ssh in emacs shell in OS X

ssh in emacs shell in OS X

[david]

I am trying to get tramp working in emacs on OS X. I am using Andrew
Choi's "Emacs 21 for Mac OS X" which is otherwise working quite
nicely. (For reference, emacs responds with "GNU Emacs 21.3.50.4
(powerpc-apple-darwin6.6) of 2003-08-27" when I ask it - today - for
the version. )

However, when I try to use tramp to load a file from a local server,
it goes into a nasty loop of  "tramp: Looking for regexp" and
eventually dies.

After some Googling, I tried to get ssh working from an emacs shell.
This also fails.  After typing M-x shell and receiving a bash shell, I
type:
        bash-2.05b$ ssh me@host
and emacs replies with
        Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a
terminal
        ssh_askpass: exec(/sw/lib/ssh-askpass): No such file or
directory
        Write failed: Broken pipe
I get a corresponding error when I use the OS X default ssh. It looks
for askpass in a different directory and doesn't find it there,
either.

I don't want ssh to launch ssh-askpass to ask for a password. I just
want it to ask for my password as it normally would from a terminal. I
haven't succeeded in Googling my way out of this problem. I don't
understand under what circumstances ssh tries to invoke ssh-askpass or
how to stop it. Nor do I understand why emacs is telling me that stdin
is not a terminal.

  Any suggestions? 

   Thanks,
     David

Re: ssh in emacs shell in OS X

[Kai Großjohann]

dfphil@yahoo.com (david) writes:

> After some Googling, I tried to get ssh working from an emacs shell.
> This also fails.  After typing M-x shell and receiving a bash shell, I
> type:
>         bash-2.05b$ ssh me@host
> and emacs replies with
>         Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a
> terminal
>         ssh_askpass: exec(/sw/lib/ssh-askpass): No such file or
> directory
>         Write failed: Broken pipe
> I get a corresponding error when I use the OS X default ssh. It looks
> for askpass in a different directory and doesn't find it there,
> either.

Ah, the infamous process-connection-type problem.  Under OS X,
process-connection-type is set to nil, but then Tramp doesn't work.
I think that some people have tried setting it to t, and at least
their computer didn't blow up.  But I don't know what other bad side
effects this setting had.

Another possibility might be to use the sshx method.  It invokes "ssh
-t -t".  The double "-t" argument is an undocumented ssh-on-Windows
(mis?)feature to force it to alloc a pty.  Maybe it also works on OS X?
-- 
Two cafe au lait please, but without milk.

Re: ssh in emacs shell in OS X

[Pascal Bourguignon]

dfphil@yahoo.com (david) writes:
> I am trying to get tramp working in emacs on OS X. I am using Andrew
> Choi's "Emacs 21 for Mac OS X" which is otherwise working quite
> nicely. (For reference, emacs responds with "GNU Emacs 21.3.50.4
> (powerpc-apple-darwin6.6) of 2003-08-27" when I ask it - today - for
> the version. )
> 
> However, when I try to use tramp to load a file from a local server,
> it goes into a nasty loop of  "tramp: Looking for regexp" and
> eventually dies.
> 
> After some Googling, I tried to get ssh working from an emacs shell.
> This also fails.  After typing M-x shell and receiving a bash shell, I
> type:
>         bash-2.05b$ ssh me@host
> and emacs replies with
>         Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a
> terminal
>         ssh_askpass: exec(/sw/lib/ssh-askpass): No such file or
> directory
>         Write failed: Broken pipe
> I get a corresponding error when I use the OS X default ssh. It looks
> 
>   Any suggestions? 


With this version:
"GNU Emacs 21.1.1 (powerpc-apple-darwin6.0)                                    
 of 2002-07-27 on law"

I've got no problem to to ssh in *shell*:

[pascal@sirius pascal]$ ssh hermes
pascal@hermes's password: XXXXXXXX

Last login: Thu Aug 28 11:53:19 2003 from thalassa.informatimago.com
[pascal@hermes pascal]$ logout
Connection to hermes closed.
[pascal@sirius pascal]$ echo $TERM
dumb
[pascal@sirius pascal]$ ssh -V
OpenSSH_3.4p1, SSH protocols 1.5/2.0, OpenSSL 0x0090609f


-- 
__Pascal_Bourguignon__                   http://www.informatimago.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Do not adjust your mind, there is a fault in reality.

Re: ssh in emacs shell in OS X

[Joseph Kiniry]

kai.grossjohann@gmx.net (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> dfphil@yahoo.com (david) writes:
>
>> After some Googling, I tried to get ssh working from an emacs shell.
>> This also fails.  After typing M-x shell and receiving a bash shell, I
>> type:
>>         bash-2.05b$ ssh me@host
>> and emacs replies with
>>         Pseudo-terminal will not be allocated because stdin is not a
>> terminal
>>         ssh_askpass: exec(/sw/lib/ssh-askpass): No such file or
>> directory
>>         Write failed: Broken pipe
>> I get a corresponding error when I use the OS X default ssh. It looks
>> for askpass in a different directory and doesn't find it there,
>> either.
>
> Ah, the infamous process-connection-type problem.  Under OS X,
> process-connection-type is set to nil, but then Tramp doesn't work.
> I think that some people have tried setting it to t, and at least
> their computer didn't blow up.  But I don't know what other bad side
> effects this setting had.
>
> Another possibility might be to use the sshx method.  It invokes "ssh
> -t -t".  The double "-t" argument is an undocumented ssh-on-Windows
> (mis?)feature to force it to alloc a pty.  Maybe it also works on OS X?

I have successfully gotten Tramp to work with a fink-built FSF Emacs
under OS X by using a process-connection-type of nil and a Tramp
connection method of sshx.  It was not necessary modify the stock
definition of sshx.

I use SSH Agent (http://www.phil.uu.nl/~xges/ssh/) to handle ssh proxy
authentication so that ssh-askpass/ssh-add is never in the loop.

Joe
-- 
Joseph R. Kiniry                    ID 78860581      ICQ 4344804 
SOS Group, University of Nijmegen  http://www.cs.kun.nl/~kiniry/
KindSoftware, LLC                   http://www.kindsoftware.com/
Board Chair: NICE                    http://www.eiffel-nice.org/