CygTerm+ the best Cygwin console

Using Cygwin with a terminal emulator. Copyright (c) 2006-2008 TeraTerm Project http://ttssh2.sourceforge.jp/

Based on CygTerm by Original developer: Copyright (C) 2000-2006 NSym

[email protected]

(English) http://www.dd.iij4u.or.jp/~nsym/cygwin/cygterm/index-e.html

(Japanese) http://www.dd.iij4u.or.jp/~nsym/cygwin/cygterm/index.html

This is an experiment trying to substitute a terminal emulator for the DOS window as Cygwin console. However, assume that it is carried out without the mechanism of remote login. In other words, it doesn't use `inetd', `in.telnetd' or `login'.

Invoking a terminal emulator and Cygwin shell, and relaying their I/O. One simple solution is just to implement a program to do this.

1. When this program is run, a terminal emulator starts, and a shell prompt appears there, it can be used for Cygwin console.

2. The terminal emulator and the shell have to be selectable.

3. Screen control of the shell side has to work correctly and follow window resizing of the terminal emulator.

Details of cygterm.exe

[1] Prepare a listener socket to wait for a TELNET connection. Find out an unused TCP port number to assign to the socket from a specified range.

[2] Invoke a terminal emulator in another thread. Then specify IP address `127.0.0.1' and the port number [1] in the command line arguments.

[3] Accept the connection from the terminal emulator. Refuse it except a connection from `127.0.0.1' in security.

[4] Do fork(), and in the child process, invoke a shell under PTY (pseudo terminal) slave side.

[5] Relay I/O between the TELNET connection socket [3] and the PTY master side of [4].

Support for TELNET protocol (options negotiation)

Receive the notification of terminal-type from a terminal emulator, and apply it to the environment variable TERM on a shell.

Receive the notification of terminal-size from a terminal emulator, and apply it to window size of PTY.

[Ref. RFC854 TELNET PROTOCOL SPECIFICATION]

cygterm.exe is implemented as an window-less Win32 application.

README - this file README-j - original README in Japanese Makefile - MAKEFILE for installation cygterm.cc - program source code cygterm.cfg - configuration file

* CygTerm is a free software distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) published by Free Software Foundation. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.

Note: Any program including non-GPL program can invoke the CygTerm executable (cygterm.exe) and communicate with it.

cygterm.cfg

cygterm.cfg is a configuration file. This includes definitions for the command lines of a terminal emulator and a shell, and several parameters. cygterm.cfg is loaded from the same directory cygterm.exe exists in.

An example of cygterm.cfg

      TERM = C:\program files\ttermpro\ttermpro.exe %s %d /KR=SJIS /KT=SJIS
      TERM_TYPE = vt100
      PORT_START = 20000
      PORT_RANGE = 40
      SHELL = /bin/bash
      ENV_1 = MAKE_MODE=unix
      ENV_2 = HOME=/home     

TERM ---- This is the command line to execute a terminal emulaitor. Specify the full path to the command if it isn't in Windows search path. This needs to be described `%s' and `%d' for the host and port number.

TERM_TYPE --------- This terminal type is adopted when the terminal emulator did not give a terminal type. (default: vt100) Then this value is set to the environment variable TERM on a shell.

PORT_START ---------- This is the minimum TCP port number allowed for use. (default: 20000)

PORT_RANGE ---------- This is the maximum number of TCP ports allowed for use. (default: 40)

cygterm.exe looks for an unused port number between PORT_START and PORT_START+PORT_RANGE, and therefore can be run concurrently as many as this number.

SHELL ----- This is the command line to execute a shell in Cygwin side (normally /bin/bash). (default: get from /etc/passwd) Specify the full path to the shell or keyword "AUTO".

