cmd/tailscale/cli, util/qrcodes: format QR codes on Linux consoles (#18182)

Raw Linux consoles support UTF-8, but we cannot assume that all UTF-8
characters are available. The default Fixed and Terminus fonts don’t
contain half-block characters (`▀` and `▄`), but do contain the
full-block character (`█`).

Sometimes, Linux doesn’t have a framebuffer, so it falls back to VGA.
When this happens, the full-block character could be anywhere in
extended ASCII block, because we don’t know which code page is active.

This PR introduces `--qr-format=auto` which tries to heuristically
detect when Tailscale is printing to a raw Linux console, whether
UTF-8 is enabled, and which block characters have been mapped in the
console font.

If Unicode characters are unavailable, the new `--qr-format=ascii`
formatter uses `#` characters instead of full-block characters.

Fixes #12935

Signed-off-by: Simon Law <sfllaw@tailscale.com>
This commit is contained in:
Simon Law
2026-01-07 18:12:06 -08:00
committed by GitHub
parent e66531041b
commit 522a6e385e
6 changed files with 259 additions and 20 deletions
+75
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// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS
// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
// Package qrcodes provides functions to render or format QR codes.
package qrcodes
import (
"fmt"
"io"
"strings"
qrcode "github.com/skip2/go-qrcode"
)
// Format selects the text representation used to print QR codes.
type Format string
const (
// FormatAuto will format QR codes to best fit the capabilities of the
// [io.Writer].
FormatAuto Format = "auto"
// FormatASCII will format QR codes with only ASCII characters.
FormatASCII Format = "ascii"
// FormatLarge will format QR codes with full block characters.
FormatLarge Format = "large"
// FormatSmall will format QR codes with full and half block characters.
FormatSmall Format = "small"
)
// Fprintln formats s according to [Format] and writes a QR code to w, along
// with a newline. It returns the number of bytes written and any write error
// encountered.
func Fprintln(w io.Writer, format Format, s string) (n int, err error) {
const inverse = false // Modern scanners can read QR codes of any colour.
q, err := qrcode.New(s, qrcode.Medium)
if err != nil {
return 0, fmt.Errorf("QR code error: %w", err)
}
if format == FormatAuto {
format, err = detectFormat(w, inverse)
if err != nil {
return 0, fmt.Errorf("QR code error: %w", err)
}
}
var out string
switch format {
case FormatASCII:
out = q.ToString(inverse)
out = strings.ReplaceAll(out, "█", "#")
case FormatLarge:
out = q.ToString(inverse)
case FormatSmall:
out = q.ToSmallString(inverse)
default:
return 0, fmt.Errorf("unknown QR code format: %q", format)
}
return fmt.Fprintln(w, out)
}
// EncodePNG renders a QR code for s as a PNG, with a width and height of size
// pixels.
func EncodePNG(s string, size int) ([]byte, error) {
q, err := qrcode.New(s, qrcode.Medium)
if err != nil {
return nil, err
}
return q.PNG(size)
}
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// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS
// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
//go:build linux
package qrcodes
import (
"errors"
"fmt"
"io"
"os"
"os/exec"
"strconv"
"strings"
"syscall"
"unsafe"
"github.com/mattn/go-isatty"
"golang.org/x/sys/unix"
)
func detectFormat(w io.Writer, inverse bool) (format Format, _ error) {
var zero Format
// Almost every terminal supports UTF-8, but the Linux
// console may have partial or no support, which is
// especially painful inside VMs. See tailscale/tailscale#12935.
format = FormatSmall
// Is the locale (LC_CTYPE) set to UTF-8?
locale, err := locale()
if err != nil {
return FormatASCII, fmt.Errorf("QR: %w", err)
}
const utf8 = ".UTF-8"
if !strings.HasSuffix(locale["LC_CTYPE"], utf8) &&
!strings.HasSuffix(locale["LANG"], utf8) {
return FormatASCII, nil
}
// Are we printing to a terminal?
f, ok := w.(*os.File)
if !ok {
return format, nil
}
if !isatty.IsTerminal(f.Fd()) {
return format, nil
}
fd := f.Fd()
// On a Linux console, check that the current keyboard
// is in Unicode mode. See unicode_start(1).
const K_UNICODE = 0x03
kbMode, err := ioctlGetKBMode(fd)
if err != nil {
if errors.Is(err, syscall.ENOTTY) {
return format, nil
}
return zero, err
}
if kbMode != K_UNICODE {
return FormatASCII, nil
}
// On a raw Linux console, detect whether the block
// characters are available in the current font by
// consulting the Unicode-to-font mapping.
unimap, err := ioctlGetUniMap(fd)
if err != nil {
return zero, err
}
if _, ok := unimap['█']; ok {
format = FormatLarge
}
if _, ok := unimap['▀']; ok && inverse {
format = FormatSmall
}
if _, ok := unimap['▄']; ok && !inverse {
format = FormatSmall
}
return format, nil
}
func locale() (map[string]string, error) {
locale := map[string]string{
"LANG": os.Getenv("LANG"),
"LC_CTYPE": os.Getenv("LC_CTYPE"),
}
cmd := exec.Command("locale")
out, err := cmd.Output()
if err != nil {
if errors.Is(err, exec.ErrNotFound) {
return locale, nil
}
return nil, fmt.Errorf("locale error: %w", err)
}
for line := range strings.SplitSeq(string(out), "\n") {
if line == "" {
continue
}
k, v, found := strings.Cut(line, "=")
if !found {
continue
}
v, err := strconv.Unquote(v)
if err != nil {
continue
}
locale[k] = v
}
return locale, nil
}
func ioctlGetKBMode(fd uintptr) (int, error) {
const KDGKBMODE = 0x4b44
mode, err := unix.IoctlGetInt(int(fd), KDGKBMODE)
if err != nil {
return 0, fmt.Errorf("keyboard mode error: %w", err)
}
return mode, nil
}
func ioctlGetUniMap(fd uintptr) (map[rune]int, error) {
const GIO_UNIMAP = 0x4B66 // get unicode-to-font mapping from kernel
var ud struct {
Count uint16
Entries uintptr // pointer to unipair array
}
type unipair struct {
Unicode uint16 // Unicode value
FontPos uint16 // Font position in the console font
}
// First, get the number of entries:
_, _, errno := unix.Syscall(unix.SYS_IOCTL, fd, GIO_UNIMAP, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&ud)))
if errno != 0 && !errors.Is(errno, syscall.ENOMEM) {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("unicode mapping error: %w", errno)
}
// Then allocate enough space and get the entries themselves:
if ud.Count == 0 {
return nil, nil
}
entries := make([]unipair, ud.Count)
ud.Entries = uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&entries[0]))
_, _, errno = unix.Syscall(unix.SYS_IOCTL, fd, GIO_UNIMAP, uintptr(unsafe.Pointer(&ud)))
if errno != 0 {
return nil, fmt.Errorf("unicode mapping error: %w", errno)
}
unimap := make(map[rune]int)
for _, e := range entries {
unimap[rune(e.Unicode)] = int(e.FontPos)
}
return unimap, nil
}
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// Copyright (c) Tailscale Inc & AUTHORS
// SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
//go:build !linux
package qrcodes
import "io"
func detectFormat(w io.Writer, inverse bool) (Format, error) {
// Assume all terminals can support the full set of UTF-8 block
// characters: (█, ▀, ▄). See tailscale/tailscale#12935.
return FormatSmall, nil
}