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.
Had the same issue. I installed ConEmu and that one solved my problem.
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.
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
Is it possible to open window's file explorer from Dosbox?
When I try to open it, it shows:
"This program cannot be run in DOS mode."
I type run.bat in dosbox, and I run this file:
run.bat:
c:
cd Windows
cd System32
explorer.exe "http:\\test.com"
thank you!
DOSBOX emulates a 16bit hardware. Explorer.exe is either 32 bit or 64 bit. No chance to run that from Dosbox. You would need an 16 bit browser (if you google, look for "windows 3.1"). But don't expect them to be compatible with modern websites (Java, Flash, .HTML4/5,Silverstar,...)
You don't want to run explorer inside the dosbox, but want the dosbox to open the explorer of your guest system (your physical computer, not the emulated 16bit DosBox-Computer)? This translates to "how do I run a program on a different computer". There are tools to do so (like psexec) but I don't know any 16bit versions.
I know this isn't strictly a programming related question, but I cannot seem to find an answer.
In what year was Batch created? Or is it more appropriate to talk about the year CMD was created? In which case - in what year was CMD created?
I apologize if this question is against the rules in any way. The reason I ask is to participate in a challenge over at the Code Golf StackExchange site.
Do you need to distinguish the command.com and cmd.exe ?
Command.com - was the command line interpreter from the earliest versions of DOS and QDOS created by Tim Paterson (around 1981) , but the command.com also passed through a lot of changes and may be the most drastic in its 5th version.
MSDOS 1.0 supported commands - (CD COPY DEL DIR EDIT FORMAT HELP MKDIR RD REN TYPE )
In MSDOS 5.0 (1991) more advanced commands were introduced - (even microsoft keeps a documentation for it) and may be its a little bit closer to a programing language.
In 1993 Windows NT was released packed with the new cmd.exe (along with the old command.com) created by Therese Stowell - it has a lot new features like additional switches for FOR and IF commands , subroutines and etc. And this is the 'modern' batch-scripting what we know today (though it is close to the ms-dos 5 command.com).
This has cost me some time in googling but hope the info is enough :)
The earliest reference to batch files is 1981, with the release of IBM PC DOS 1.0 - it used the file AUTOEXEC.BAT to run various commands at startup.
And imo this question falls into a grey area regarding whether or not it's on-topic; there's no specific programming question, but it's still related to programming, and that's apparently okay according to the review audit that I recently failed.
MSDos was based on CP/M features for compatability. Unix type features added in in Ver 2. CMD started as a command shell that would run MSDos batch files but have added features in OS/2 (IBM not MS did CMD). CMD got taken into NT and there are two main versions pre Win 2000 and post Win 2000. Prior to Windows 2000 Dos batch files and programs ran in the OS/2 sub system, not the Dos emulator in the Windows sub system.
The command.com in Windows now is ver 5.5 and passes all commands to cmd to execute unless started like this command.com /k ver (compare that to typing command.com then ver).
I don't remember exactly when I bought my first PC computer, but it should be around 1984 or 1985; it was a "PC clone" Printaform computer that featured MS-DOS 2.11 with Batch files executed by command.com program. I vividly remember that the Batch features of that time were enough to write many interesting programs. It had variable management via SET command and %variable% value replacement, and FOR, IF and CALL commands, including recursive subroutines.
Shortly after that I read an article in Dr. Dobb's Journal that show me how to modify command.com's environment variables from a running program, so I wrote my first program of this type, LET.COM, that allowed me to perform advanced variable management in Batch files, like arithmetic operations, data input, etc. many years before the modern cmd.exe Batch file features.
You may review the history of MS-DOS development, including Batch file features, in many sites in the web, like this one in Wikipedia.
For work I have to write a simple batch file to backup a directory as part of a maintenance routine. The PCs that need to have their directories backed up are running Windows XP Embedded 2002 SP2. These tools do not have the following command line utilities:
-copy
-xcopy.exe
-robocopy.exe
Is there any method of command line copy that is currently on XPe, if not, is there a 3rd party solution and how would I implement this?
Thank you in advance.
I'm not really sure why, if you can put new files on this machine running an embedded OS, why you wouldn't have just copied xcopy.exe over to it... Anyway, the program you want and is the best for copying large amounts of files/backups is XXCOPY. Check out www.xxcopy.com
In windows 7 (64 bit) if I do a search for %windir%\SysWoW64\cmd.exe and open it, it will open a 32 bit instance of cmd.exe. From there, if I was doing this manually, I could then run my batch file and everything is good to go.
Now, when I set up a task and run the same batch file...doesn't work. Probably because the 64 bit cmd.exe is being launched.
Another caveat...I can't just change the windows environment variables to always point to the 32 bit version, because I have other batch files that need 64 bit...
So, somehow, I need to be able to set up a task via Windows task scheduler where the task itself knows to launch the 32 bit cmd.exe and run the batch file in that instance of cmd.exe.
Any ideas?
Maybe I am missing the mark, but you canset your Program in the Action tab to be C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe then pass the script as an argument
Like so: