wine/documentation/consoles.sgml
2000-08-08 01:24:00 +00:00

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<chapter id="consoles">
<title>Consoles in Wine</title>
<sect1 id="wine-consoles">
<title>Consoles</title>
<para>
written by (???)
</para>
<para>
(Extracted from <filename>wine/documentation/console</filename>)
</para>
<sect2>
<title>Console - First Pass</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 it 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[this paragraph is now out of date]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 inheirited 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 then 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. <filename>wine.conf</filename> Configuration</title>
<para>
In the <filename>wine.conf</filename> 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 appropiate 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 <filename>wine.conf</filename>
option to work around this in some cases but run-time
resizing will be disabled.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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