problem with GNU screen solved

problem with GNU screen solved

[Jeff Schenck]

I just wanted to pass this along...  I was having problems with screen
a couple months ago.  I would get an error saying "chown tty: No such
file or directory" and then it would fail (see
http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2011-06/msg00222.html).

Paul Hebble was kind enough to write me off-list with a fix.  After
applying the patch that comes with the source package, I made the
following simple change to config.h:

  #define PTYROFS

These comments come from config.h:

 * Note, screen is unable to change mode or group of the pty if it
 * is not installed with sufficient privilege. (e.g. set-uid-root)
 * define PTYROFS if the /dev/pty devices are mounted on a read-only
 * filesystem so screen should not even attempt to set mode or group
 * even if running as root (e.g. on TiVo).

This solved my problem.  Now I'm curious why some see this problem but
others don't.  Some sort of privilege issue that is setup dependent?

Anyway, I hope the package maintainer will find this useful.

Thanks,
Jeff

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Re: problem with GNU screen solved

[Andrew Schulman]

> I just wanted to pass this along...  I was having problems with screen
> a couple months ago.  I would get an error saying "chown tty: No such
> file or directory" and then it would fail (see
> http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2011-06/msg00222.html).
> 
> Paul Hebble was kind enough to write me off-list with a fix.  After
> applying the patch that comes with the source package, I made the
> following simple change to config.h:
> 
>   #define PTYROFS
> 
> These comments come from config.h:
> 
>  * Note, screen is unable to change mode or group of the pty if it
>  * is not installed with sufficient privilege. (e.g. set-uid-root)
>  * define PTYROFS if the /dev/pty devices are mounted on a read-only
>  * filesystem so screen should not even attempt to set mode or group
>  * even if running as root (e.g. on TiVo).
> 
> This solved my problem.  Now I'm curious why some see this problem but
> others don't.  Some sort of privilege issue that is setup dependent?
> 
> Anyway, I hope the package maintainer will find this useful.

Thanks Jeff, for posting the solution.  I'll look at that when I can to
figure out whether it should be enabled by default.  I don't know much
about ptys though - maybe someone who knows more could comment?  Andrew.


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