[PD] more compilation probs

[Mathieu Bouchard]

On Wed, 26 Oct 2005, Matthew Williams wrote:

> one more thing ... can anyone tell me why when using the "wish' shell
> and i type in 'sudo' it asks for my password but it skips right over it
> and goes to the next command line"
> % sudo install
> password:
> %
> Thats what i get .  It will not let me type my password.
> weird,   matt

Let me guess: sudo, and most other commands asking passwords, really want 
a terminal (tty), which is one special kind of pipe in the unix system. 
The non-kernel terminals are called pseudoterminals (pty). I would think 
that wish doesn't use a pty and instead uses an ordinary pipe (e.g. 
popen3) whereas xterm, konsole, gnome-terminal, etc., all use a pty.

This might be because a tty/pty supports the "hide password" feature that 
sudo wants but the ordinary pipe that Wish uses does not.

____________________________________________________________________
Mathieu Bouchard - tél:+1.514.383.3801 - http://artengine.ca/matju
Freelance Digital Arts Engineer, Montréal QC Canada