formatting is borked when running `aws help config-vars`

[kidbrax]

Confirm by changing [ ] to [x] below to ensure that it's a bug:

• [x] I've gone though the User Guide and the API reference
• [x] I've searched for previous similar issues and didn't find any solution

Describe the bug when running aws help config-vars, the output of the GENERAL OPTIONS section is not formatted correctly

It looks like this:

GENERAL OPTIONS
       The AWS CLI has a few general options:

       center; |l|l|l|l|l|.  _ T{ Variable T}   T{ Option T}   T{ Config Entry
       T}   T{ Environment  Variable  T}   T{  Description  T}  _  T{  profile
       T}   T{  --profile T}   T{ N/A T}   T{ AWS_PROFILE T}   T{ Default pro-
       file name T} _  T{  region  T}   T{  --region  T}   T{  region  T}   T{
       AWS_DEFAULT_REGION  T}   T{  Default  AWS Region T} _ T{ output T}   T{
       --output T}   T{ output T}   T{ AWS_DEFAULT_OUTPUT T}   T{ Default out-
       put  style  T}  _ T{ cli_timestamp_format T}   T{ N/A T}   T{ cli_time-
       stamp_format T}   T{ N/A T}   T{ Output format of timestamps  T}  _  T{
       cli_follow_urlparam T}   T{ N/A T}   T{ cli_follow_urlparam T}   T{ N/A
       T}   T{ Fetch URL url parameters T} _ T{ ca_bundle T}   T{  --ca-bundle
       T}   T{  ca_bundle  T}   T{ AWS_CA_BUNDLE T}   T{ CA Certificate Bundle
       T} _ T{ parameter_validation T}   T{ N/A  T}   T{  parameter_validation
       T}   T{  N/A T}   T{ Toggles parameter validation T} _ T{ tcp_keepalive
       T}   T{ N/A T}   T{  tcp_keepalive  T}   T{  N/A  T}   T{  Toggles  TCP
       Keep-Alive  T}  _  T{  max_attempts  T}   T{  N/A  T}   T{ max_attempts
       T}   T{ AWS_MAX_ATTEMPTS T}   T{ Number  of  total  requests  T}  _  T{
       retry_mode   T}   T{  N/A  T}   T{  retry_mode  T}   T{  AWS_RETRY_MODE
       T}   T{  Type  of  retries  performed  T}  _   T{   cli_pager   T}   T{
       --no-cli-pager   T}   T{  cli_pager  T}   T{  AWS_PAGER  T}   T{  Redi-
       rect/Disable output to pager T} _

       The third column, Config Entry, is the value you would specify  in  the
       AWS  CLI  config file.  By default, this location is ~/.aws/config.  If
       you need to change this value, you can set the AWS_CONFIG_FILE environ-
       ment variable to change this location.

       The valid values of the output configuration variable are:

       o json

       o table

       o text

SDK version number

$ aws --version
aws-cli/2.1.25 Python/3.7.4 Darwin/20.4.0 exe/x86_64 prompt/off

Platform/OS/Hardware/Device

MacOS and ZSH

To Reproduce (observed behavior)

just type aws help config-vars and look at the output

[stobrien89]

Hi again @kidbrax,

Thanks for pointing this out! I was able to reproduce this. It seems less has trouble with the table output listed for "General Options" here. I'm not seeing this issue in Powershell, but I haven't tested any other shells to see if other pagers are affected by this. Marking as a bug for now.

[kdaily]

I think there's an open PR that would resolve this:

https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/pull/4855

We would need to check all the places we use tables and make sure that this addresses, as well as that it doesn't have any effect on other content.

Alternatively, we could forego a table here and reformat it into an enumerated list. What do you think about the readability in that case? Something like:

General Options

The AWS CLI has a few general options:

• Default profile name
  • Variable: profile
  • Option: --profile
  • Configuration entry: N/A
  • Environment Variable: AWS_PROFILE

[TheWesDias]

Hi @kdaily I did your suggestion. What do you think ?

[indrora]

Can't reproduce in iTerm2:

Can't reproduce in Terminal.app

Version:

$ aws --version
aws-cli/2.13.3 Python/3.11.4 Darwin/22.5.0 exe/x86_64 prompt/off

[indrora]

@debora-ito was able to reproduce the issue and gave us a bit of a hint: It's groff.

I installed groff and lo and behold:

Something throws an error during render:

<string>:450: (ERROR/3) Unknown interpreted text role "doc".

~~This transiently shows up after I install groff, but then sticks around after I remove groff~~. Edit: nevermind, I checked an old terminal window that I used to check and sure enough, it's there before I installed groff, so that's a bug somewhere else. I'm going to guess that's a leftover from our doc building process seeping out of the seams somewhere.

[TheWesDias]

@indrora it seems that <string>:450: (ERROR/3) Unknown interpreted text role "doc". error is due to this line https://github.com/aws/aws-cli/blob/3477bdbb546d73a96e79cfa474cd2dbc7b3b225d/awscli/topics/config-vars.rst?plain=1#L507