Telnet/ssh support

[bvarg]

I need to run the console application rendered as telnet app. Is this doable using this library? If yes is there any samples or anyone can help me directing on how to achieve this.

[tznind]

Do you need to use telnet specifically and not just SSH? SSH works out of the box

Implementing telnet I think would be a lot of work. Unless I am misunderstanding you would be wanting to have a TCPListener and send the strings yourself kind of like this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19169893/simple-telnet-console-that-listens-and-accepts-connections

It might be possible by implementing your own ConsoleDriver. I would start by looking at the unit testing driver FakeConsole if you want to go down that route.

[JessicaMulein]

I was writing one for Spectre.Console to do a web based console... I'm thinking I may resume that effort, but on Gui.cs...

[bvarg]

I need to use telnet specifically. I should be be able to run the console screen in a telnet session and yes right I definitely need to have a TCPListner. But I am not sure how do I transform the controls to render GUI controls on Telnet screen? For example I need to design a data entry screen on Telnet console to accept user input

[tznind]

But I am not sure how do I transform the controls to render GUI controls on Telnet screen? For example I need to design a data entry screen on Telnet console to accept user input

I guess there are 3 ways you could go with this:

• If there is a library or application that presents a curses compatible console over telnet then you should just be able to run the Terminal.gui app directly
• You could write your application normally and then start the process from a wrapper C# application which rebinds standard in and standard out to itself and translates that into whatever telnet sessions are open
• You could create all the Terminal.Gui controls as normal and a custom ConsoleDriver that has a screen buffer and handles translating state into whatever open telnet connection is being serviced.

If your plan is to do the third of those then I would look at the tests which use FakeDriver. It is used in tests to check the console screen characters after redrawing without any blocking or threading. Here is a good example of this:

https://github.com/migueldeicaza/gui.cs/blob/a822e1afa948531a6879c2f5888c29ec863d81da/UnitTests/GraphViewTests.cs#L1201-L1242

Since these classes are internal I guess you would have start by cloning this repo and testing out how feasible it is in the main project or as a new project with a reference to the gui.cs test project.

But it sounds like @FreddieMercurial has a better idea of what is involved in this, I may be not understanding exactly your requirements.

[JessicaMulein]

@tznind seems right on.

In my own code quest, I've seen a C# telnet/ssh terminal code example.
My personal quest is to implement a Web based HTML5 console so I can do web games and apps.
I have been working on other projects for a while, but this has re-awakened my interest.

This and the other nearby partials.
https://github.com/HACC-ers/HACC/blob/main/Models/Drivers/Html5AnsiConsoleCanvas.TerminalGuiConsoleDriver.cs

It's starting to look like actually a fair chunk of my old code is going to be rebuilt to work around the TerminalGui core instead of the Spectre console core- it seems like it is a wiser implementation to make the Spectre just use the TerminalGui core in my case. which is not at all relevant to you- but maybe something in my code will help?

PS this was the project I recalled
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19071/Quick-tool-A-minimalistic-Telnet-library
Notably it has no cursor/graphics control, but it may be part of the missing pieces you need.

[JessicaMulein]

Actually, @bvarg maybe you should check out the NetDriver? https://github.com/migueldeicaza/gui.cs/blob/main/Terminal.Gui/ConsoleDrivers/NetDriver.cs

[bvarg]

Will check this out and see

[BDisp]

@FreddieMercurial if the use of Terminal.Gui is useful, as I think it is, then the most easy way to implement a custom console, like WebConsole or TelnetConsole, in the case where the NetDriver don't satisfies your needs, is by creating a new ConsoleDriver derived class. In this case the place to initialize one of those console is by creating bool variables on Application class to load the requested console.
As the UseSystemConsole variable is used to load the NetDriver, a UseWebConsole and a UseTelnetConsole will be used to load the WebDriver and TelnetDriver, respectively. This variables must be checked first and if all of them are false, then the WindowsDriver will be loaded for Windows environment and the CursesDriver for the Linux and macOS. See this:

https://github.com/migueldeicaza/gui.cs/blob/a822e1afa948531a6879c2f5888c29ec863d81da/Terminal.Gui/Core/Application.cs#L339-L354

@FreddieMercurial in this case you can use the internal Clipboard from the Terminal.Gui, without added more new libraries.
If you want reopen the issue #1638 and work together on a possible solution, I'm available.

[BDisp]

It also looks like users of my WebConsole will need to call Application.Init with the correct WebConsoleDriver and the WebConsoleMainLoop

Yes, the WebConsoleDriver will be responsible for loading the right web libraries and the WebConsoleMainLoopwith deals with the call to the main iterations.

[BDisp]

Well, I'm curious now and I like to help but I need you to guide me on this. Then I suggest you fork the Gui and implementing the needed tools and I'll help you on what I've knowledge.
Maybe is better open a new issue with the feature you need and continue discussion there.

[JessicaMulein]

Good to their word, BDisp has helped move us along immensely.
I've pruned most of my comments.

[JessicaMulein]

@bvarg sorry for derailing your issue - we can clean it up maybe as we've moved the conversation elsewhere.
We've learned a lot about the Blazor application lifecycle, but I'm not sure how much we've learned relevant to your original question.
Feel free to look at the https://github.com/HACC-ers/HACC repo under the WebConsoleDriver partials.

[JessicaMulein]

PS if you have any questions- drop a note and @BDisp or I maybe can actually help more now :)

[migueldeicaza]

The original issue is quite ambiguous, Telnet and ssh are transports to connect to a terminal, and Gui.cs will work with any transport, as long as the endpoint can support some basic terminal commands, and the TERM environment variable is correctly configured.

[bvarg]

Just an update. I was able to run my console app through SSH.

[wzuqui]

I ended up finding this thread, but it had already created an issue #2723.

Any news about a driver for TELNET or something?