macOS: When using Apple's less as the pager for viewing scrollback strip out OSC codes as Apple's less cant parse them

Fixes #4788

docs/changelog.rst

@@ -75,6 +75,10 @@ command.
 Detailed list of changes
 -------------------------------------
 
+0.25.0 [future]
+
+- macOS: When using Apple's less as the pager for viewing scrollback strip out OSC codes as Apple's less cant parse them (:iss:`4788`)
+
 0.24.4 [2022-03-03]
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 

kitty/boss.py

@@ -1313,6 +1313,8 @@ class Boss:
             s.close()
 
     def display_scrollback(self, window: Window, data: Union[bytes, str], input_line_number: int = 0, title: str = '', report_cursor: bool = True) -> None:
+        import shutil
+
         def prepare_arg(x: str) -> str:
             x = x.replace('INPUT_LINE_NUMBER', str(input_line_number))
             x = x.replace('CURSOR_LINE', str(window.screen.cursor.y + 1) if report_cursor else '0')
@@ -1328,6 +1330,10 @@ class Boss:
         tab = self.active_tab
         if tab is not None:
             bdata = data.encode('utf-8') if isinstance(data, str) else data
+            if is_macos and shutil.which(cmd[0]) == '/usr/bin/less':
+                # the system less on macOS barfs up OSC codes, so sanitize them ourselves
+                bdata = re.sub(br'\x1b\].*?\x1b\\', b'', bdata)
+
             tab.new_special_window(
                 SpecialWindow(cmd, bdata, title or _('History'), overlay_for=window.id, cwd=window.cwd_of_child),
                 copy_colors_from=self.active_window