more on #92263, dpkg --list truncates package names

[Scott Schwartz <schwartz@bio.cse.psu.edu>]

This bug report, is wrongly labeled as "wishlist".  It should be
"important", because it makes dpkg useless: If the package name is
truncated, you've lost the information you were trying to get from
dpkg-query.

More generally, unix programs should never truncate their output to fit
a terminal. Terminals are irrelevent; pipes are everything.

Here's a small patch that adds a --wide option to dpkg-query to print
without truncation.  

--- query.c.orig	2004-11-11 12:10:03.000000000 -0800
+++ query.c	2004-12-25 16:30:24.000000000 -0800
@@ -120,6 +120,10 @@
   return ws.ws_col;
 }
 
+/* Behave like a proper unix command; don't truncate
+   output based on (assumed) terminal size. */
+static int widemode = 0;
+
 static void list1package(struct pkginfo *pkg, int *head) {
   int l,w;
   static int nw,vw,dw;
@@ -133,7 +137,10 @@
     nw=(14+w);		/* name width */
     vw=(14+w);		/* version width */
     dw=(44+(2*w));	/* description width */
-    sprintf(format,"%%c%%c%%c %%-%d.%ds %%-%d.%ds %%.*s\n", nw, nw, vw, vw);
+    if (widemode)
+      sprintf(format,"%%c%%c%%c %%-%ds %%-%ds %%.*s\n", nw, vw);
+    else
+      sprintf(format,"%%c%%c%%c %%-%d.%ds %%-%d.%ds %%.*s\n", nw, nw, vw, vw);
   }
 
   if (!*head) {
@@ -150,7 +157,8 @@
     *head= 1;
   }
   if (!pkg->installed.valid) blankpackageperfile(&pkg->installed);
-  limiteddescription(pkg,dw,&pdesc,&l);
+  limiteddescription(pkg,widemode ? 99999 : dw,&pdesc,&l);
+
   printf(format,
          "uihrp"[pkg->want],
          "nUFiHc"[pkg->status],
@@ -524,6 +532,8 @@
   ACTION( "search",                         'S', act_searchfiles,   searchfiles     ),
   ACTION( "show",                           'W', act_listpackages,  showpackages    ),
 
+  { "wide", 'w', 0, &widemode, 0, 0, 1 },
+
   { "admindir",           0,   1,  0, &admindir,       0                            },
   { "showformat",         0,   1,  0, &showformat,     0                            },
   { "help",              'h',  0,  0, 0,               helponly                     },