LOGIN_SHELL ----------- If this parameter is set to yes, shell is invoked as a login shell. (default: no)

HOME_CHDIR ---------- If this parameter is set to yes, current directory is changed to home directory before invoke a shell. (default: no)

SOCKET_TIMEOUT -------------- Specify the timeout of socket for waiting telnet connection from Tera Term. (default: 5secs)

SSH_AGENT_PROXY --------------- If this parameter is set to yes, cygterm provides ssh-agent proxy. (default: no)

ENV_X ----- This is the environment variable to be set when starting the shell. It should be of the form `name=value' (like putenv). It is possible to give as many environment variables as needed by beginning with "ENV_".

// U S A G E //

Command Line Options

cygterm.exe [-t 'terminal-emulator'] [-p port-number] [-dumb] [-s 'shell'] [-ls | -nols] [-cd | -nocd] [-a | -A] [-v 'env-var' ...] [-d 'directory] [-o 'option']

-t 'terminal-emulator' Specify the command line of a terminal emulator to execute. This format is the same as TERM in the configuration file. The command line should be enclosed in quotes to include spaces.

-p port-number Instead of executing a terminal emulator, try connection to this port number of localhost. It is considered another program uses `-p' option to use Cygwin via cygterm.exe

-dumb Suppress the TELNET options negotiation. And ignore any TELNET commands sent from terminal side. The environment variable TERM is set to `dumb' on the shell side.

-s 'shell' Specify the command line of a shell on Cygwin to execute. This format is the same as SHELL in the configuration file. The command line should be enclosed in quotes to include spaces. Any command can be spedicied even if a non-shell command.

-ls Execute a shell as a login shell.

-nols Execute a shell as a normal (not login) shell.

-cd The current directory is moved to the user home directory and the shell is invoked.

-nocd The shell is invoked without changing the current directory.

-A Enable ssh-agent forwarding support.

-a Disable ssh-agent forwarding support.

-v 'env-var' Specify the environment variable to be set when starting the shell. This format is the same as ENV_X in the configuration file. The expression should be enclosed in quotes to include spaces. One or more `-v' options are available.

-d 'directory' The current directory is moved to the specified directory and the shell is invoked.

-o 'parameter' Additional parameter for terminal-emulator.

The terminal emulator or connection port number, and the shell on Cygwin, these need to be specified at least. If these are given on the command line, cygterm.exe can be run without configuration file cygterm.cfg.

cygterm.exe is an Win32 application which uses cygwin1.dll. It can be run from Cygwin command line or a shortcut on Windows.

* It is necessary the Windows environment variable PATH includes a directory path of cygwin1.dll (normally Cygwin-root\bin) to be run from Windows.

// N O T E S //

* Attention in Tera Term

If your terminal emulator is Tera Term be careful not to save [Setup] [Save setup] in the situation that it was started by cygterm.exe. Otherwise telnet port number of TCP/IP is saved but 23 you will be confused by connection failure when you normally run Tera Term to do telnet. In that case it will be recovered by saving the setting with specifying TCP/IP Port# 23.

As of 2008-Nov, CygTerm+ has been tested in the following environments.

• WindowsXP SP3 + Cygwin 1.5.25-15
• Terminal emulator: Tera Term Pro 2.3 Tera Term 4.60 PuTTY 0.60 Shell: bash 3.2.39 zsh 4.3.4

// C H A N G E S // v1.07_16 2008/11/21 (by doda) * The option that enables ssh-agent proxy support is changed from '-a' to '-A'. * Added '-a' option that disables ssh-agent proxy support.

v1.07_15 2008/11/01 (by doda) * Added ssh-agent proxy support.

v1.07_14 2007/12/17 (by doda) * Added '-o' option that is specifies the additional parameters for terminal-emulator.

v1.07_13 2007/08/03 (by maya) * Added '-d' option that is specifies the start directory.

v1.07_12 2007/06/10 (by doda) * Add 'SOCKET_TIMEOUT' entry which the timeout value of socket for waiting telnet connection in cygterm.cfg file.

v1.07_11 2007/01/31 (import from cygterm v1.07) * Avoid WinMainCRTStartup() redefinition error with gcc 3.4. * Give an output gap for keyboard interrupt.

