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2008-05-23 2008-07-31
term commander/explorer interface (martin) explain technical limitations (martin)
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====== Remote Commands ====== ====== Remote Commands ======
-WinSCP offers unique feature to execute command on remote server as with regular terminal client. However as it does not implement the terminal fully, there are some limitations. Particularly, you cannot execute commands that require terminal emulation ((Such commands will refuse to execute with error message like "Error opening terminal", "No TTY available", "stdin: is not a tty" or "Couldn't open /dev/tty for reading".)) or user input. ((If you happen to execute command that requires user input, WinSCP will eventually timeout waiting for command to finish and you will need to reconnect your session.))+WinSCP offers unique feature to execute command on remote server as with regular terminal client. However as it cannot implement the terminal fully, there are some limitations. Particularly, you cannot execute commands that require terminal emulation or user input. See [[remote_command#limitations|below]] for technical details.
Basically the feature is supported only for [[protocols#scp|SCP protocol]]. With [[protocols#sftp|SFTP]] you can still use the feature by opening [[shell_session|separate shell session]], which in fact takes place automatically for you. With [[protocols#ftp|FTP]] you can only execute FTP protocol commands. Basically the feature is supported only for [[protocols#scp|SCP protocol]]. With [[protocols#sftp|SFTP]] you can still use the feature by opening [[shell_session|separate shell session]], which in fact takes place automatically for you. With [[protocols#ftp|FTP]] you can only execute FTP protocol commands.
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===== Custom Commands ===== ===== Custom Commands =====
If there is command you need to execute regularly and in particular if the command works with files, you can find [[custom_command|custom commands]] useful. If there is command you need to execute regularly and in particular if the command works with files, you can find [[custom_command|custom commands]] useful.
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 +===== [[limitations]] Technical Background of Terminal Limitations =====
 +WinSCP does not support commands that require terminal emulation or user input.
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 +Terminal emulation cannot be implemented at all as it is not possible to combine terminal emulation and file transfers in the same session. The reason is that with terminal emulation control characters have special meaning that is interpreted by the server. On the other hand the same characters (bytes) have special meaning in the file transfer protocols or may be simply present in the (binary) files being transferred.
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 +If you happen to try execute command requiring terminal emulation, it will typically refuse to run with error message like "Error opening terminal", "No TTY available", "stdin: is not a tty" or "Couldn't open /dev/tty for reading".
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 +WinSCP may possibly support user input. However most commands requiring user input does that via terminal emulation features. If your command needs plain input without terminal emulation you can use input redirection like:
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 +  echo "some input" | command
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Last modified: by martin