issues with cygwin programs in windows console

issues with cygwin programs in windows console

[Миронов Леонид Владимирович]

Something, probably a recent windows 10 update (currently at 10.0.17763.2300 - way behind, but it is LTSC) broke cygwin programs using fullscreen (ncurses?) console output e.g. less, mc, vi when run in Windows console windows (cmd and such): they produce no output at all, just black screen with cursor in the top-left corner, but seem to be running and processing keyboard input as expected e.g. when q is pressed less exits and finally prints a screenful of text it was supposed to show from the very start. No issues when these programs run in proper cygwin terminal (mintty). I found two workarounds, but neither one is perfect. One is to set TERM=cygwin but less won't clear the screen on exit and home/end don't work (incidentally setting TERM=xterm like in minnty doesn't help at all). Another workaround is to switch windows console to legacy mode. Is there a better way to run these programs in windows console without starting mintty?

Re: issues with cygwin programs in windows console

[Takashi Yano]

On Tue, 23 Nov 2021 08:53:49 +0000
Миронов Леонид Владимирович via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com> wrote:

> Something, probably a recent windows 10 update (currently at 10.0.17763.2300 - way behind, but it is LTSC) broke cygwin programs using fullscreen (ncurses?) console output e.g. less, mc, vi when run in Windows console windows (cmd and such): they produce no output at all, just black screen with cursor in the top-left corner, but seem to be running and processing keyboard input as expected e.g. when q is pressed less exits and finally prints a screenful of text it was supposed to show from the very start. No issues when these programs run in proper cygwin terminal (mintty). I found two workarounds, but neither one is perfect. One is to set TERM=cygwin but less won't clear the screen on exit and home/end don't work (incidentally setting TERM=xterm like in minnty doesn't help at all). Another workaround is to switch windows console to legacy mode. Is there a better way to run these programs in windows console without starting mintty?

I cannot reproduce your problem.

Please provide
cygcheck -s -v -r
result.

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

Re: issues with cygwin programs in windows console

[Andrey Repin]

Greetings, Миронов Леонид Владимирович!

> Something, probably a recent windows 10 update (currently at
> 10.0.17763.2300 - way behind, but it is LTSC) broke cygwin programs using
> fullscreen (ncurses?) console output e.g. less, mc, vi when run in Windows
> console windows (cmd and such):

If by fullscreen you mean what it means, then there's no fullscreen mode for
conhost (the default Windows terminal) for ages now.
If you mean simply programs drawing over entire terminal (the list suggests),
then check for any conhost enhancements you may have installed.

> they produce no output at all, just black
> screen with cursor in the top-left corner, but seem to be running and
> processing keyboard input as expected e.g. when q is pressed less exits and
> finally prints a screenful of text it was supposed to show from the very
> start. No issues when these programs run in proper cygwin terminal (mintty).
> I found two workarounds, but neither one is perfect. One is to set
> TERM=cygwin but less won't clear the screen on exit and home/end don't work
> (incidentally setting TERM=xterm like in minnty doesn't help at all).
> Another workaround is to switch windows console to legacy mode. Is there a
> better way to run these programs in windows console without starting mintty?

You may try running with disabled pty's. Check disable_pcon option in https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html


-- 
With best regards,
Andrey Repin
Friday, November 26, 2021 23:00:00

Sorry for my terrible english...