cli/zip: emit SQL table data using JSON by default

Release note (backward-incompatible change): The command `cockroach
debug zip` now stores data retrieved from SQL tables in the remote
cluster using the JSON format by default. The previous version
behavior can be obtained by passing `--format=tsv` explicitely.

The JSON data is easier to explore programmatically; and it
can also be explored in a web browser using the
[JsonDiscovery extension](https://github.com/discoveryjs/browser-extension-json-discovery).

Release note (cli change): `cockroach debug zip` now supports the
command-line flag `--format` to select the format used to store SQL
table data, in the same way as `cockroach sql`. In contrast to
`cockroach sql` however, its default value is `json` (resulting in
files named `.json`) and the default is not dependent on whether
the terminal is interactive.

pkg/cli/flags.go

@@ -779,6 +779,7 @@ func init() {
 			statementBundleRecreateCmd,
 			debugListFilesCmd,
 			debugJobTraceFromClusterCmd,
+			debugZipCmd,
 		},
 		demoCmd.Commands()...)
 	tableOutputCommands = append(tableOutputCommands, nodeCmds...)

pkg/cli/testdata/zip/specialnames

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 zip
 ----
-[cluster] retrieving SQL data for crdb_internal.cluster_database_privileges... writing output: debug/crdb_internal.cluster_database_privileges.txt... done
-[cluster] retrieving SQL data for crdb_internal.table_indexes... writing output: debug/crdb_internal.table_indexes.txt... done
-[cluster] retrieving SQL data for system.database_role_settings... writing output: debug/system.database_role_settings.txt... done
-[cluster] retrieving SQL data for system.table_statistics... writing output: debug/system.table_statistics.txt... done
+[cluster] retrieving SQL data for crdb_internal.cluster_database_privileges... writing output: debug/crdb_internal.cluster_database_privileges.json... done
+[cluster] retrieving SQL data for crdb_internal.table_indexes... writing output: debug/crdb_internal.table_indexes.json... done
+[cluster] retrieving SQL data for system.database_role_settings... writing output: debug/system.database_role_settings.json... done
+[cluster] retrieving SQL data for system.table_statistics... writing output: debug/system.table_statistics.json... done

pkg/cli/zip.go

@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ func (zc *debugZipContext) forAllNodes(
 
 type nodeLivenesses = map[roachpb.NodeID]livenesspb.NodeLivenessStatus
 
-func runDebugZip(_ *cobra.Command, args []string) (retErr error) {
+func runDebugZip(cmd *cobra.Command, args []string) (retErr error) {
 	if err := zipCtx.files.validate(); err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -241,8 +241,13 @@ func runDebugZip(_ *cobra.Command, args []string) (retErr error) {
 			cliCtx.IsInteractive = false
 			sqlExecCtx.TerminalOutput = false
 			sqlExecCtx.ShowTimes = false
-			// Use a streaming format to avoid accumulating all rows in RAM.
-			sqlExecCtx.TableDisplayFormat = clisqlexec.TableDisplayTSV
+
+			if !cmd.Flags().Changed(cliflags.TableDisplayFormat.Name) {
+				// Use a streaming format to avoid accumulating all rows in RAM.
+				sqlExecCtx.TableDisplayFormat = clisqlexec.TableDisplayJSON
+			}
+
+			zr.sqlOutputFilenameExtension = computeSQLOutputFilenameExtension(sqlExecCtx.TableDisplayFormat)
 
 			sqlConn, err := makeTenantSQLClient("cockroach zip", useSystemDb, tenant.TenantName)
 			// The zip output is sent directly into a text file, so the results should
@@ -382,7 +387,7 @@ func (zc *debugZipContext) dumpTableDataForZip(
 	const maxRetries = 5
 	suffix := ""
 	for numRetries := 1; numRetries <= maxRetries; numRetries++ {
-		name := baseName + suffix + ".txt"
+		name := baseName + suffix + "." + zc.clusterPrinter.sqlOutputFilenameExtension
 		s.progress("writing output: %s", name)
 		sqlErr := func() error {
 			zc.z.Lock()
@@ -433,3 +438,13 @@ func (zc *debugZipContext) dumpTableDataForZip(
 func sanitizeFilename(f string) string {
 	return strings.TrimPrefix(f, `"".`)
 }
+
+func computeSQLOutputFilenameExtension(tfmt clisqlexec.TableDisplayFormat) string {
+	switch tfmt {
+	case clisqlexec.TableDisplayTSV:
+		// Backward-compatibility with previous versions.
+		return "txt"
+	default:
+		return tfmt.String()
+	}
+}

pkg/cli/zip_helpers.go

@@ -314,6 +314,10 @@ type zipReporter struct {
 	// withPrefix(), start(), info() are only valid while inItem is false,
 	// whereas progress(), done() and fail() are only valid while inItem is true.
 	inItem bool
+
+	// The file name extension for SQL table contents
+	// retrieved via RunQueryAndFormatResults().
+	sqlOutputFilenameExtension string
 }
 
 func (zc *zipContext) newZipReporter(format string, args ...interface{}) *zipReporter {

pkg/cli/zip_test.go

@@ -566,9 +566,11 @@ func TestZipRetries(t *testing.T) {
 		}()
 
 		zr := zipCtx.newZipReporter("test")
+		zr.sqlOutputFilenameExtension = "json"
 		zc := debugZipContext{
-			z:       z,
-			timeout: 3 * time.Second,
+			z:              z,
+			clusterPrinter: zr,
+			timeout:        3 * time.Second,
 		}
 		if err := zc.dumpTableDataForZip(
 			zr,
@@ -590,16 +592,16 @@ func TestZipRetries(t *testing.T) {
 	for _, f := range r.File {
 		fmt.Fprintln(&fileList, f.Name)
 	}
-	const expected = `test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).txt.err.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).1.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).1.txt.err.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).2.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).2.txt.err.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).3.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).3.txt.err.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).4.txt
-test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).4.txt.err.txt
+	const expected = `test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).json
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).json.err.txt
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).1.json
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).1.json.err.txt
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).2.json
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).2.json.err.txt
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).3.json
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).3.json.err.txt
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).4.json
+test/generate_series(1,15000) as t(x).4.json.err.txt
 `
 	assert.Equal(t, expected, fileList.String())
 }