Issue #13609: Add two functions to query the terminal size:
os.get_terminal_size (low level) and shutil.get_terminal_size (high level).
Patch by Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek.
diff --git a/Doc/library/shutil.rst b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
index 77ce6b0..bae7db8 100644
--- a/Doc/library/shutil.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/shutil.rst
@@ -459,3 +459,36 @@
-rw------- tarek/staff 1675 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- tarek/staff 397 2008-06-09 13:26:54 ./id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r-- tarek/staff 37192 2010-02-06 18:23:10 ./known_hosts
+
+
+Querying the size of the output terminal
+----------------------------------------
+
+.. versionadded:: 3.3
+
+.. function:: get_terminal_size(fallback=(columns, lines))
+
+ Get the size of the terminal window.
+
+ For each of the two dimensions, the environment variable, ``COLUMNS``
+ and ``LINES`` respectively, is checked. If the variable is defined and
+ the value is a positive integer, it is used.
+
+ When ``COLUMNS`` or ``LINES`` is not defined, which is the common case,
+ the terminal connected to :data:`sys.__stdout__` is queried
+ by invoking :func:`os.get_terminal_size`.
+
+ If the terminal size cannot be successfully queried, either because
+ the system doesn't support querying, or because we are not
+ connected to a terminal, the value given in ``fallback`` parameter
+ is used. ``fallback`` defaults to ``(80, 24)`` which is the default
+ size used by many terminal emulators.
+
+ The value returned is a named tuple of type :class:`os.terminal_size`.
+
+ See also: The Single UNIX Specification, Version 2,
+ `Other Environment Variables`_.
+
+.. _`Other Environment Variables`:
+ http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xbd/envvar.html#tag_002_003
+