Enter a key that is sometimes not recognized in Windows applications in cygwin

Question

At work, I use Cygwin a lot because it offers me a small oasis in the vast desert of Windows. I inevitably end up running some non-Cygwin-related programs through the bash shell, such as build scripts (created batch files inside) and Subversion CLI binaries (I have Windows installed). 99% of the time, I have no problem using this setting. The other 1%, however, cause a strange problem:

With build scripts and SVNs, most of the time the input key is interpreted correctly. For example, I will start creating a script database and it will offer me the server name. I type "localhost" and hit enter. Everything is fine. Then it goes to the end if there are errors, and prints things with more . Not a single key that I press is recognized more . I have Ctrl-C.

Similarly, if I do a Subversion update, everything is fine fine. However, when interactive conflict resolution occurs, I usually type “tf” for “theirs-full” and press enter, but nothing happens. I have to remove Ctrl-C from it and restart the update using merge or use TortoiseSVN on Windows to do this.

Any idea why Cygwin does not seem to accidentally pass an input key into programs? I thought this might have something to do with the end of a Unix vs Windows style line, so I tried to enter these characters manually, but that doesn't seem to matter. Thank.

Edit : I just happened to this again, and I understood something. SVN requested a password. I typed in a password that it echoed on the screen (bad) and hit enter ... nothing. The hit is entered several more times, the cursor moves, but nothing happens. I press Ctrl-C and it brings me back to bash, which then says: “bash: [my password]: command not found”, followed by a series of new requests equal to the number of times I press the enter key, So, what happened, the input never got into SVN, but bash somehow read it after SVN came out. I thought it could help someone figure out what was going on.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, I think that you are facing one of the problems of Cygwin and Windows / dos applications. See "Console Programs" at http://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-effectively.html .

This is just a limitation on Windows console applications. This is the usual behavior for the myqsl cmd client and the svn client, for example.

Here are some things to note: I have successfully used this approach with both Windows mysql and Windows svn clients:

1) Try to make sure that you do not have “tty” in the CYGWIN environment variable and see if it helps (disable it in “My Computer” → “Properties” → “Advanced” → “Environment Variables” and close / restart any cygwin bash invitations).

2) Do not use RXVT - use the basic Cygwin cmd hint instead. This is due to the fact that RXVT means "tty" and will break No. 1 above.

3) Try to find the "native" Cygwin package for cmds that you are having problems with, instead of using cmds Windows. (I have not yet found the 1.6 svn client for cygwin.)

Good luck Dustin

Answer 2

A long discussion of the mintty project here - http://code.google.com/p/mintty/issues/detail?id=56

One of the mentioned solutions that worked in my case (entering authentication passwords for native subversion), conin - http://code.google.com/p/mintty/downloads/detail?name=conin-0.0.2.zip&can= 1 & q = label% 3ADevelopment

 $ conin svn list https://{repo} Password for 'user': ******