netdev - Re: iproute2: color output should assume dark background

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Message-ID: <Zk7kiFLLcIM27bEi@photonic.trudheim.com>
Date: Thu, 23 May 2024 08:39:04 +0200
From: Sirius <sirius@...dheim.com>
To: Gedalya <gedalya@...alya.net>
Cc: netdev@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: iproute2: color output should assume dark background

In days of yore (Thu, 23 May 2024), Gedalya thus quoth: 
> Hello,

Good morning,

> Debian is now building iproute2 with color output on by default. This
> brings attention to the fact that iproute2 defaults to a color palette
> suitable for light backgrounds.
> 
> The COLORFGBG environment variable, if present and correctly set would
> select a dark background. However COLORFGBG is neither ubiquitous nor
> standard. It wouldn't typically be present in a non-graphical vt, nor is
> it presnet in XFCE and many other desktop environments.
> 
> Dark backgrounds seem to be the more common default, and it seems many
> people stick to that in actual use.

FWIW, I use a light background as that is easier for me to read.

Might I suggest that instead of fueling a bikeshed war about what terminal
background should be used, read what the background is of the console and
adapt the foreground colours to that. I would guess that means holding two
sets of the eight colours and if the background is "dark", use the lighter
set and if the background is "light", use the darker set. Then the
variable is superfluous.

Make it usable for everyone rather than just a subset of users based on
personal preference.

> The dark blue used by the ip command for IPv6 addresses is particularly
> hard to read on a dark background. It's really important for the ip
> command to provide basic usability e.g. when manually bringing up
> networking at the console in an emergency. I find that fiddling with
> extra details just to disable or improve the colors would be an
> unwelcome nuisance in such situations, but the Debian maintainer
> outright refuses to revert this change, without explanation or
> discussion.
> 
> Instead the maintainer suggested I submit a patch upstream, which I will
> do. I've never contributed here before, so your patience and guidance
> would be very highly appreciated.
> 
> Ref: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1071582

Kudos for that.

-- 
Kind regards,

/S