I'm building a lightweight version of the ncurses library. So far, it works pretty well with VT100-compatible terminals, but win32 console fails to recognise the \033 code as the beginning of an escape sequence:
# include <stdio.h>
# include "term.h"
int main(void) {
puts(BOLD COLOR(FG, RED) "Bold text" NOT_BOLD " is cool!" CLEAR);
return 0;
}
What needs to be done on the C code level, in order that the ANSI.SYS driver is loaded and the ANSI/VT100 escape sequences recognized?
[UPDATE] For latest Windows 10 please read useful contribution by #brainslugs83, just below in the comments to this answer.
While for versions before Windows 10 Anniversary Update:
ANSI.SYS has a restriction that it can run only in the context of the MS-DOS sub-system under Windows 95-Vista.
Microsoft KB101875 explains how to enable ANSI.SYS in a command window, but it does not apply to Windows NT. According to the article: we all love colors, modern versions of Windows do not have this nice ANSI support.
Instead, Microsoft created a lot of functions, but this is far from your need to operate ANSI/VT100 escape sequence.
For a more detailed explanation, see the Wikipedia article:
ANSI.SYS also works in NT-derived systems for 16-bit legacy programs executing under the NTVDM.
The Win32 console does not natively support ANSI escape sequences at all. Software such as Ansicon can however act as a wrapper around the standard Win32 console and add support for ANSI escape sequences.
So I think ANSICON by Jason Hood is your solution. It is written in C, supports 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows, and the source is available.
Also I found some other similar question or post which ultimately have been answered to use ANSICON:
How to load ANSI escape codes or get coloured file listing in WinXP cmd shell?
how to use ansi.sys in windows 7
How can I get cmd.exe to display ANSI color escape sequences?
ansi color in windows shells
enable ansi colors in windows command prompt
Starting from Windows 10 TH2 (v1511), conhost.exe and cmd.exe support ANSI and VT100 Escape Sequences out of the box (although they have to be enabled).
See my answer over at superuser for more details.
Base on #BrainSlugs83 you can activate on the current Windows 10 version via register, with this command line:
REG ADD HKCU\CONSOLE /f /v VirtualTerminalLevel /t REG_DWORD /d 1
For Python 2.7 the following script works for me fine with Windows 10 (v1607)
import os
print '\033[35m'+'color-test'+'\033[39m'+" test end"
os.system('') #enable VT100 Escape Sequence for WINDOWS 10 Ver. 1607
print '\033[35m'+'color-test'+'\033[39m'+" test end"
Result should be:
[35mcolor-test[39m test end
color-test test end
Starting from Windows 10, you can use ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING to enable ANSI escape sequences:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/mt638032(v=vs.85).aspx
If ANSICON is not acceptable since it requires you to install something on the system, a more lightweight solution that parses and translates the ANSI codes into the relevant Win32 API console functions such as SetConsoleTextAttribute.
https://github.com/mattn/ansicolor-w32.c
For coloring the cmd you need Windows.h and use SetConsoleTextAttribute() more details can be found in http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms686047%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
In lastest win10, it can be done by SetConsoleMode(originMode | ENABLE_VIRTUAL_TERMINAL_PROCESSING). See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/console/console-virtual-terminal-sequences#example
Maybe ANSICON can help u
Just download and extract files, depending on your windows os: 32bit or 64bit
Install it with: ansicon -i
I personally like clink. It not only processes ANSI codes, it also adds many other features so Windows Console behaves like bash (history, reverse history search, keyboard shortcuts, etc.):
The same line editing as Bash (from GNU's Readline library).
History persistence between sessions.
Context sensitive completion;
Executables (and aliases).
Directory commands.
Environment variables
Thirdparty tools; Git, Mercurial, SVN, Go, and P4.
New keyboard shortcuts;
Paste from clipboard (Ctrl-V).
Incremental history search (Ctrl-R/Ctrl-S).
Powerful completion (TAB).
Undo (Ctrl-Z).
