From c08f9b05d46f78d0b61d0521c0de2f525d031425 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Roland Walker <walker@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 04:37:40 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Revert "don't attempt to UTF-8-decode binary values (#98)"

This reverts commit 15519e282c22c6f732ae60fae555d653716f83ea.
---
 CHANGELOG                                  |  6 ++++++
 cli_helpers/utils.py                       | 11 ++++++++++-
 tests/tabular_output/test_preprocessors.py |  2 +-
 tests/test_utils.py                        |  4 ++--
 4 files changed, 19 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG b/CHANGELOG
index f31ee22..b2e27e8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG
+++ b/CHANGELOG
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## Version 2.8.2
+
+(released on 2026-01-26)
+
+- Revert: don't attempt to UTF-8-decode binary values.
+
 ## Version 2.8.1
 
 (released on 2026-01-24)
diff --git a/cli_helpers/utils.py b/cli_helpers/utils.py
index 12fca1d..053bdea 100644
--- a/cli_helpers/utils.py
+++ b/cli_helpers/utils.py
@@ -21,7 +21,16 @@ def bytes_to_string(b):
 
     """
     if isinstance(b, binary_type):
-        return "0x" + binascii.hexlify(b).decode("ascii")
+        needs_hex = False
+        try:
+            result = b.decode("utf8")
+            needs_hex = not result.isprintable()
+        except UnicodeDecodeError:
+            needs_hex = True
+        if needs_hex:
+            return "0x" + binascii.hexlify(b).decode("ascii")
+        else:
+            return result
     return b
 
 
diff --git a/tests/tabular_output/test_preprocessors.py b/tests/tabular_output/test_preprocessors.py
index 3545d9a..5ebd06d 100644
--- a/tests/tabular_output/test_preprocessors.py
+++ b/tests/tabular_output/test_preprocessors.py
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ def test_bytes_to_string():
     """Test the bytes_to_string() function."""
     data = [[1, "John"], [2, b"Jill"]]
     headers = [0, "name"]
-    expected = ([[1, "John"], [2, "0x4a696c6c"]], [0, "name"])
+    expected = ([[1, "John"], [2, "Jill"]], [0, "name"])
     results = bytes_to_string(data, headers)
 
     assert expected == (list(results[0]), results[1])
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index b10d6f7..ba43937 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ def test_bytes_to_string_hexlify():
 
 def test_bytes_to_string_decode_bytes():
     """Test that bytes_to_string() decodes bytes."""
-    assert utils.bytes_to_string(b"foobar") == "0x666f6f626172"
+    assert utils.bytes_to_string(b"foobar") == "foobar"
 
 
 def test_bytes_to_string_unprintable():
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ def test_bytes_to_string_non_bytes():
 
 def test_to_string_bytes():
     """Test that to_string() converts bytes to a string."""
-    assert utils.to_string(b"foo") == "0x666f6f"
+    assert utils.to_string(b"foo") == "foo"
 
 
 def test_to_string_non_bytes():