conch command-line client doesn't work in win32

[radix]

C:\>conch
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\PYTHON22\scripts\conch.py", line 31, in ?
from twisted.scripts.conch import run
File
"C:\PYTHON22\Lib\site-packages\twisted\scripts\conch.py",
line 25, in ?
from twisted.internet import reactor, stdio, defer,
protocol
File
"C:\PYTHON22\Lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\stdio.py",
line 33, in ?
import abstract, fdesc
File
"C:\PYTHON22\Lib\site-packages\twisted\internet\fdesc.py",
line 27, in ?
import fcntl
ImportError: No module named fcntl

(I am opening this as a reminder, since I happen to be
thinking about it at this moment.)

[z3p]

Win32 doesn't have this module, nor the capabitlity for 
real terminal control.  This is why PuTTY emulates a 
terminal.  If you really want the conch client on Win32, 
tkconch is what you want.  Perhaps this should be an FAQ 
(it's not the first time I've seen this)?

[moonfallen]

Perhaps what's needed is a rewrite of conch with the
terminal IO decoupled from the user interface, so you could
plug in a win32 terminal emulator that does, basically,
whatever cygwin does.  tkconch is not suitable on windows
either; the UI makes a lot of unixy assumptions that
basically make the whole thing unusable; and pubkey
authentication doesn't work even if you grit your teeth and
configure it in a Unix-y way.  If these issues were
resolved, commandline conch could be configured to launch
tkconch when a terminal was required and fcntl was not
available.

Finally, there are a lot of things ssh does that don't even
require a terminal.  It seems a shame to cut win32 users out
of all of those simply because real terminals are not available.

[z3p]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'plug in a win32 terminal 
emulator' besides 'run conch under a win32 terminal 
emulator' which works as is.

I do agree that things like port forwarding should be able 
to be used from the command line, and I'll try to work on 
making that happen.

[moonfallen]

Basically, I don't see how conch could work under a win32
terminal emulator.  The problem is that it imports code
that's not available on Windows, and it doesn't matter what
environment it's run under.

[itamarst]

For cvs and other automated uses you don't need console access, just the
command-running capabilities and portforwarding, so that could be supported.
What z3p said. Of course, for that we're going to need some sort of t.i.stdio
for win32. Probably using threads, woot. Or with win32reactor, that might work
too without threads, though I ended up having to use threads for the process
support.

[moshez]

perhaps have another version of conch, which is only command-line, and will
work on both win32 and unix?

[moshez]

Downgrading to feature.

[moonfallen]

It still doesn't, but this shouldn't be assigned to me. Perhaps z3p.

[glyph]

Updating the summary to reflect the nature of the issue.

Conch does work on win32; besides the buildbots, c.f.  http://twistedmatrix.com/pipermail/twisted-python/2008-September/018443.html