Automatic "cd .." (Ctrl-PgUp).
Environment variable expansion (Ctrl-Alt-E).
(press Alt-H for many more...)
Scriptable completion with Lua.
Coloured and scriptable prompt.
Auto-answering of the "Terminate batch job?" prompt.
Ansi.sys (in the system32 folder) is an "MSDOS driver" provided as part of Windows XP, 2000, and earlier versions of NT. In 2000 and XP, it is located in the system32 folder (I don't remember the structure of earlier versions of NT). Programs that run in the DOS subsystem and use standard output can use ANSI.SYS just as they could running over MSDOS.
To load ansi.sys, you must use the device= or devicehigh= command in config, just as you would in MSDOS. On Windows NT 5 (2K & XP), each copy of the DOS subsystem can be given a separate config file in the pif/shortcut (use the "advanced" button), and there is a default file called CONFIG.NT (also in the system32 folder), which is used if the pif/shortcut does not specify a special config file.
When ansi.sys is loaded correctly, mem /d will report that it is loaded. On earlier versions of NT, you can and must load a proper DOS environment to load ansi.sys, and ansi art will work at the prompt. On Win 2K and XP, loading ansi.sys will have no effect on your "CMD prompt" because CMD is not a DOS program: it is a 32 bit Windows console program. For some reason that I do not understand, on WinXP, even if you load a fixed copy of command.com using "command.com /p", the command prompt will not be ansi enabled: perhaps when you do it that way it only emulates loading command.com?
In any case, when you use an actual DOS version of command.com, ansi is enabled after being loaded: you can demonstrate it's use with a bit of ansi art like this:
command /c type ansiart.ans
(here is an example: http://artscene.textfiles.com/ansi/artwork/beastie.ans)
CONFIG.NT (in the system32 folder) contains an example of the syntax for loading device drivers. You will need to be an Administrator to edit that default file, or you can make a copy of it.
On Win 2K and XP, the default "shortcut" for MSDOS is a .PIF file, not a .LNK file. If you create a .lnk file to CMD, you won't be able to set special config and autoexec files, it will use the default CONFIG.NT. If you want to use a special config file for just one DOS application, you can make a copy of the "MSDOS shortcut", or you can make a copy of "_default.pif", found in your Windows folder.
I found this tool to be working for my end.
Microsoft Color Tool from GitHub
Unzip the compressed file then open CMD with Administration permission.
Go to the folder where you unzip the file in CMD.
Then execute this command "colortool -b scheme-name"
The scheme-name needs to be replaced with any of these options below:
campbell.ini
campbell-legacy.ini
cmd-legacy.ini
deuternopia.itermcolors
OneHalfDark.itermcolors
OneHalfLight.itermcolors
solarized_dark.itermcolors
solarized_light.itermcolors
In my case, the command would be like this "colortool -b solarized_dark.itermcolors"
Click right on the console window and select Properties.
You don't need to change any value just click "OK" to save the setting. (You will notice that your font already contains colors).
Console Property
Then restart your cmd or powerShell.
The ANSI color should be enabled and working with the color scheme you chose before.
Had the same issue. I installed ConEmu and that one solved my problem.
Somehow in Windows you just need to call any shell command first, rather call the system function. Just in start of your main method put system("");, and don't forget to include stdlib.h.
I noticed this when I looked at some of my old programs that also used ANSI codes to understand why they work, but my new code is not
Related
I tried to modify the open default command for .bat and .cmd files on Windows in order to open the Windows terminal instead of the legacy cmd.exe.
My modification to the user registry was:
(I had to use TotalReg from Pavel Yosifovitch to change the default value to REG_EXPAND_SZ).
The same default value was used for the batfile class.
The above definitions work almost properly.
There is a little issue though: when I now run a .bat or a .cmd file, the command line for wt.exe uses “legacy DOS 8.3 paths”, as well as the current working directory.
If my definition for the open command simply uses wt.exe instead of "%localappdata%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wt.exe", then the problem disappears.
