: using SSD decorations
info: main.c:680: goodbye
anarcat@angela:pubpaste$

That's 17 lines of output that are mostly useless for most use
cases. I might understand having this output during the project's
startup, when it's helpful for diagnostics, but now Foot just mostly
works everywhere, and I've never had a use for any of that stuff in
the (arguably short) time I've been using Foot so far.

And if I do, there's the --log-level commandline option to tweak
this. At first, I looked at tweaking the log level through the config
file. But as explained in issue #1142 there's a chicken and egg
problem there that makes it hard to implement and possibly confusing
for users as well.

There's also the possibility for users to change the shortcut with
which they start foot, for example a .desktop file so that menu
systems that support those start foot properly. But that only works in
that environment, and not through the so many things that will just
call foot and hope it will do the right thing.

In my case, I have foot hardcoded in a lot of places now, between
sway and waybar, and this is only going to grow. Others have suggested
adding the flag to a $TERMINAL global variable, but that won't help
.desktop users.

So, instead of playing whack-a-mole with the log levels, just make it
so that, by default, foot is silent. This is actually one of the
basics of UNIX philosophy:

Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it
should say nothing.

And yes, I am aware I am severely violating that principle by writing
a way too long commit log for a one-line patch, but there you go, I
figured it was good to document the why of this properly.

The default foot output looks like this, in Debian testing "bookworm" at the time of writing: anarcat@angela:pubpaste$ foot true info: main.c:421: version: 1.13.1 +pgo +ime +graphemes -assertions info: main.c:428: arch: Linux x86_64/64-bit info: main.c:440: locale: fr_CA.UTF-8 info: config.c:3003: loading configuration from /home/anarcat/.config/foot/foot.ini info: fcft.c:338: fcft: 3.1.5 +graphemes -runs +svg(nanosvg) -assertions info: fcft.c:377: fontconfig: 2.13.1, freetype: 2.12.1, harfbuzz: 5.2.0 info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=8.00pt/8px, dpi=75.00 info: wayland.c:1353: eDP-1: 2256x1504+0x0@60Hz 0x095F 13.32" scale=2 PPI=205x214 (physical) PPI=136x143 (logical), DPI=271.31 info: wayland.c:1509: requesting SSD decorations info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Bold.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00 info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00 info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Bold.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00 info: fcft.c:838: /home/anarcat/.local/share/fonts/Fira-4.202/otf/FiraMono-Regular.otf: size=24.00pt/32px, dpi=96.00 info: terminal.c:700: cell width=19, height=39 info: terminal.c:588: using 16 rendering threads info: wayland.c:859: using SSD decorations info: main.c:680: goodbye anarcat@angela:pubpaste$ That's 17 lines of output that are *mostly* useless for most use cases. I might understand having this output during the project's startup, when it's helpful for diagnostics, but now Foot just mostly works everywhere, and I've never had a use for any of that stuff in the (arguably short) time I've been using Foot so far. And if I do, there's the `--log-level` commandline option to tweak this. At first, I looked at tweaking the log level through the config file. But as explained in issue #1142 there's a chicken and egg problem there that makes it hard to implement and possibly confusing for users as well. There's also the possibility for users to change the shortcut with which they start foot, for example a `.desktop` file so that menu systems that support those start foot properly. But that only works in that environment, and not through the so many things that will just call `foot` and hope it will do the right thing. In my case, I have `foot` hardcoded in a lot of places now, between sway and waybar, and this is only going to grow. Others have suggested adding the flag to a $TERMINAL global variable, but that won't help .desktop users. So, instead of playing whack-a-mole with the log levels, just make it so that, by default, foot is silent. This is actually one of the [basics of UNIX philosophy][1]: > Rule of Silence: When a program has nothing surprising to say, it > should say nothing. And yes, I am aware I am severely violating that principle by writing a way too long commit log for a one-line patch, but there you go, I figured it was good to document the why of this properly. [1]: https://web.archive.org/web/20031102053334/http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/ch01s06.html

anarcat force-pushed log-level-warning from 72d56f9fea to efa4c819a8

2022-11-18 16:57:27 +00:00

Compare

anarcat commented

2022-11-18 16:58:25 +00:00

Poster

i rolled out a new version which includes changes to the README file, the manual page, and the shell completion (where relevant, basically just zsh and fish). I also made the change in foot-client, even though that wasn't discussed, because it seems more consistent.