Option to disable spinner as a command line argument

[giggio]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Add an option to disable the spinner and any other progress indicator.
This adds clutter to the screen if you are trying to capture what happened, and makes it harder to process winget output with command line tools.

Proposed technical implementation details

Add an option to the settings.json file (done) and a command line argument.

[denelon]

You might want to give the "Microsoft.WinGet.Client" PowerShell module or look at the COM API in WinGet for automation scenarios.

[giggio]

I'm using the PowerShell module, but it is still incomplete. I need the pins to be available there.
I'll check out the COM API.
Still, one might need to capture the output, for example, in CI scenarios, and it will produce a lot of unnecessary text.

[giggio]

I just checked out the API, you can't manage pins through it, either.
https://github.com/microsoft/winget-cli/blob/master/doc/specs/%23888%20-%20Com%20Api.md

[markusheiliger]

I agree with @giggio. Getting rid of the spinner output using a command line argument would help to get the captured output clean. BTW, the same applies to the download progress output IMO. TBH I would expect all this output suppressed when using a the /silent switch.

And no, switching to the PowerShell module or using the COM API is no option for me. The automation script works as it is. It's just tooooo noisy!

[mdanish-kh]

[Policy] Area-Output

[jantari]

The spinners should always be disabled when --disable-interactivity parameter is specified by the user.

If interactive features are explicitly disabled, there is absolutely no reason to print spinners, which are a purely interactive feature.

[igorakkerman]

Here's my current workaround to skip spinners, progress bars and blank lines:

    # patterns to omit in output
    $spinners = '\', '/', '|', '-' | ForEach-Object { "^\s*\$_\s*`$" } | Join-String -Separator '|'
    $progressBars = '█', '▒' | ForEach-Object { "^.+\$_.+`$" } | Join-String -Separator '|'
    $blankLine = '^\s*$'
    $skip = "$spinners|$progressBars|$blankLine"

    winget upgrade `
        --all `
        --accept-source-agreements `
        --accept-package-agreements `
        --silent `
        --disable-interactivity `
    | Select-String -NotMatch $skip

[asheroto]

I did something similar but replaced the characters instead of using Select-String so that the output could be viewed in real-time...

https://gist.github.com/asheroto/96bcabe428e8ad134ef204573810041f