Is there a way to use the absolute path and still get the non-8.3 behavior?
When using %1, the shell tries to guess if the target supports long filenames. If you use %L, the shell always uses the long filename if the target is 32 or 64-bit. 16-bit applications presumably still get the short name?
%L is not officially documented anywhere but a Microsoft employee listed them in a comment here...
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I know for linux and Unix machines there is emacs and vi text editor and gcc is built in to compile c code? what would be the Windows text editor in cmd and are there any compilers built in?
I made a simple VIM clone from batch to satisfy your needs.
#echo off
title WinVim
color a
cls
echo WinVim 1.02
echo.
echo To save press CTRL+Z then press enter
echo.
echo Make sure to include extension in file name
set /p name=File Name:
copy con %name%
if exist %name% copy %name% + con
Hope this helps :)
There is also a port of nano for windows, which is more more akin to notepad.exe than vim is
https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/win32-support/
Get the WINNT zip. Tested in Windows 7 works as expected
I want to add that it is very strange to introduce Core and Nano servers without native console full-featured editor. Like others I`ll recommend to use vim or nano. But my suggestion is to install it via OneGet (require WMF5)! They both are presented in Chocolatey repository so installation is simple and fast:
PS C:> Find-Package -Name vim | Format-Table -AutoSize
Name Version Status ProviderName Source Summary
---- ------- ------ ------------ ------ -------
vim 7.4.638 Available Chocolatey chocolatey Vim is an advanced text editor...
PS C:> Install-Package vim
MS-DOS Editor (or just edit) is a 16-bit text editor that is still included with 32-bit versions of Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1. It can edit files upto 65,279 lines long and has mouse support. Being an 16-bit DOS editor, it cannot run directly on 64-bit versions of Windows. It can be launched by typing edit at the command prompt.
There is no command based text editors in windows (at least from Windows 7). But you can try the vi windows clone available here : http://www.vim.org/
There is no command based text editors in windows (at least from Windows 7). But you can try the vi windows clone available here : http://www.vim.org/
You are Wrong!
If you are using Windows 7, you can using this command:
copy con [filename.???]
Or if you using Windows XP or lower, use (is have a DOS GUI):
edit
Any comment?
I also wondered what had happened to the text editor in console mode in windows. I remembered the famous mc from Linux. Of course, it's available for Windows!
GNU Midnight Commander is a visual file manager, licensed under GNU
General Public License and therefore qualifies as Free Software. It's
a feature rich full-screen text mode application that allows you to
copy, move and delete files and whole directory trees, search for
files and run commands in the subshell. Internal viewer and editor are
included.
Midnight Commander is based on versatile text interfaces, such as
Ncurses or S-Lang, which allows it to work on a regular console,
inside an X Window terminal, over SSH connections and all kinds of
remote shells.
As mentioned somewhere there are also FAR Manager
vim may be challenging for beginners. For a quick-and-dirty Windows console-mode text editor, I would suggest Kinesics Text Editor.
There actually is a basic text editor on Windows. In the command prompt simply type edit, and it should take you to there. Now, someone already mentioned it, but they said it's XP or lower. Actually it works perfectly fine on my Windows 7.
Wikipedia page
Again, I am running Windows 7, so I've no idea if it's still is present on Windows 8.
And as IInspectable pointed out, there's no built in C compilers, which is a disappointment. Oh, well, back to MinGW.
Also, "here" someone mentioned Far Manager, which has ability to edit files, so that's some alternative.
Hope that helps
You can install vim/vi for windows and set windows PATH variable and open it in command line.
As said by Morne you can use the vi editor for windows
Also you can get CodeBlocks for windows from here
Install it and direct your PATH environment variable of your windows installation to gcc or other binaries in bin folder of codeblocks installation folder.
Now you can use gcc or other compilers from cmd like linux.
There is one built into windows 7 in which you can open by clicking the windows and r keys at the same time and then typing edit.com.
I hope this helped
The standard text editor in windows is notepad. There are no built-in command line editors.
