root executable :: remove (or disable by default) any not requested printouts

[adriansev]

Explain what you would like to see improved

root executable emits a lot of non-requested output which:

1. force the users to do workarounds just to make root print only what was instructed by user to do
2. makes it harder to be used as interpreter (to be used in shebang)

Optional: share how it could be improved

there should be NO output if it was not requested ...
moreover, IMHO, it's kind of silly that there is a need for root and root.exe
and users that need to remove annoyances need to alias root='root.exe -l'
so, i would say, that all differences between non exe and exe should be removed and hidden under a flag
and all banners or any other text should be by default disabled (so -l in fact should enable the banner if requested)
for compatibility the .exe files should be replaced with symlinks to the actual main executables

To Reproduce

just use it

Setup

any root version

Additional context

so, my argument is that, given the interpreter profile of the root executable (the fact that it can execute a human text input make is an interpreter in the usage sense), there should be no actions performed that were not instructed by the user/developer; if so, there is a breach of contract like: i told you to print a new line and this information and i got another newline and some other text beside what i wanted

[ferdymercury]

Seems related to https://its.cern.ch/jira/browse/ROOT-8344

[guitargeek]

Hi! These are all very good points, that we are addressing:

• The difference between root and root.exe will be gone soon, and roo.exe is kept as a copy of root for backwards compatibility for now: [rootx] Turn root executable into symbolic link to root.exe #20006
• Spurious new lines in the interpreter will be avoided: Remove stray line break when running root -q with input files #21017
• The splash screen is gone since 2024

About disabling the other printouts: I think we have an excellent precedent with the python interpreter. It only prints out it's introduction banner if you start it up without any input scripts or commands:

[I] omen nix-shell ~/c/r/root_src rint_line_break > python
Python 3.13.11 (main, Dec  5 2025, 16:06:33) [GCC 15.2.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
[I] omen nix-shell ~/c/r/root_src rint_line_break > python script.py
Hello world
[I] omen nix-shell ~/c/r/root_src rint_line_break > python -c "print('Hello world')"
Hello world
[I] omen nix-shell ~/c/r/root_src rint_line_break > python -i script.py
Hello world
>>>
[I] omen nix-shell ~/c/r/root_src rint_line_break > python -i -c "print('Hello world')"
Hello world
>>>

It's very cautious printing the banner, not even printing it when you stay in the interactive interpreter session with the -i flag.

I think a good step to make ROOT behave similarly would be to suppress the banner if it's run in non-interactive mode with -q, then as a second step, we could discuss about some other printout, like the "Processing macro.C" when you run a macro (following up on the discussion in the JIRA ticket linked above).

[guitargeek]

Partially addressed by:

• Remove stray line break when running root -q with input files #21017