Put console documentation in sync with current console status.

This commit is contained in:
Eric Pouech 2003-03-10 19:06:46 +00:00 committed by Alexandre Julliard
parent 7da6e5c9a5
commit 0b36e34a80
3 changed files with 456 additions and 383 deletions

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@ -5,377 +5,176 @@
<title>Consoles</title>
<para>
Written by &name-john-richardson; <email>&email-john-richardson;</email>
Maintained by &name-joseph-pranevich; <email>&email-joseph-pranevich;</email>
Written by &name-eric-pouech; <email>&email-eric-pouech</email>
</para>
<para>
As described in the Wine User Guide's CUI section, Wine
manipulates three kinds of "consoles" in order to support
properly the Win32 CUI API.
</para>
<para>
(Extracted from <filename>wine/documentation/console</filename>)
The following table describes the main implementation
differences between the three approaches.
<table>
<title>Fonction consoles implementation comparison</title>
<tgroup cols="4" align="left">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Function</entry>
<entry>Bare streams</entry>
<entry>Wineconsole &amp; user backend</entry>
<entry>Wineconsole &amp; curses backend</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>
Console as a Win32 Object (and associated
handles)
</entry>
<entry>
No specific Win32 object is used in this case. The
handles manipulated for the standard Win32 streams
are in fact "bare handles" to their corresponding
Unix streams. The mode manipulation functions
(<function>GetConsoleMode</function> /
<function>SetConsoleMode</function>) are not
supported.
</entry>
<entry>
Implemented in server, and a specific Winelib
program (wineconsole) is in charge of the
rendering and user input. The mode manipulation
functions behave as expected.
</entry>
<entry>
Implemented in server, and a specific Winelib
program (wineconsole) is in charge of the
rendering and user input. The mode manipulation
functions behave as expected.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>
Inheritance (including handling in
<function>CreateProcess</function> of
<constant>CREATE_DETACHED</constant>,
<constant>CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE</constant> flags).
</entry>
<entry>
Not supported. Every process child of a process
will inherit the Unix streams, so will also
inherit the Win32 standard streams.
</entry>
<entry>
Fully supported (each new console creation will be
handled by the creation of a new USER32 window)
</entry>
<entry>
Fully supported, except for the creation of a new
console, which will be rendered on the same Unix
terminal as the previous one, leading to
unpredictible results.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><function>ReadFile</function> / <function>WriteFile</function> operations</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>
Screen-buffer manipulation (creation, deletion, resizing...)
</entry>
<entry>Not supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
<entry>
Partly supported (this won't work too well as we
don't control (so far) the size of underlying Unix
terminal
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>
APIs for reading/writing screen-buffer content,
cursor position
</entry>
<entry>Not supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>
APIs for manipulating the rendering window size
</entry>
<entry>Not supported</entry>
<entry>Fully supported</entry>
<entry>
Partly supported (this won't work too well as we
don't control (so far) the size of underlying Unix
terminal
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>
Signaling (in particular, Ctrl-C handling)
</entry>
<entry>
Nothing is done, which means that Ctrl-C will
generate (as usual) a <constant>SIGINT</constant>
which will terminate the program.
</entry>
<entry>
Partly supported (Ctrl-C behaves as expected,
however the other Win32 CUI signaling isn't
properly implemented).
</entry>
<entry>
Partly supported (Ctrl-C behaves as expected,
however the other Win32 CUI signaling isn't
properly implemented).
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
</sect1>
<sect2>
<title>Console - First Pass</title>
<sect1>
<title>Console creation</title>
<para>
Consoles are just xterms created with the
<parameter>-Sxxn</parameter> switch. A
<systemitem>pty</systemitem> is opened and the master goes
to the <filename>xterm</filename> side and the slave is held
by the wine side. The console itself is turned into a few
<type>HANDLE32</type>s and is set to the
<varname>STD_*_HANDLES</varname>.
</para>
<para>
It is possible to use the <function>WriteFile</function> and
<function>ReadFile</function> commands to write to a win32
console. To accomplish this, all <type>K32OBJ</type>s that
support I/O have a read and write function pointer. So,
<function>WriteFile</function> calls
<function>K32OBJ_WriteFile</function> which calls the
<type>K32OBJ</type>'s write function pointer, which then
finally calls <function>write</function>.
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>[this paragraph is now out of date]</emphasis> If
the command line console is to be inherited or a process
inherits its parent's console (-- can that happen???), the
console is created at process init time via
<function>PROCESS_InheritConsole</function>. The
<literal>0</literal>, <literal>1</literal>, and
<literal>2</literal> file descriptors are duped to be the
<varname>STD_*_HANDLES</varname> in this case. Also in this
case a flag is set to indicate that the console comes from
the parent process or command line.
