Windows CMD - colors and Symbols are not displayed correctly

[CarliJoy]

Describe the bug
Using Windows 10 colors and symbols are not displayed.

How to reproduce
Install pipx with Python 3.8 on Windows 10 like described in the documentation.
Use any pipx command with cmd.

Expected behavior
Symbol and Colors are displayed like in a bash shell.

What I currently get is:

[uranusjr]

Looks like there is an issue in your console configuration. Does color in other programs (e.g. pip) work?

[CarliJoy]

Looks like there is an issue in your console configuration. Does color in other programs (e.g. pip) work?

Yep you're right:
https://superuser.com/questions/413073/windows-console-with-ansi-colors-handling/1050078#1050078
I have Windows 10 build 14393 - too old for ANSI support.

But coloring in pip actually works - no Idea how they do that:

Also with pipenv it works like a charm without ANSI support.

[uranusjr]

Both pip and pipenv use colorama for colors, which is based on Windows API, not ANSI codes. Maybe pipx can use it as well.

With that said, I just noticed pipx’s code base actually turns all colors off on Windows, so those escape codes are likely not colors at all. I wonder where those come from. argcomplete?

[CarliJoy]

With that said, I just noticed pipx’s code base actually turns all colors off on Windows, so those escape codes are likely not colors at all. I wonder where those come from. argcomplete?

Can I do something to find it out?
Currently don't have the time for debugging, sorry :(
Later maybe.

[itsayellow]

I think those may be the HIDE_CURSOR SHOW_CURSOR codes for shells.
https://github.com/pipxproject/pipx/blob/5c3cc823ab780f4d562e5e8c1ed0c31aee893133/src/pipx/animate.py#L12-L13

Possibly we need to avoid them in Windows.

[uranusjr]

Or use a platform-specific solution on Windows? There are Windows APIs for this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/10455937/1376863

[itsayellow]

I always am annoyed with Windows because there are so many different shells, and they all seem to behave differently, especially when trying to do anything more than print text. I wonder if the solution in the stackoverflow link works for all the shells people use.

[itsayellow]

I suppose to truly fix this we should investigate something like colorama and cursor.

And then somebody would have to try it in every Windows shell to see which one(s) it fails in 😉

[CarliJoy]

And then somebody would have to try it in every Windows shell to see which one(s) it fails in wink

I could offer to test

• Windows CMD
• Integrated Terminal in PyCharm
• GIT Bash (in Windows)
• Maybe Powershell

-> actually I don't know more ;-)

[itsayellow]

@CarliJoy, could you test the linked PR and see if it stops printing cryptic characters in your Windows shells?

[CarliJoy]

With --version it works.
But during install they are still there:

[itsayellow]

Hmm, ok. Does the released pipx version fail the same way for pipx install? Or is this a regression with this PR?
Never mind, I see it in your original post.

OK, so those characters must be from something else, but at least some of the issue has been fixed.

[itsayellow]

Ah got it! \033[K is the ANSI code for "clear line" which we use for animation. OK, that's something else to fix.

[itsayellow]

It looks like \033[K will be translated correctly with the fix in #612

[itsayellow]

Thanks for your help testing @CarliJoy .

[CarliJoy]

shall I test your fix in #612 again?
Thanks for writing the code 👍

[itsayellow]

If you have some time testing #612 would be great. For #612 you will still see [?25l and [?25h but it should fix the animation problems with pipx install. (If it doesn't, it would be good to know!)

[CarliJoy]

Double Posting from #612

Current Result on Windows: