Cygwin-3.1.3: Terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones on the start of non-Cygwin programs

Cygwin-3.1.3: Terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones on the start of non-Cygwin programs

[Koichi Murase]

Hi, this is another report related to the pseudo console.

Description:

  When a non-Cygwin program is started for the first time in that PTY
  in terminal emulators such as Mintty, Xterm, Urxvt and GNU Screen,
  the terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones.  I
  guess that the contents of the internal pseudo console (which is
  constructed in the background) is somehow output and overwrites the
  original contents of those functional terminal emulators.

  This is reproduced with the latest snapshot and also with the latest
  commit 3a71c4638.

Repeat-By:

  Open Mintty or Xterm and run the following commands (with Bash):

  $ x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -xc - -o nocyg.exe <<< 'main(){}'
  $ printf '\e[%smhello\e[m\n' {0..9}
  $ ./nocyg.exe

  With the first line, the simplest non-Cygwin program is compiled.
  With the second line, "hello" is printed with various graphic
  styles.  However, when one runs a non-Cygwin command in the third
  line, those graphic styles are reset (i.e., overwritten by contents
  of a less functional terminal).

Details:

* If I start Mintty or Xterm with the environment variable
  `CYGWIN=disable_pcon', the problem does not occur.

* Before the commit `e38f2dc9b' (Cygwin: pty: Revise code waiting for
  forwarding again.), this occured every time a non-Cygwin command is
  executed.  But after the commit, this only occurs for the first
  execution of any non-Cygwin program in that PTY session.

* The problem is not restricted in just clearing graphic styles of
  characters.  For GNU Screen I use Screen-specific terminal sequences
  "ESC k ... ST" in my shell prompt to set the title of each window.
  But the overwriting contents seem to be constructed by another
  terminal which does not recognize this terminal sequence.  As a
  results, the layout of terminal contents after the non-Cygwin
  program is completely broken.  The problem should occur with any
  other functionalities which are supported by modern terminal
  emulators but not by pseudo console.

* As well as non-Cygwin programs, also Cygwin programs `ssh', `scp' or
  `git push/pull' with SSH connections cause the same results.  I
  guess SSH utilities internally use non-Cygwin programs.  (Actually I
  originally faced with this problem with these "Cygwin" commands.)


Best regards,

Koichi

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple

Re: Cygwin-3.1.3: Terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones on the start of non-Cygwin programs

[Takashi Yano]

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 20:13:09 +0800
Koichi Murase wrote:
> Hi, this is another report related to the pseudo console.
> 
> Description:
> 
>   When a non-Cygwin program is started for the first time in that PTY
>   in terminal emulators such as Mintty, Xterm, Urxvt and GNU Screen,
>   the terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones.  I
>   guess that the contents of the internal pseudo console (which is
>   constructed in the background) is somehow output and overwrites the
>   original contents of those functional terminal emulators.
> 
>   This is reproduced with the latest snapshot and also with the latest
>   commit 3a71c4638.
> 
> Repeat-By:
> 
>   Open Mintty or Xterm and run the following commands (with Bash):
> 
>   $ x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc -xc - -o nocyg.exe <<< 'main(){}'
>   $ printf '\e[%smhello\e[m\n' {0..9}
>   $ ./nocyg.exe
> 
>   With the first line, the simplest non-Cygwin program is compiled.
>   With the second line, "hello" is printed with various graphic
>   styles.  However, when one runs a non-Cygwin command in the third
>   line, those graphic styles are reset (i.e., overwritten by contents
>   of a less functional terminal).
>
> Details:
> 
> * If I start Mintty or Xterm with the environment variable
>   `CYGWIN=disable_pcon', the problem does not occur.
> 
> * Before the commit `e38f2dc9b' (Cygwin: pty: Revise code waiting for
>   forwarding again.), this occured every time a non-Cygwin command is
>   executed.  But after the commit, this only occurs for the first
>   execution of any non-Cygwin program in that PTY session.

Thanks for the report. However, this is the intentional behaviour.
In early stage of pseudo console support, PTY cleared screen when
PTY is opened. This is because:
https://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2019-10/msg00063.html
(Currently, behaviour change when TERM=dumb is removed.)

However, several users who dislike clear screen complains.
So, I changed the behaviour to that of the current version.
https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-patches/2019-q4/msg00089.html

In Win10 1809, the result of your test case is even worse.

