pty

Summary

• Implementation langauge: C++

• Additional runtime requirements: None

• Base command: umbra pty

• Command run without arguments: error: arguments must be provided

• State: alpha

umbra pty is a utility command for running commands in a PTY while redirecting their output

Features

This module is similar in principle to script, except it doesn't create a file.

The input arguments to this command is a command run in a shell (forced: the same shell as umbra was run from) that's spawned in pty mode, so it's indistinguishable from running in a proper terminal. Redirects then redirect umbra rather than the nested command, which means commands that print in colour when in a terminal still print in colour. This is, in fact, its intended use-case: forcing colour output in commands that disable their colour output when redirected to allow for scripting (interactive and otherwise) on other commands.

For example, if you want to | less make, you can do this with umbra pty:

$ umbra pty -- make -j $(nproc) test | less -r

Note that less -r is required for the colours to actually render. ../src in this case is the path to my source folder that I want to listen for changes in.

This can also be chained with other commands. Additional examples will come in the future.