Windows ConPTY support and native Windows programs?

[nojb]

Would it be possible to use the recently introduced ConPTY API (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2018/08/02/windows-command-line-introducing-the-windows-pseudo-console-conpty/) to improve the compatibility of mintty with native Windows programs (esp. interactive ones)?

[mintty]

It's been announced for a while already but documentation is not yet available.
Anyway, this might be an enhancement for cygwin, but not for mintty, because that's the platform level where this kind of interoperability issue can be handled.

[nojb]

Thanks for the reply @mintty! I will ask in Cygwin's mailing list about it.

[Biswa96]

@nojb If you do that please share the link of that mail.

[nojb]

https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2018-10/msg00021.html

[Biswa96]

@nojb You mentioned about native Windows Applications. But its not the case. No native console app use that CONPTY. Windows Console team mimics the PTY connection like in *nix systems in a whole different way.

[nojb]

Not sure I understand your objection, but if you look at the section ConHost - Investing in yesterday for tomorrow in the linked blog post, you will see it clearly states that this API can be used to make traditional, existing Console applications behave like typical Unix terminal applications (VT codes, etc.).

[fcharlie]

An exciting news, cygwin currently supports conpty. see commit: bminor/newlib@169d65a

[mintty]

Yes, but note it's still a test release. We'll have to wait another few weeks until the official cygwin release.
And then I can close all the related issues here!

[fpqc]

@mintty Does this mean you won't need to use the bridge anymore?

[mintty]

Yes.

[fpqc]

@mintty By the way, you might find this interesting:

In the newer builds of windows, you know how you can access the linux filesystem from:
\\wsl$\<distroname>

well, if you set up your mintty shortcut for wsltty to start in:

\\wsl$\<distroname>\home\<wslusername>

you can omit the ~ parameter from wsl.exe.

Here's a screenshot:

I just got it working with hvpty, but it works because of wsl.exe now automatically translating the \\wsl$\<Distroname> paths automatically. This should make escaping parameters much easier and also obviate the need for a 'wsldir' or anything of that nature.

[mintty]

The \\wsl$\ thing is interesting information, thanks, but of limited value. You wouldn't normally know the <wslusername>.

[Biswa96]

The path \\wsl$\<Distroname> is only valid when a WSL session is running. So, there may be some race condition between hvpty.exe execution (which executes wsl.exe) and the path translation. hvpty and wslbridge2 already have a wsldir and windir option.

[fpqc]

@Biswa96 nope. It's always valid. It was in the recent video on the blog. They actually launch an instance of wsl if you try to connect and it's not present. You can try it yourself if you don't believe me.

Also, see microsoft/terminal#2931 (comment) and the following comment by me with the correction.

[fpqc]

@mintty By the way, a consequence of \\wsl?\Distroname always being available is that you can just read /etc/passwd directly from windows to get all of that information.

[Biswa96]

May be it possible but I can't in my PC. Also the path is not available in older Windows 10 versions. I think its user who has to configure their own shortcuts. After all, hvpty & wslbridge2 do have the option to change WSL side path from commandline.

[fpqc]

@Biswa96 Ah, ok, it does work on the most recent two fast ring builds. I don't know about slow ring.

[mintty]

Cygwin 3.1.0 has been released with ConPTY support.

[pagerc]

The \\wsl$\ thing is interesting information, thanks, but of limited value. You wouldn't normally know the <wslusername>.

Sorry for commenting on a closed issue, but thought this might have relevance to anyone reviewing this thread in the future.
It's possible to access the Windows environment variables from the path, so this is a good alternative to setting the -~ option.
\\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\%USER%

[mintty]

Fixing syntax and variable reference, that would be
\\wsl$\Ubuntu\home\%USERNAME%
where the actual distribution name seems to be ignored which is weird. -~ works better.