spack / spack/spack

Feature Request: Allow multiline descriptions on spack info

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feature
Dominant language
Python
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Description

I recently have been getting into spack and have needed to add packages. In one case I am (trying) to package up FLAP and thought, as a first go I'd use the author's own description from README.md:

FLAP, Fortran command Line Arguments Parser for poor people

A KISS pure Fortran Library for building powerful, easy-to-use, elegant command line interfaces

* FLAP is a pure Fortran (KISS) library for building easily nice Command Line Interfaces (CLI) for modern Fortran projects;
* FLAP is Fortran 2003+ standard compliant;
* FLAP is OOP designed;
* FLAP is a Free, Open Source Project.

as that for the package. I added it to the triple-quote but, when you do a spack info flap:

Description:
     FLAP, Fortran command Line Arguments Parser for poor people A KISS pure
    Fortran Library for building powerful, easy-to-use, elegant command line
    interfaces * FLAP is a pure Fortran (KISS) library for building easily
    nice Command Line Interfaces (CLI) for modern Fortran projects; * FLAP
    is Fortran 2003+ standard compliant; * FLAP is OOP designed; * FLAP is a
    Free, Open Source Project.

Despite that description being a python triple-quote string, the newlines seem to be stripped out. I did try adding explicit \n characters, but no go.

Thus my request is if it would be possible to allow multiline descriptions.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

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 the spack info command and the code that formats package descriptions. Determine where multiline text is collapsed, then verify that spack info flap preserves the package description's paragraph and line breaks.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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