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handle-user-output

Guide for producing user-facing output in this Rust project. NEVER use println!, eprintln!, print!, eprint!, or direct stdout/stderr access. Always use UserOutput via the execution context or ProgressReporter in controllers. Covers the sink-based output architecture, stdout vs stderr channel strategy, ProgressReporter for multi-step operations, verbosity control, and themes. Use when writing any user-visible output, progress messages, errors, or results. Triggers on "println", "print output", "user output", "UserOutput", "ProgressReporter", "display result", "output message", or "progress message".

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torrust/torrust-tracker-deployer
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February 25, 2026 at 19:30
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handle-user-output
description
Guide for producing user-facing output in this Rust project. NEVER use println!, eprintln!, print!, eprint!, or direct stdout/stderr access. Always use UserOutput via the execution context or ProgressReporter in controllers. Covers the sink-based output architecture, stdout vs stderr channel strategy, ProgressReporter for multi-step operations, verbosity control, and themes. Use when writing any user-visible output, progress messages, errors, or results. Triggers on "println", "print output", "user output", "UserOutput", "ProgressReporter", "display result", "output message", or "progress message".
metadata
{"author":"torrust","version":"1.0"}
# Handling User Output ## Golden Rule **NEVER write directly to stdout/stderr.** ```rust // ❌ FORBIDDEN println!("Processing..."); eprintln!("Error occurred"); std::io::stdout().write_all(b"data").unwrap(); ``` ```rust // ✅ CORRECT — use UserOutput let user_output = ctx.user_output(); user_output.lock().borrow_mut().progress("Processing..."); user_output.lock().borrow_mut().error("Error occurred"); user_output.lock().borrow_mut().result("data"); ``` ## In Controllers: Use ProgressReporter Controllers use `ProgressReporter` (not `UserOutput` directly): ```rust use crate::presentation::views::progress::ProgressReporter; use crate::presentation::views::UserOutput; pub struct ConfigureCommandController { progress: ProgressReporter, } impl ConfigureCommandController { pub fn new(user_output: Arc<ReentrantMutex<RefCell<UserOutput>>>) -> Self { Self { progress: ProgressReporter::new(user_output, 3), // 3 total steps } } pub fn execute(&mut self) -> Result<(), Error> { self.progress.start_step("Validating environment")?; // ... do work ... self.progress.complete_step(Some("Environment name validated: my-env"))?; self.progress.start_step("Configuring infrastructure")?; // ... do work ... self.progress.complete_step(None)?; Ok(()) } } ``` ## Channel Strategy (stdout vs stderr) | Channel | Use for | | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | **stdout** | Final results, structured data (JSON), pipeline | | **stderr** | Progress, status updates, warnings, errors | This enables piping: `deployer create env | jq .status` ## Why This Architecture? - **Testability**: Output captured and asserted in tests - **Verbosity control**: Centralized filtering - **Theme support**: emoji/plain/ASCII themes - **Channel routing**: Automatic stdout vs stderr ## Reference Full guide: [`docs/contributing/output-handling.md`](../../docs/contributing/output-handling.md)
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