</para>
<para>
If a process doesn't have a console at all, its
<varname>pdb-&gt;console</varname> is set to
<constant>NULL</constant>. This helps indicate when it is
possible to create a new console (via
<function>AllocConsole</function>).
</para>
<para>
When <function>FreeConsole</function> is called, all handles that the process has
open to the console are closed. Like most <type>K32OBJ</type>s, if the
console's refcount reaches zero, its <type>K32OBJ</type> destroy function
is called. The destroy kills the xterm if one was open.
</para>
<para>
Also like most k32 objects, we assume that
(<type>K32OBJ</type>) header is the first field so the
casting (from <type>K32OBJ*</type>to <type>CONSOLE*</type>)
works correctly.
</para>
<para>
<function>FreeConsole</function> is called on process exit
(in <function>ExitProcess</function>) if
<varname>pdb-&gt;console</varname> is not
<constant>NULL</constant>.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>BUGS</title>
<para>
Console processes do not inherit their parent's handles. I
think there needs to be two cases, one where they have to
inherit the <filename>stdin</filename> /
<filename>stdout</filename> / <filename>stderr</filename>
from unix, and one where they have to inherit from another
windows app.
</para>
<para>
<function>SetConsoleMode</function> -- UNIX only has
<constant>ICANON</constant> and various
<constant>ECHO</constant>s to play around with for
processing input. Win32 has line-at-a-time processing,
character processing, and echo. I'm putting together an
intermediate driver that will handle this (and hopefully
won't be any more buggy than the NT4 console
implementation).
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Experimentation</title>
<para>
experimentation with NT4 yields that:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>WriteFile</function></term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>does not truncate file on 0 length write</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
0 length write or error on write changes
<varname>numcharswritten</varname> to
<literal>0</literal>
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>0 length write returns <constant>TRUE</constant></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>works with console handles</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>_lwrite</function></term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>does truncate/expand file at current position on 0 length write</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>returns 0 on a zero length write</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>works with console handles (typecasted)</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>WriteConsole</function></term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>expects only console handles</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>SetFilePointer</function></term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>returns -1 (err 6) when used with a console handle</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><function>FreeConsole</function></term>
<listitem>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
even when all the handles to it are freed, the
win32 console stays visible, the only way I could
find to free it was via the <function>FreeConsole</function>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
Is it possible to interrupt win32's
<function>FileWrite</function>? I'm not sure. It may not be
possible to interrupt any system calls.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>DOS (Generic) Console Support</title>
<sect3>
<title>I. Command Line Configuration</title>
<para>
DOS consoles must be configured either on the command line
or in a dot resource file (<filename>.console</filename>).
A typical configuration consists of a string of driver
keywords separated by plus ('+') signs. To change the
configuration on the command-line, use the
<parameter>-console</parameter> switch.
</para>
<para>
For example:
</para>
<screen>
wine -console ncurses+xterm &lt;application&gt;
</screen>
<para>
Possible drivers:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>tty:</term>
<listitem>
<para>Generic text-only support. Supports redirection.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>ncurses:</term>
<listitem>
<para>Full-screen graphical support with color.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>xterm:</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Load a new window to display the console in. Also
supports resizing windows.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>II. wine config file configuration</title>
<para>
In the wine config file, you can create
a section called [console] that contains configuration
options that are respected by the assorted console
drivers.
</para>
<para>
Current Options:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>XtermProg=&lt;program&gt;</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Use this program instead of
<command>xterm</command>. This eliminates the need
for a recompile. See the table below for a
comparison of various terminals.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>InitialRows=&lt;number&gt;</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Attempt to start all drivers with this number of
rows. This causes xterms to be resized, for
instance.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This information is passed on the command-line
with the <parameter>-g</parameter> switch.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>InitialColumns=&lt;number&gt;</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Attempt to start all drivers with this number of
columns. This causes xterms to be resized, for
instance.
</para>
<note>
<para>
This information is passed on the command-line
with the <parameter>-g</parameter> switch.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>TerminalType=&lt;name&gt;</term>
<listitem>
<para>
Tell any driver that is interested (ncurses) which
termcap and/or terminfo type to use. The default is
xterm which is appropriate for most uses.
