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Let's do a simple example. This is what the standard output was printed on screen by Terminal.

Mac:~ usr$ brew list gdbm libidn2 node python@2 wget gettext libunistring openssl readline xz icu4c lz4 python sqlite

However, when I redirect the standard output to a file, the column style is lost.

Mac:~ usr$ brew list | tee "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S').log" gdbm gettext icu4c libidn2 libunistring lz4 node openssl python python@2 readline sqlite wget xz

How can I preserve the standard output style in the output file exactly the same as shown on Terminal screen so that the log file looks pretty?

The log file is not further piped into any other program, function or loop for analysis, where outputting every element every line can be advantageous.

The log file is just for personal reference so I wish to keep it in a reader friendly format, something like IETF's 72 character width. Another purpose for seeking this fashion is that it takes less vertical space when I physically print the file out on a sheet of paper, and perhaps, I can also apply this on other occasions.

Assume Terminal has the default macOS Window Size: 80 Columns x 24 Rows.

Update:

As suggsted by this discussion, I can achieve the desired output by using script

script -q /dev/null brew list | perl -pe 's/\r\n/\n/g' > "$(date '+%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S').log"

The output style will be preserved but use emacs or vim to open the log file. If I use BBEdit to open the log file, tab width will be visually adjusted --- which led to me to falsely think the command is not working.

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    Your terminal does this based on its width. Your file cannot know at script-/runtime what width of terminal you will later use to read it. What width do you want your file to assume? Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 16:30
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    Agree with @Josh that this is a duplicate. And would add "DON'T DO THIS!" to your log files. Your future self, your future replacement, and anyone who needs to parse the logs will thank you if you just sit on your hands for a while. Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 16:42
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    [01;34m~/src/glibc $ ^[[00mls^M COPYING ^[[0m^[[01;34massert^[[0m ^[[01;34mdlfcn^[[0m -- Your log file when preserving ls output exactly the same as a terminal. You can use less -r to allow ansi formatting when viewing. Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 16:45
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    nod. Making logs look pretty is much, much less important than making those logs easy to programmatically consume. It's far easier to consume one line per element... which is exactly why brew uses that format when its output is not to a TTY. Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 17:18
  • @ that other guy. Can you explain your code. I don't understand what they do. Why do they contain ^[[, and carriage-return character, ^M? I've also tried the script command as suggested from other thread; however, the output log file contains a lot of garbage characters so I am still playing around with script to see what I can get. Commented Jul 6, 2018 at 18:53

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