v1.06_11 2006/09/29 (by maya) * Stopped using HOME from environment variable and /etc/passwd. CygTerm passes HOME which is set by Cygwin. See also /etc/profile * Changed the priority of config files. command line arguments > ~/.cygtermrc > /etc/cygterm.conf > cygterm.cfg > /etc/passwd

v1.06_10 2006/09/28 (by doda) * Use getlogin() instead of environment variable USERNAME to get user name.

v1.06_09 2006/09/25 (by doda) * Get shell information from /etc/passwd if SHELL parameter is not specified.

v1.06_08 2006/08/30 (by maya) * Changed the priority of config files. cygterm.cfg is top priority config file.

v1.06_07 2006/08/19 (by maya) * Use `HOME' environment variable for changing home directory if the variable will be set.

v1.06_06 2006/08/18 (by doda) * Limit a parameter length of both '-s' and '-t' option.

v1.06_05 2006/08/18 (by maya) * Create mutex object for running check by installer.

v1.06_04 2006/08/15 (by doda) * Add 'LOGIN_SHELL' entry which the shell is invoked as the login shell in cygterm.cfg file. LOGIN_SHELL: yes | no

v1.06_03 2006/08/15 (by doda) * Add 'HOME_CHDIR' entry which home directory is changed in cygterm.cfg file. HOME_CHDIR: yes | no

v1.06_02 2006/02/09 (by [email protected]) * Generated CygTerm's ICON by "DotWork 2.50". "DotWork 2.50" is available at http://www5a.biglobe.ne.jp/~suuta/. Special Thanks to "suuta at hamal dot freemal dot ne dot jp"

* Makefile was changed, "clean" target was changed to don't remove cygterm.ico.

v1.06_01 2006/02/08 (by [email protected]) * The following configuration file reading was supported: + /etc/cygterm.conf + ~/.cygtermrc

* Shell is invoked with user's home-directory.

* Get account configuration from /etc/passwd by getpwnam(3), getting account name from USERNAME environment by getenv(3).

* Makefile was changed, default build is with icon executable.

v1.06 2004/01/24 * The following command line options were added: -t 'terminal-emulator' (specifies the terminal emulator) -p port-number (specifies the port# to connect) -dumb (specifies dumb terminal mode) -s 'shell' (specifies the shell) -v 'env-var' (specifies environment variables)

* Fixed to fail in `make install' if BINDIR was not found.

* cygterm.cc and README.txt were changed to English version.

v1.05 2003/01/14 * Fixed to transmit Ctrl+SPACE (NUL). The NUL character was not able to be transmitted even if Ctrl+SPACE was typed, because it was ignored simply as an way to handle the newline CR+NUL.

v1.04 2002/12/08 * Changed to display error messages for failure to execute a terminal emulator or a shell.

* Makefile was changed. + do not overwrite cygterm.cfg when `make install'. + add the gcc option -fno-exceptions against the GCC-3 link error.

v1.03 2002/07/24 * Fixed to convert terminal type into lower-case when cygterm received it from a terminal emulator. Because some upper-case values such as `ANSI' `VT100' of the environment variable TERM might not be found in terminfo depending on the kind of terminal emulator. (Windows 2000 telnet.exe, etc)

v1.02 2002/07/22 * Fix to be able to start a terminal emulator even if it was a console application. (Windows 2000 telnet.exe, etc) There was a mistake in calling CreateProcess().

* Fixed to suppress duplicate newline on a shell by canceling LF when a terminal emulator sent CR+LF. (Windows 98 telnet.exe, etc)

* Embedded the version number in cygterm.exe executable code. How to check: $ strings cygterm.exe | grep version

v1.01 2002/07/19 * Fixed that cygterm did not work with zsh or tcsh. Input was blocked when zsh or tcsh started, because the approach to open the pseudo terminal was not good.

v1.00 2000/12/17 * The initial version was released.

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Last modified: March 12, 2019