telepresence version --format=json should output structured version info

[nicks]

Please describe your use case / problem.
I want to make sure that everyone on my team has a minimum version of telepresence installed, so want to parse out the version in scripts.

Describe the solution you'd like

telepresence version --output=json

should print a json spec of the version

Here's what it currently prints:

{"cmd":"version","stdout":"Client         : v2.13.1\nRoot Daemon    : v2.13.1\nUser Daemon    : v2.13.1\nTraffic Manager: not connected\n"}

😐

Describe alternatives you've considered
none

Versions (please complete the following information)
see above

[thallgren]

I would like this changed too. The problem is that a long time ago, we invented json output as a generic thing for all commands, and some tools then adopted that, which means that adding proper structure now will be a breaking change.

The solution might be to actually deprecate (but retain) --output in favor of a new flag like --format.

[drewfish]

Given that telepresence version --output=json is just wrapping a blob of text, I suspect that not many people are writing scripts that use it, so it might be "safe" to change it to structured output instead.

That's true for me -- in my script I looked at using telepresence version --output=json but since that made it slightly harder to parse than the output of --output=default, I just used --output=default.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 60 days with no activity. Remove stale label or comment, or this will be closed in 7 days.