Add -o/--output-format options for search/show/list to output CSV|JSON and possibly other formats easy to consume by PowerShell

[rkeithhill-keysight]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Right now it is really hard to convert the output of commands like winget list in PowerShell. Simply trying to sort the output gives corrupted characters in the output e.g.

$pkgs = winget list
$pkgs

Results in:

Even if the corrupted chars were fixed, there is rich data in the output that has to be parsed out by PowerShell - what Jeffrey Snover would call "prayer-based parsing". There is a better way that would benefit not just PowerShell.

Related to #221

Proposed technical implementation details

Implement a new parameter to commands that output rich information e.g. search, show and list (and maybe others). I propose using -o | --output-format. The default output format would be Table, to match the current output format. But I would like to see a CSV option that could be used to open the output in Excel or used by PowerShell like so:

winget list -o csv | ConvertFrom-Csv | Where-Object Name -match Microsft | Sort-Object Name

Furthermore, you could also support a List format that would not truncate text e.g.:

winget list -o list

Name:      JetBrains ETW Host Service (x64) 
Id:        JetBrains.ReSharper
Version:   < 2022.2.2
Available: 2022.2.3
Source:    winget

Name: ...
....

[rkeithhill-keysight]

BTW there is a native PowerShell format called CLIXML that winget could also output but I'm not sure how widely CLIXML was adopted/used.

[Trenly]

Duplicate of #1753

[ghost]

@rkeithhill-keysight we've identified this Issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced Issue. Thanks for your report! Be sure to add your 👍 to the other issue to help raise the priority.