nc-apps: "quiet" and "lang" options not working

[Sanookmakmak]

According to this article, there are now the options “lang” and “quiet”.

While testing the script (version 2025-05-25 23:39 CEST), I noticed that lang=de has no effect (or I understand it wrong) and the flags -q and --quiet are currently not listed in the help output (--help or -h). Also, when using these flags, the script still outputs colored text and visible module loading progress when running:

nc-apps appstore 'map(select(.created > "2025-05-20"))' lang=de -q
nc-apps appstore 'map(select(.created > "2025-05-20"))' lang=de --quiet

nc-apps --help --nopager | grep -E '^[[:space:]]+lang='

lang=[ISO 639-1] language to be used for translations instead of the detected locale on your computer, which is "de"

[ernolf]

The reason "lang" doesn't seem to work is simply because there are very few app developers who actually offer the description in an additional language, such as German. So, it's simply not there for most.

Here's an example of an app that offers a German version:

~# nc-apps appstore '.[] | select(.id == "twofactor_email")' lang=de

creates this output with german summary:

{
  "id": "twofactor_email",
  "name": "Two-Factor Email",
  "summary": "Zwei-Faktor E-Mail Provider",
  "categories": "security",
  "version": "2.8.0",
  "userDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/User-manual",
  "adminDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/Admin-manual",
  "developerDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/Developer-notes",
  "issueTracker": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/issues",
  "website": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email",
  "created": "2018-08-21T17:49:32.371878Z",
  "lastModified": "2025-03-16T11:16:40.070587Z",
  "databases": "",
  "phpExtensions": "",
  "phpMinIntSize": 32,
  "phpMin": "8.0",
  "phpMax": "8.4",
  "NCmin": "29",
  "NCmax": "31"
}

and

~# nc-apps appstore '.[] | select(.id == "twofactor_email")' lang=en

creates this with thd english summary

{
  "id": "twofactor_email",
  "name": "Two-Factor Email",
  "summary": "Two-Factor Email Provider",
  "categories": "security",
  "version": "2.8.0",
  "userDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/User-manual",
  "adminDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/Admin-manual",
  "developerDocs": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/wiki/Developer-notes",
  "issueTracker": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email/issues",
  "website": "https://github.com/nursoda/twofactor_email",
  "created": "2018-08-21T17:49:32.371878Z",
  "lastModified": "2025-03-16T11:16:40.070587Z",
  "databases": "",
  "phpExtensions": "",
  "phpMinIntSize": 32,
  "phpMin": "8.0",
  "phpMax": "8.4",
  "NCmin": "29",
  "NCmax": "31"
}

---

the script still outputs colored text

jq handles color output on its own by emitting ANSI color codes only when its output is directed to a terminal. This means:

If you run jq directly in an interactive shell, you get nicely colorized JSON.

If you redirect the output to a file or pipe it into another command, the colors are disabled by default.

One can force colored output even when not writing to a terminal by using the --color-output flag.

One can ensure no colors at all (even in a terminal), with --monochrome-output.

In other words, the colored output is from jq and does not harm if used in a cron job for example where no /dev/tty exists at all. It will not crate ansi colored output there.

---

and visible module loading progress

I can't reproduce that.

[ernolf]

One can ensure no colors at all (even in a terminal), with --monochrome-output.

I have now integrated this for maximum security and to prevent questions like this one in future, even though it is not necessary.