lscolumns.py

import sys
from term_size import get_terminal_size


def get_columns(values, cols):
    columns = []
    col_size = len(values) / cols
    extra = len(values) % cols
    n = 0
    for i in range(cols):
        s = col_size
        if i+1 <= extra: s += 1         
        this_column = values[n:n+s]
        columns.append(this_column)
        n += s
    return columns


def printls(values, max_width=None, spacing=2):
    if sys.stdout.isatty() and max_width is None:
        cols,lines = get_terminal_size()
        max_width = cols        
    
    if max_width:
        # if output to terminal or max_width is specified, use column output

        for cols in [int(len(values) / float(i) + 0.5) for i in range(1, len(values) + 1)]:
            columns = get_columns(values, cols)
            widths = [max([len(c) for c in column])+spacing for column in columns]
            if sum(widths) < max_width:
                break
            
        for pos in range(len(columns[0])):
            for column, width in zip(columns, widths):
                if len(column) > pos:
                    print column[pos].ljust(width-1),
            print
            
    else:
        # otherwise, just output each value, one per line
        for value in values: print value