Re: [Bug-readline] Forwarding input from ncurses to readline

[Ulf Magnusson]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 3:36 PM, Ulf Magnusson <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 3:30 PM, Chet Ramey <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On 2/20/15 9:20 AM, Ulf Magnusson wrote:
>>> On Fri, Feb 20, 2015 at 3:27 AM, Chet Ramey <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>> On 2/18/15 9:43 PM, Ulf Magnusson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Re. rl_change_environment, there's this in the source:
>>>>>
>>>>> /* If this is non-zero, readline will set LINES and COLUMNS in the
>>>>>    environment when it handles SIGWINCH. */
>>>>> int rl_change_environment = 1;
>>>>>
>>>>> However, afaics readline does not update LINES and COLUMNS in the
>>>>> SIGWINCH handler, at least not in the non-bash case. Is there some
>>>>> motivation for this (besides being a bit tricky due to putenv/setenv not 
>>>>> being
>>>>> async-signal-safe)? The comment seems a little misleading either way. :)
>>>>
>>>> It does.  The SIGWINCH handler just sets a flag (_rl_caught_signal) and, as
>>>> a side effect, calls any application-specific SIGWINCH handler to allow it
>>>> to do the same.  When readline does its signal handling via the
>>>> RL_CHECK_SIGNALS macro, it notices that it caught SIGWINCH and calls
>>>> _rl_signal_handler with SIGWINCH as the argument.  _rl_signal_handler
>>>> calls rl_resize_terminal, which calls _rl_get_screen_size, which eventually
>>>> calls sh_set_lines_and_columns.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Hmm... it's odd that ncurses doesn't pick up the updated LINES and COLUMNS
>>> variables then. It also forwards the signal in its SIGWINCH handler.
>>
>> I thought you said you had forced readline to not catch signals; if
>> readline doesn't install signal handlers none of this is relevant.
>>
>
> That was later. I'm thinking of what caused the original problem.
> Should have been
> clearer.
>
> /Ulf

I think I see what's going on now. Might be a readline bug.

When using the alternate interface, signal handlers are installed only
for the duration of each rl_callback_read_char() call. They are
installed at the rl_set_signals() call and uninstalled at the
CALLBACK_READ_RETURN() on the last line of the function (this might be
bug). This means that a SIGWINCH that arrives between two calls to
rl_callback_read_char() will not be seen (and neither will other
signals, most likely).

Here's a program that demonstrates the issue:


#include <readline/readline.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/select.h>
#include <unistd.h>

static void got_line(char *dummy) {
    printf("LINES: %s  COLUMNS: %s\n", getenv("LINES"), getenv("COLUMNS"));
}

int main(void) {
    fd_set read_fd_set;

    rl_callback_handler_install("> ", got_line);
    FD_ZERO(&read_fd_set);
    FD_SET(STDIN_FILENO, &read_fd_set);
    for (;;) {
        select(STDIN_FILENO + 1, &read_fd_set, NULL, NULL, NULL);
        rl_callback_read_char();
    }
}


Pressing enter a few times and resizing the terminal in between shows
that LINES and COLUMNS never change. The select() is important here as
the program blocks inside rl_callback_read_char() otherwise, which
hides the issue.

/Ulf