<command>nxterm</command> may give you better
support if you use that terminal. This can also be
changed to "linux" (or "console" on older systems)
if you manage to hack the ability to write to the
console into this driver.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>III. Terminal Types</title>
<para>
There are a large number of potential terminals that can
be used with Wine, depending on what you are trying to do.
Unfortunately, I am still looking for the "best" driver
combination.
</para>
<note>
<para>
'slave' is required for use in Wine, currently.
</para>
</note>
<informaltable>
<tgroup cols="4">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Program</entry>
<entry>Color?</entry>
<entry>Resizing?</entry>
<entry>Slave?</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<row>
<entry>(linux console)</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
<entry>N</entry>
<entry>?</entry>
</row>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>xterm</entry>
<entry>N</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>nxterm</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
<entry>N</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>rxvt</entry>
<entry>Y</entry>
<entry>?</entry>
<entry>N</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>
As X terminals typically use a 24x80 screen resolution
rather than the typical 25x80 one, it is necessary to
resize the screen to allow a DOS program to work
full-screen. There is a wine config file
option to work around this in some cases but run-time
resizing will be disabled.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<para>
The Win32 objects behind a console can be created in several occasions:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
When the program is started from wineconsole, a new
console object is created and will be used (inherited)
by the process launched from wineconsole.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
When a program, which isn't attached to a console, calls
<function>AllocConsole</function>, Wine then launches
wineconsole, and attaches the current program to this
console. In this mode, the USER32 mode is always
selected as Wine cannot tell the current state of the
Unix console.
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
Please also note, that starting a child process with the
<constant>CREATE_NEW_CONSOLE</constant> flag, will end-up
calling <function>AllocConsole</function> in the child
process, hence creating a wineconsole with the USER32 backend.
</para>
</sect1>
</chapter>

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@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
Written by &name-john-sheets; <email>&email-john-sheets;</email>
</para>
<para>
Extended by &name-mike-hearn; <email>&email-mike-hearn;</email>
Extended by &name-mike-hearn; <email>&email-mike-hearn;</email>, &name-eric-pouech; <email>&email-eric-pouech;</email>
</para>
<sect1 id="basic-usage">
@ -124,15 +124,9 @@ Options:
<para>
(note the backslash-escaped "\" !)
</para>
<para>
If you want to run a console program (aka a CUI executable), use
<command>wineconsole</command> instead of <command>wine</command>
to start it. It will display the program in a separate Window
(this requires X11 to be run). If you don't, you'll still be able
to run your program directly in the Unix console where you started it,
but with very limited capacities (so your program might work,
but your mileage may vary). This shall be improved in the future.
For details on running text mode (CUI) executables, read the
<link linkend="CUI-programs">section</link> below.
</para>
</sect1>
@ -361,6 +355,293 @@ winspool</><entry>wnet</><entry>x11</>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="CUI-programs">
<title>Text mode programs (CUI: Console User Interface)</title>
<para>Text mode programs are program which output is only made
out of text (surprise!). In Windows terminolgy, they are
called CUI (Console User Interface) executables, by opposition
to GUI (Graphical User Interface) executables. Win32 API
provide a complete set of APIs to handle this situation, which
goes from basic features like text printing, up to high level
functionnalities (like full screen editing, color support,
cursor motion, mouse support), going through features like
line editing or raw/cooked input stream support
</para>
<para>
Given the wide scope of features above, and the current usage
in Un*x world, Wine comes out with three different ways for
running a console program (aka a CUI executable):
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>bare streams</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>wineconsole with user backend</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>wineconsole with curses backend</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>The names here are a bit obscure. "bare streams" means
that no extra support of wine is provide to map between the
unix console access and Windows console access. The two other
ways require the use of a specific Wine program (wineconsole)
which provide extended facilities. The following table
describes what you can do (and cannot do) with those three
ways.
<table>
<title>Basic differences in consoles</title>
<tgroup cols="4" align="left">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Function</entry>
<entry>Bare streams</entry>
<entry>Wineconsole &amp; user backend</entry>
<entry>Wineconsole &amp; curses backend</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>How to run (assuming executable is called foo.exe)</entry>
<entry><msgtext>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>wine foo.exe</userinput></screen>
</msgtext></entry>
<entry><msgtext>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>wineconsole -- --backend=user foo.exe</userinput></screen>
</msgtext></entry>
<entry><msgtext>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>wineconsole foo.exe</userinput></screen>
</msgtext>You can also use --backend=curses as an option</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Good support for line oriented CUI applications
(which print information line after line)
</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Good support for full screen CUI
applications (including but not limited to color
support, mouse support...)</entry>
<entry>No</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Can be run even if X11 is not running</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
<entry>No</entry>
<entry>Yes</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Implementation</entry>
<entry>Maps the standard Windows streams to the
standard Unix streams (stdin/stdout/stderr)
</entry>
<entry>
Wineconsole will create a new Window (hence
requiring the USER32 DLL is available) where all
information will be displayed
</entry>
<entry>
Wineconsole will use existing unix console
(from which the program is run) and with the help of
the (n)curses library take control of all the terminal
surface for interacting with the user
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Known limitations</entry>
<entry></entry>
<entry></entry>
<entry>
Will produce strange behavior if two (or more)
Windows consoles are used on the same Un*x terminal.
