microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

--silent should redirect stdout to the log file

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#1,927 2 comments 6 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Area-Output Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description of the new feature / enhancement

Some installers (Docker Desktop and the modern SQL Server installer are the ones I know) send lots of log output to stdout when they are ran silently. This makes the winget progress information go away:

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/21368066/153617530-15b5b42f-d805-433e-8483-30741587ffdc.mp4

Users have found this confusing and have requested that if winget runs a package silently, it is truly silent (i.e. they see nothing except Starting package install...). My solution to that problem is that when the --silent argument is used, winget should redirect stdout for the installer to a log file (much like MSIs, this should be selectable via a argument).

Proposed technical implementation details

No response

Contributor guide

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how the --silent argument launches installers and handles their stdout. Done means silent installs no longer obscure winget progress, while installer output is redirected to a log file whose destination can be selected by an argument.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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