Apparently this is almost a duplicate of "Bad pipe filedescriptor when reading from stdin in python - Stack Overflow"; however, I believe this case is slightly more complicated (and it is not Windows specific, as the conclusion of that thread was).
I'm currently trying to experiment with a simple script in Python: I'd like to supply input to the script - either through command line arguments; or by 'pipe'-ing a string to this script - and have the script show this input string using a curses
terminal interface.
The full script, here called testcurses.py
, is given below. The problem is that whenever I try the actual piping, that seems to mess up stdin, and the curses
window never shows. Here is a terminal output:
## CASE 1: THROUGH COMMAND LINE ARGUMENT (arg being stdin):
##
$ ./testcurses.py -
['-'] 1
stdout/stdin (obj): <open file '<stdout>', mode 'w' at 0xb77dc078> <open file '<stdin>', mode 'r' at 0xb77dc020>
stdout/stdin (fn): 1 0
env(TERM): xterm xterm
stdin_termios_attr [27906, 5, 1215, 35387, 15, 15, ['\x03', ... '\x00']]
stdout_termios_attr [27906, 5, 1215, 35387, 15, 15, ['\x03', ... '\x00']]
opening -
obj <open file '<stdin>', mode 'r' at 0xb77dc020>
TYPING blabla HERE
wr TYPING blabla HERE
at end
before curses TYPING blabla HERE
#
# AT THIS POINT:
# in this case, curses window is shown, with the text 'TYPING blabla HERE'
# ################
## CASE 2: THROUGH PIPE
##
## NOTE I get the same output, even if I try syntax as in SO1057638, like:
## python -c "print 'TYPING blabla HERE'" | python testcurses.py -
##
$ echo "TYPING blabla HERE" | ./testcurses.py -
['-'] 1
stdout/stdin (obj): <open file '<stdout>', mode 'w' at 0xb774a078> <open file '<stdin>', mode 'r' at 0xb774a020>
stdout/stdin (fn): 1 0
env(TERM): xterm xterm
stdin_termios_attr <class 'termios.error'>::(22, 'Invalid argument')
stdout_termios_attr [27906, 5, 1215, 35387, 15, 15, ['\x03', '\x1c', '\x7f', '\x15', '\x04', '\x00', '\x01', '\xff', '\x11', '\x13', '\x1a', '\xff', '\x12', '\x0f', '\x17', '\x16', '\xff', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00', '\x00']]
opening -
obj <open file '<stdin>', mode 'r' at 0xb774a020>
wr TYPING blabla HERE
at end
before curses TYPING blabla HERE
#
# AT THIS POINT:
# script simply exits, nothing is shown
# ################
As far as I can see, the issue is: - whenever we pipe strings into the Python script, the Python script loses the reference to the terminal as stdin
, and notices that the replaced stdin
is not a termios
structure anymore - and since stdin
is no longer a terminal, curses.initscr()
exits immediately without rendering anything.
So, my question is - in brief: can I somehow achieve, that the syntax echo "blabla" | ./testcurses.py -
ends up showing the piped string in curses
? More specifically: is it possible to retrieve a reference to the calling terminal's stdin
from a Python script, even if this script is being "piped" to?
Thanks in advance for any pointers,
Cheers!
PS: the testcurses.py
script:
#!/usr/bin/env python
# http://www.tuxradar.com/content/code-project-build-ncurses-ui-python
# http://diveintopython.net/scripts_and_streams/stdin_stdout_stderr.html
# http://bytes.com/topic/python/answers/42283-curses-disable-readline-replace-stdin
#
# NOTE: press 'q' to exit curses - Ctrl-C will screw up yer terminal
# ./testcurses.py "blabla" # works fine (curseswin shows)
# ./testcurses.py - # works fine, (type, enter, curseswins shows):
# echo "blabla" | ./testcurses.py "sdsd" # fails to raise curses window
#
# NOTE: when without pipe: termios.tcgetattr(sys.__stdin__.fileno()): [27906, 5, 1215, 35387, 15, 15, ['\x03',
# NOTE: when with pipe | : termios.tcgetattr(sys.__stdin__.fileno()): termios.error: (22, 'Invalid argument')
import curses
import sys
import os
import atexit
import termios
def openAnything(source):
"""URI, filename, or string --> stream
http://diveintopython.net/xml_processing/index.html#kgp.divein
This function lets you define parsers that take any input source
(URL, pathname to local or network file, or actual data as a string)
and deal with it in a uniform manner. Returned object is guaranteed
to have all the basic stdio read methods (read, readline, readlines).
Just .close() the object when you're done with it.
"""
if hasattr(source, "read"):
return source
if source == '-':
import sys
return sys.stdin
# try to open with urllib (if source is http, ftp, or file URL)
import urllib
try:
return urllib.urlopen(source)
except (IOError, OSError):
pass
# try to open with native open function (if source is pathname)
try:
return open(source)
except (IOError, OSError):
pass
# treat source as string
import StringIO
return StringIO.StringIO(str(source))
def main(argv):
print argv, len(argv)
print "stdout/stdin (obj):", sys.__stdout__, sys.__stdin__
print "stdout/stdin (fn):", sys.__stdout__.fileno(), sys.__stdin__.fileno()
print "env(TERM):", os.environ.get('TERM'), os.environ.get("TERM", "unknown")
stdin_term_attr = 0
stdout_term_attr = 0
try:
stdin_term_attr = termios.tcgetattr(sys.__stdin__.fileno())
except:
stdin_term_attr = "%s::%s" % (sys.exc_info()[0], sys.exc_info()[1])
try:
stdout_term_attr = termios.tcgetattr(sys.__stdout__.fileno())
except:
stdout_term_attr = `sys.exc_info()[0]` + "::" + `sys.exc_info()[1]`
print "stdin_termios_attr", stdin_term_attr
print "stdout_termios_attr", stdout_term_attr
fname = ""
if len(argv):
fname = argv[0]
writetxt = "Python curses in action!"
if fname != "":
print "opening", fname
fobj = openAnything(fname)
print "obj", fobj
writetxt = fobj.readline(100) # max 100 chars read
print "wr", writetxt
fobj.close()
print "at end"
sys.stderr.write("before ")
print "curses", writetxt
try:
myscreen = curses.initscr()
#~ atexit.register(curses.endwin)
except:
print "Unexpected error:", sys.exc_info()[0]
sys.stderr.write("after initscr") # this won't show, even if curseswin runs fine
myscreen.border(0)
myscreen.addstr(12, 25, writetxt)
myscreen.refresh()
myscreen.getch()
#~ curses.endwin()
atexit.register(curses.endwin)
sys.stderr.write("after end") # this won't show, even if curseswin runs fine
# run the main function - with arguments passed to script:
if __name__ == "__main__":
main(sys.argv[1:])
sys.stderr.write("after main1") # these won't show either,
sys.stderr.write("after main2") # (.. even if curseswin runs fine ..)