> * The problem is not restricted in just clearing graphic styles of
>   characters.  For GNU Screen I use Screen-specific terminal sequences
>   "ESC k ... ST" in my shell prompt to set the title of each window.
>   But the overwriting contents seem to be constructed by another
>   terminal which does not recognize this terminal sequence.  As a
>   results, the layout of terminal contents after the non-Cygwin
>   program is completely broken.  The problem should occur with any
>   other functionalities which are supported by modern terminal
>   emulators but not by pseudo console.

How can I reproduce this?

> * As well as non-Cygwin programs, also Cygwin programs `ssh', `scp' or
>   `git push/pull' with SSH connections cause the same results.  I
>   guess SSH utilities internally use non-Cygwin programs.  (Actually I
>   originally faced with this problem with these "Cygwin" commands.)

I cannot reproduce this. Cygwin ssh, scp and git does not triggers
redraw screen in my environment.

Do you surely execute *cygwin* command rather that windows one?

-- 
Takashi Yano <takashi.yano@nifty.ne.jp>

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple

Re: Cygwin-3.1.3: Terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones on the start of non-Cygwin programs

[Koichi Murase]

Thank you for your quick response and the explanations and pointers to
related discussions.

2020年2月8日(土) 22:25 Takashi Yano
> From https://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2019-10/msg00063.html
>
> The pseudo console has its own screen buffer behind, and redraws the
> screen based on the screen buffer at undetermined timing.

I'm not sure if I correctly understand the situation, but does this
mean we cannot prevent the pseudo console from redrawing the screen
(i.e., sending some texts and escape sequences to the terminal
emulators) based on its background screen buffer?  For that reason do
we need to keep the terminal contents of both the terminal emulator
and the background screen consistent with each other?

> > * The problem is not restricted in just clearing graphic styles of
> >   characters.  For GNU Screen I use Screen-specific terminal sequences
> > (snip)
>
> How can I reproduce this?

For example, in GNU screen,

  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$
$BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j \W]\$ '
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ ./nocyg

where ./nocyg is the program in the original mail.  Then it turnes
into something like:

  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h
\[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[[user
  @hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[
  0m\]\n\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$

  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
   \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$ ./nocyg
  [user@hostname 0 ~]$

> > * As well as non-Cygwin programs, also Cygwin programs `ssh', `scp' or
> >   `git push/pull' with SSH connections cause the same results.  I
> >   guess SSH utilities internally use non-Cygwin programs.  (Actually I
> >   originally faced with this problem with these "Cygwin" commands.)
>
> I cannot reproduce this. Cygwin ssh, scp and git does not triggers
> redraw screen in my environment.
>
> Do you surely execute *cygwin* command rather that windows one?

Yes, I'm using those commands from Cygwin (the command "type ssh scp
git" shows /usr/bin/... for all of them).

I'm sorry I found the reason.  I have been specifying a shell script
for the SSH option `ProxyCommand' in my `~/.ssh/config'.  In that
shell script, I was using a Windows system command to retrieve the
current network configuration.


Thank you,

Koichi

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple

Re: Cygwin-3.1.3: Terminal contents are overwritten by less graphical ones on the start of non-Cygwin programs

[Takashi Yano]

On Sat, 8 Feb 2020 23:29:09 +0800
Koichi Murase wrote:
> > The pseudo console has its own screen buffer behind, and redraws the
> > screen based on the screen buffer at undetermined timing.
> 
> I'm not sure if I correctly understand the situation, but does this
> mean we cannot prevent the pseudo console from redrawing the screen
> (i.e., sending some texts and escape sequences to the terminal
> emulators) based on its background screen buffer?  For that reason do
> we need to keep the terminal contents of both the terminal emulator
> and the background screen consistent with each other?

I think you understand correctly. Due to the reason above, pty
sends data written by slave to both native screen and pseudo
console. However, the interpretation of escapce sequence does
not match perfectly between the real native screen and pseudo
console, therefore, screen is changed when redraw screen is
triggered.

> > > * The problem is not restricted in just clearing graphic styles of
> > >   characters.  For GNU Screen I use Screen-specific terminal sequences
> > > (snip)
> >
> > How can I reproduce this?
> 
> For example, in GNU screen,
> 
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$
> $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j \W]\$ '
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ ./nocyg
> 
> where ./nocyg is the program in the original mail.  Then it turnes
> into something like:
> 
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h
> \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[[user
>   @hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[
>   0m\]\n\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
> 
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$ PS1='\[\ek[\u@\h \j \w]$ $BASH_COMMAND\e\\\][\u@\h \j
>    \W]\$ '[user@hostname 0 ~]$ ./nocyg
>   [user@hostname 0 ~]$

Hmmm, this is terrible indeed...
I hope there could be a solution.

-- 
Takashi Yano <takashi.yano@nifty.ne.jp>

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple