On Thu, Sep 24, 2026 at 01:00:36 +0000, [email protected] wrote: > i upgraded from bookworm to trixie > ran apt upgrade followed by apt dist-upgrade > now i see escape sequences is some applications > > $ apt show coreutils > ESC[1mPackage: ESC[0mESC[32mcoreutilsESC[0m > ESC[1mVersion:ESC[0m 9.7-3 > ESC[1mPriority:ESC[0m required > ESC[1mEssential:ESC[0m yes > ESC[1mSection:ESC[0m utils
This can be caused by having the LESS environment variable set to a value that doesn't include "R". apt runs less automatically when stdout is a terminal, and apt tries to write colors automatically under those same conditions. If less isn't told to let the color codes through untouched, you get the result you saw. hobbit:~$ LESS=-X apt show coreutils ESC[1mPackage: ESC[0mESC[32mcoreutilsESC[0m ESC[1mVersion:ESC[0m 9.7-3 ESC[1mPriority:ESC[0m required ... hobbit:~$ LESS=-RX apt show coreutils Package: coreutils Version: 9.7-3 Priority: required ... hobbit:~$ (unset LESS; apt show coreutils) Package: coreutils Version: 9.7-3 Priority: required ... You've got a few choices here: 1) You can ignore it. 2) You can include R in your $LESS expansion, if you're willing to risk it. 3) You can configure apt not to use colors by default. 4) You can set the PAGER variable to something other than less. 5) You can wrap the "apt" command in a function/alias that overrides the LESS or PAGER variable for this command only. Etc.
