get-history | Out-ConsoleGridView with multi-line commands causes issues

[tig]

Start with:

$someJson = @'
{
   "foo" : true
}
'@

Then

get-history | Out-ConsoleGridView

Results in something ugly like this:

Powershell 7.0.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Looks like we just need to check if there are any newlines in the string here
https://github.com/PowerShell/GraphicalTools/blob/2aac3357e17e2f09b771cf4a49614fd02adcce96/src/Microsoft.PowerShell.ConsoleGuiTools/ConsoleGui.cs#L168-L176

and add an "..." just like the output of Get-History does.

if (strings[i].Contains(Environment.NewLine)
{
    builder.Append(strings[i].Split(Environment.NewLine)[0]);
    builder.Append("...");
}

[TylerLeonhardt]

@tig any interest in contributing?

[tig]

Maybe. I have source cloned and can build ;-).

Noted Contribution Guide is 404: https://powershell.github.io/GraphicalTools/CONTRIBUTING.html

Also, can you point me at instructions for how to debug this using VS code?

I set a BP on the line you pointed to and hit Debug in Code but hit issues that I don't understand (noob at using VS Code to debug; I generally use VS Studio).

[TylerLeonhardt]

apologies for the 404! I'll get that fixed.

@tig take a look at this section of the README for building.

In order to debug in VS Code, start a PowerShell process and import your local build of ConsoleGuiTools. Then in VS Code with the repo opened, go to the debug pane and select ".NET Core Attach" and hit play or F5. Then attach to the pwsh process that imported the module.

Once you run Out-ConsoleGridView, your breakpoint should get hit.

[tig]

How do I know which process is which?

[tig]

Nevermind. Found it $pid.

[tig]

Is there some way to not have to kill the Windows Terminal session hosting pwsh every build/debug cycle? I've tried just starting a pwsh.exe instance from the command line, but that doesn't seem to free up the loaded cmdlet. I have to kill Terminal.

[TylerLeonhardt]

You have to kill the pwsh.exe that imported the module because dlls can't be unloaded.

What I usually do is:

• open pwsh.exe
• in that pwsh.exe, run pwsh (thus nesting powershell)
• import the module and do debugging
• run exit to exit the nested PowerShell and run pwsh again

That way your window doesn't close... just the pwsh process within.

[tig]

Ready to do a PR. before I do, here's the strategy I took...

Your suggestion was to check for Environment.Newline and just do an ellipsis.

First, in my example (not sure of others where there's multi-line commands) I'm seeing only \n' and not \r\nasEnvironment.NewLineas defined for Windows. So I am checking for\n` only.

Second, just appending an ellipsis to the line is not very satisfyingly. In my example this would result in the command being displayed as:

$someJson = @'

Instead, I'm doing this:

            strings[i] = strings[i].Replace("\n", @"\n");

            // If the string won't fit in the column, append an ellipsis.
            if (strings[i].Length > colWidths[i])
            {

Which lets the 'command too long' code deal gracefully with a command where newlines are encoded with the escape sequence.

Thus the output looks like this:

Cool?

[SteveL-MSFT]

I think following PowerShell syntax, it may make more sense to replace \n with `n. Otherwise, this seems like a good improvement.

[TylerLeonhardt]

I agree with @SteveL-MSFT

[tig]

Got it. Found https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/microsoft.powershell.core/about/about_special_characters?view=powershell-7

[iSazonov]

"\r" and "\n" are not single control codes. Ideally we should escape output sting and mask all control characters and escape sequences.

[tig]

"\r" and "\n" are not single control codes. Ideally we should escape output sting and mask all control characters and escape sequences.

I actually tried that (using Regex.Escape) and it didn't work well. That said, Regex.Escape uses c/c++ style escaping, not PowerShell style. I vote leave it as-is for now as it fixes the UI-breaking problem caused by newlines.

[TylerLeonhardt]

Yes, we can be iterative here and fix the newline characters first since they will be seen a lot more than others