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
<sect2 id="CUI-programs-config">
<title>Configuration of CUI executables</title>
<para>
When wineconsole is used, several configuration options are
available. Wine (as Windows do) stores, on a per application
basis, several options in the registry. This let a user, for
example, define the default screen-buffer size he would like
to have for a given application.
</para>
<para>
As of today, only the USER backend allows you to edit those
options (we don't recommend editing by hand the registry
contents). This edition is fired when a user right click in
the console (this popups a menu), where you can either
choose from:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Default: this will edit the settings shared by all
applications which haven't been configured yet. So,
when an application is first run (on your machine,
under your account) in wineconsole, wineconsole will
inherit this default settings for the
application. Afterwards, the application will have its
own settings, that you'll be able to modify at your will.
</para>
<para>
Properties: this will edit the application's
settings. When you're done, with the edition, you'll
be prompted whether you want to:
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Keep these modified settings only for this
session (next time you run the application, you
will not see the modification you've just made).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Use the settings for this session and save them
as well, so that next you run your application,
you'll use these new settings again.
</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
<para>
Here's the list of the items you can configure, and their
meanings:
<table>
<title>Wineconsole configuration options</title>
<tgroup cols="2" align="left">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Configuration option</entry>
<entry>Meaning</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Cursor's size</entry>
<entry>
Defines the size of the cursor. Three options are
available: small (33% of character height), medium
(66%) and large (100%)
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Popup menu</entry>
<entry>
It's been said earlier that wineconsole
configuration popup was triggered using a right
click in the console's window. However, this can
be an issue when the application you run inside
wineconsole expects the right click events to be
sent to it. By ticking control or shift you select
additional modifiers on the right click for
opening the popup. For example, ticking shift will
send events to the application when you right
click the window without shift being hold down,
and open the window when you right-click while
shift being hold down.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Quick edit</entry>
<entry>
This tick box lets you decide whether left-click
mouse events shall be interpreted as events to be
sent to the underlying application (tick off) or
as a selection of rectangular part of the screen
to be later on copied onto the clipboard (tick on).
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>History</entry>
<entry>
This lets you pick up how many commands you want
the console to recall. You can also drive whether
you want, when entering several times the same
command - potentially intertwened with others -
whether you want to store all of them (tick off)
or only the last one (tick on).
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Police</entry>
<entry>
The Police property sheet allows you to pick the
default font for the console (font file, size,
background and foreground color).
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Screenbuffer &amp; window size</entry>
<entry>
The console as you see it is made of two different
parts. On one hand there's the screenbuffer which
contains all the information your application puts
on the screen, and the window which displays a
given area of this screen buffer. Note that the
window is always smaller or of the same size than
the screen buffer. Having a stricly smaller window
size will put on scrollbars on the window so that
you can see the whole screenbuffer's content.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Close on exit</entry>
<entry>
If it's ticked, then the wineconsole will exit
when the application within terminates. Otherwise,
it'll remain opened until the user manually closes
it: this allows seeing the latest information of a
program after it has terminated.
</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Edition mode</entry>
<entry>
<msgtext>
<para>
When the user enter commands, he or she can
choose between several edition modes:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
Emacs: the same keybindings as under
emacs are available. For example, Ctrl-A
will bring the cursor to the beginning
of the edition line. See your emacs
manual for the details of the commands.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
Win32: this are the standard Windows
console key-bindings (mainly using
arrows).
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</para>
</msgtext>
</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<!-- Keep this comment at the end of the file

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@ -234,13 +234,6 @@ WINE REGISTRY Version 2
;; set the "Windows" value in the [Version] section if you want that.
"WineLook" = "Win95"
[Console]
;"Drivers" = "tty"
;"XtermProg" = "nxterm"
;"InitialRows" = "25"
;"InitialColumns" = "80"
;"TerminalType" = "nxterm"
[Clipboard]
"ClearAllSelections" = "0"
"PersistentSelection" = "1"