curl --manual includes ESC-sequences

[VictorVG]

I did this

Original user bug-report in to the forum.ru-board post, (translated) :

ozr1

I downloaded curl 8.2.0_1 from the project suite, I launched "curl --manual> curl.txt" and saw that the file was clogged with >ESC-sequence which was not noticed behind the previous ones (8.1.2 and below).

Accordingly, the question is: how to read this "manual" now? Or, how to remove all these ESC-sequence from it from it?

Sent: 17:14 22-07-2023"

try test use command:

curl --manual > manual.txt

then see this file in to any text editor, see example

I expected the following

Clean ASCII text w/o ESC sequence's like cURL 8.1.2.

curl/libcurl version

cURL 8.2.0

operating system

Any (all) OS and platform's

[dfandrich]

Which Windows binary do you see this on?

[VictorVG]

Yes, show. Notepad manual.txt

Original text is manual.txt.zip

cleaned text is (use internal editor in to Far Manager b6174 + LuaFAR Search v3.45.5 + TextConv v3.9.3.4040 (used as simple tool for clean tab's) and Far regxp (?:\[)\d+(?:m) for clean ESC-symbols) - in to report i see whets find "only" 3390 ESC-synbols's. Cleaned out file manual_clean.zip don't include ESC-symbol's and can simple read.

[VictorVG]

use grep and regexp I find gardable ESC-seqences in to some source files (partial):

curl-8.2.0\src\tool_hugehelp.c : 3390

�[4mcurl�[24m(1)                           curl Manual                          �[4mcurl�[24m(1)\n
�[1mNAME�[0m\n
�[1mSYNOPSIS�[0m\n
       �[1mcurl [options / URLs]�[0m\n
�[1mDESCRIPTION�[0m\n
       �[1mcurl  �[22mis  a tool for transferring data from or to a server. It supports\n
       �[4mlibcurl(3)�[24m for details.\n
�[1mURL�[0m\n

full grep report.txt

also see diff for details diff.txt

[dfandrich]

I don't doubt that you see this. But, where did you get the curl archive that shows this problem?

[VictorVG]

Archive manual.txt.zip is show this problem.

Also, additional archive manual-8.2.0.zip

make use command:

curl --manual > manual.txt & curl --version > version.txt & curl --help > curl.txt & curl --help all > help.txt

And simply compared using Diff's sources downloaded from the project using my script curld.cmd

@echo off
setlocal enableextensions
curl -lso 1.tmp https://curl.se/windows/
findstr /C:"<b>curl version</b>: " 1.tmp > 2.tmp
for /f "tokens=3 delims=: " %%a in (2.tmp) do set p1=%%a
findstr /C:"<b>Build</b>: " 1.tmp > 2.tmp
for /f "tokens=2 delims=: " %%a in (2.tmp) do set p2=%%a
del /f/q 1.tmp 2.tmp > nul
for %%A in (
            tar.bz2
            tar.gz
            tar.xz
            zip
            ) do curl -C - -LRZO --create-dirs --output-dir cURL\src https://curl.se/download/curl-%p1%.%%A
for %%A in (
            tar.xz
            zip
            ) do curl -C - -LRZO --create-dirs --output-dir cURL\x86 https://curl.se/windows/dl-%p2%/curl-%p2%-win32-mingw.%%A
for %%A in (
            tar.xz
            zip
            ) do curl -C - -LRZO --create-dirs --output-dir cURL\x64 https://curl.se/windows/dl-%p2%/curl-%p2%-win64-mingw.%%A
for %%A in (
            tar.xz
            zip
            ) do curl -C - -LRZO --create-dirs --output-dir cURL\arm64 https://curl.se/windows/dl-%p2%/curl-%p2%-win64a-mingw.%%A
exit

P.S.

Some elements in it are unnecessary - habit. It’s so easier for me not to get confused.

[gvanem]

From https://linux.die.net/man/1/grotty, which is involved in the generation:

By default, grotty emits SGR escape sequences (from ISO 6429, also called ANSI color escapes) to change
text attributes (bold, italic, colors).
....
Environment
GROFF_NO_SGR
If set, the old drawing scheme for bold and underline (using the backspace character) is active. Colors are disabled.

So if you're able to build curl.exe yourself, add a set GROFF_NO_SGR=1 before building.

Or get the the less program to view it. Here it shows this with less -R manual.txt:

Those pesky SGR sequences gets interpreted by less itself.