Windows does not ship a C or C++ compiler. The .NET framework comes with several compilers, though: csc.exe (C# compiler), vbc.exe (VB.NET compiler), jsc.exe (JavaScript compiler).
If you want a free alternative you can download Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop that comes with an optimizing C/C++ compiler (cl.exe).
In a pinch, just type 'notepad (filename)' and notepad will pop up with the file you want to edit in it. Otherwise Vim or some such will have to be installed.
notepad filename.extension will open notepad editor
I want my Perl scripts to behave just like any other executable (*.exe file).
When I double-click on myscript.pl I want it to execute instead of opening in a text editor.
I want to run myscript.pl instead of perl myscript.pl.
I really want to run myscript instead of myscript.pl.
I want to run program | myscript instead of program | perl myscript.pl.
I want to be able to run my script via drag & drop.
There are a number of changes you have to make on Windows to make all of
these things work. Users typically stumble upon things that don't work one at
a time; leaving them confused whether they've made an error, there's a bug in
Perl, there's a bug in Windows, or the behavior they want just isn't possible.
This question is intended to provide a single point of reference for making
everything work up front; ideally before these problems even occur.
Related questions:
How do I make Perl scripts recognize parameters in the Win32 cmd console?
Running a perl script on windows without extension
Perl execution from command line question
How can I read piped input in Perl on Windows?
Perl on Windows, file associations and I/O redirection
How do I create drag-and-drop Strawberry Perl programs?
Note: The actions below require administrative privileges. For
steps utilizing the command prompt it must be launched via "Run as
administrator" on Windows Vista / Windows 7.
Associate *.pl files with perl
Run the following commands at a shell prompt:
assoc .pl=PerlScript
ftype PerlScript=C:\bin\perl.exe "%1" %*
Replace C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe with the path to your Perl installation. This
enables you to run myscript.pl instead of perl myscript.pl.
Default install locations are:
ActivePerl: C:\Perl
Strawberry Perl: C:\Strawberry
Add .PL to your PATHEXT environment variable.
This makes Windows consider *.pl files to be executable when searching your
PATH. It enables you to run myscript instead of myscript.pl.
You can set it for the current cmd session
set PATHEXT=%PATHEXT%;.PL
To set it permanently (under Windows Vista or Windows 7)
setx PATHEXT %PATHEXT%;.PL
Under Windows XP you have to use the GUI:
Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click Environment variables.
Select PATHEXT, then click Edit.
Append ;.PL to the current value.
Make I/O redirection work
I/O redirection (e.g. program | myscript) doesn't work for programs started
via a file association. There is a registry patch to correct the problem.
Start Registry Editor.
Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: InheritConsoleHandles
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Decimal
Value data: 1
Quit Registry Editor.
Warning: In principle, this should only be necessary on Windows XP. In my experience it's also necessary in Windows 7. In Windows 10 this is actively harmful—programs execute but produce nothing on stdout/stderr. The registry key needs to be set to 0 instead of 1.
See also:
STDIN/STDOUT Redirection May Not Work If Started from a File Association
Perl Scripts on Windows 10 run from Explorer but not Command Prompt
If patching the registry isn't an option running program | perl -S myscript.pl
is a less annoying work-around for scripts in your PATH.
Add a drop handler
Adding a drop handler for Perl allows you to run a Perl script via drag & drop;
e.g. dragging a file over the file icon in Windows Explorer and dropping it
there. Run the following script to add the necessary entries to the registry:
use Win32::TieRegistry;
$Registry->Delimiter("/");
$perlKey = $Registry-> {"HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Perl/"};
$perlKey-> {"shellex/"} = {
"DropHandler/" => {
"/" => "{86C86720-42A0-1069-A2E8-08002B30309D}"
}};
Convert your perl scripts into batch files using pl2bat once they are ready to be run by users.
The trick works through the perl -x switch which, according to perldoc perlrun, makes Perl search for the first line looking like #!.*perl.
