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Rich Console Status Visual Bug #1578
Description
Description
Using the Cmd.p* output methods from while a rich status spinner is running causes the messages to merge on the terminal.
Environment
- Windows 11
- Windows Terminal Version: 1.23.20211.0
- Python 3.12.2
- cmd2-3.2.0
Steps to Reproduce
import time
from argparse import Namespace
from cmd2 import Cmd, with_category
from rich.console import Console
TEST_CATAGORY: str = "Test Commands"
console = Console()
class MyCmd(Cmd):
@with_category(TEST_CATAGORY)
def do_exemplar(self, args: Namespace):
"""This is what the status is expected to look like."""
with console.status("Working!"):
for _ in range(10):
console.log("console.log: Hello from cmd!")
time.sleep(0.1)
@with_category(TEST_CATAGORY)
def do_problem(self, args: Namespace):
"""Demonstrate the problem."""
with console.status("Working!"):
for _ in range(10):
self.pwarning("pwarning: Hello from cmd!")
time.sleep(0.1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
MyCmd().cmdloop()
Solutions
I did some digging into rich and cmd2 and could not find a way to insert my own console instance into the cmd2.Cmd for use with the print methods (cmd2.Cmd.p*). If there is an obvious solution, please let me know. I have been a long time user of this package and the new changes integrating rich are very exciting.
One possible fix would be to not create a new console object for each call to the print methods. I am not really sure how easy that will be to change or maintain. There could be a console attribute for the cmd2.Cmd class or cmd2 could manage a global console object like how rich does.
Activity
github-actions commentedon Feb 19, 2026
🤖 Hi @ShiftPoster, I've received your request, and I'm working on it now! You can track my progress in the logs for more details.
kmvanbrunt commentedon Feb 19, 2026
@ShiftPoster Let me look into a good way to support Rich features where a custom console is needed. One reason we recreate the console each time is because we set certain arguments which are state-based. (e.g. cmd2's current theme and ALLOW_STYLE value).
Most likely the answer will be just to add an optional console argument to the
print_to()method.ShiftPoster commentedon Feb 22, 2026
I think a
print_to()console argument would work perfectly, its not really a major issue.I went down a rabbit hole with the console attribute scenario and had an idea for a context manager to handle the state. If you guys decide to go down the attribute route, hopefully it will be helpful. The test cases are pretty bare, I had trouble wrapping head around existing tests and trying to think of better test cases. Source is here: https://github.com/ShiftPoster/cmd2-poc
AlwaysTwilight commentedon Feb 22, 2026
Agent run
4858c0ef4f894a2aa40cffc271396298started.AlwaysTwilight commentedon Feb 22, 2026
Agent run
4858c0ef4f894a2aa40cffc271396298finished without PR: Baseline pytest failed; aborting runShiftPoster commentedon Feb 24, 2026
I am not sure what that means @AlwaysTwilight
tleonhardt commentedon Feb 24, 2026
@ShiftPoster I have no idea who @AlwaysTwilight is, but they are not affiliated with this project.
tleonhardt commentedon Mar 1, 2026
@ShiftPoster The
cmd23.3.0 release is out that contains a modifiedprint_tothat you can now pass a console object to.ShiftPoster commentedon Mar 2, 2026
Awesome, thank you!
kmvanbrunt commentedon Mar 3, 2026
@ShiftPoster Sorry, adding the ability to pass a console to
print_to()wasn't the best approach.I've reverted this in cmd2 3.4.0 and actually made it unnecessary.
I moved the cmd2-specific logic from
print_to()toCmd2BaseConsole.print()andCmd2BaseConsole.log().Now, assuming you are using a
Cmd2BaseConsole-related class, your originalpwarningcode becomes.Note: You still can't call the
cmd2.Cmd.p*print methods in aconsole.status()or aconsole.capture()since these methods are only convenience wrappers meant to quickly print something. However, you still get the same input handling that previously only resided incmd2.Cmd.print_to().ShiftPoster commentedon Apr 12, 2026
Sounds good, I like being able to maintain consistently formatted output. Ill keep in mind the use case for the
p*methods.