After following the instructions in the accepted answer, a double click still led to .pl files opening with Notepad in Windows 10 — even when perl.exe was set as the default file handler.
After finding Jack Wu's comment at ActivePerl. .pl files no longer execute but open in Notepad instead I was able to run perl scripts on double-click as such:
Select and right-click a .pl file
Use the "Open With" submenu to "Choose another app"
Select "Always use this app to open .pl files" (do this now – you won't get the chance after you have selected a program)
Scroll to the bottom of the "Other options" to find "More apps", and select "Look for another app on this PC"
Navigate to C:/path/to/perl/bin/ and select Perl5.16.3.exe (or the equivalent, depending on which version of Perl you have installed: but not Perl.exe)
Then the Perl icon appears next to .pl files and a double-click leads to them opening in Perl every time, as desired.
I tried the assoc and ftype methods and they didn't work for me.
What worked was editing this registry key:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Applications\perl.exe\shell\open\command
It was set to:
"C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe" "%1"
When it should be:
"C:\Perl64\bin\perl.exe" "%1" %*
It is the same content as the ftype, but for arcane windows reasons, I had to set it there too.
Like some others, I had set 'assoc' and 'ftype', but also had set Notepad text editor via the GUI, and when I tried to execute a script via the command line, Windows invoked Notepad to edit the script instead of running my script.
Using the GUI to instead point the .pl file association to the script-running executable was not much of an improvement, since it would invoke the executable on my script, but would pass no command-line arguments (even when I invoked my script from the command line).
I finally found salvation here which advised me to delete some registry keys.
Key quote:
"The problem is that if you have already associated the program with the extension via the Open With dialog then you will have created an application association, instead of a file extension association, between the two. And application associations take precedence."
In my case, following the instructions to use RegEdit to delete
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ Applications \ perl.exe
where perl.exe is the name of my Perl executable, and then also deleting:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT \ .pl
seemed to solve my problem, and then (after re-executing 'assoc' and 'ftype' commands as shown in other answers) I could then execute scripts from cmd.exe and have them run with access to their command-line parameters.
Some other related information here.
I have used Vim extensively on linux console, I am used to it's keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl+V for vertical selection, and many others.
I have installed gVim for Windows on my computer at work, and I almost can't use it, as many of keyboard commands were redefined. The Ctrl+V pastes the text from clipboard instead of starting vertical selection for example...
How make gVim work exactly like the default linux console version, possibly with the default gentoo settings?
in c:\program files\vim\_vimrc:
" source $VIMRUNTIME/mswin.vim
" behave mswin
Comment out these two lines
Issue the following commands:
set compatible
:mkvimrc!
That will write out a _vimrc that overrules the one in \Program Files\vim
Edit your .vimrc file so that it contains only the line:
set compatible
I would like to find a replacement for list.com, specifically the ability to accept piped input. For example:
p4 sync -n | list
which accepts the output of the perforce command and displays the results in the viewer/editor for manipulation or saving. I know that I would send the output to a file and then open the file in the viewer/editor but I use it for temporary results.
List.com doesn't work on 64 bit Windows 7.
A good 32-bit Windows-based alternative to Vern Buerg's List is Charles Prineas' "V". Find it at http://www.fileviewer.com.
I believe someone is working on a replacment. See http://mysite.verizon.net/yellowspoon
The less utility can display text read from standard input. You can download 32-bit Windows binaries of the program, and Microsoft claims most programs designed for a computer running a 32-bit version of Windows will work on a computer running 64-bit versions of Windows.
You can simulate list.com file browsing and viewing features with vifm and less.
They are both freely available for windows.
After vifm installation just customize the "vi command" in the configuration file, and replace it with "less" (set vicmd = less \ -C)
You can also have a single pane display if you prefer so (with the "only" option).
Finally you can create a list.bat which calls vifm and changes the current directory on exit. This is the batch file content.
#echo off
for / f "delims =" %% i in ('vifm --choose-dir -% 1') do IF "%%i" NEQ "" (cd %%i)
More details in list.com lives on my blog