Windows Terminal + ssh

Using the ssh command inside Windows Terminal is the recommended way to connect to the FMOS CLI from a computer running Microsoft Windows.

The Windows Terminal default settings support all of the advanced terminal features used by FMOS, however FMOS cannot detect this. You will need to configure the LANG environment variable in order to disable the Unicode warning.

1. Before connecting to the FMOS machine, run the following (in a Windows PowerShell tab of Windows Terminal):

   if (-Not (Test-Path ~\.ssh)) { mkdir ~\.ssh }
   cd ~\.ssh
   notepad config

   This will launch Notepad.

2. Place the following text at the end of the file:

   Host *
       SetEnv LANG=en_US.UTF-8

   You can choose a different value for LANG, such as en_GB.UTF-8. You may also wish to use a different host pattern; see the ssh_config(5) manual page for details.

3. Save the file and close Notepad.

Alternatively, if you cannot or chose not to configure your SSH client, you can configure FMOS to assume the terminal supports Unicode characters even if it does not report that it does. After connecting to the FMOS machine, run the following:

export 'FMOS_UNICODE_SUPPORT=yes'

The Unicode warning will not show for any FMOS commands run in this session. You may wish to add this command to your ~/.bashrc file to make the setting persistent.

PuTTY

PuTTY is a very popular SSH client for Windows.

1. Open the PuTTY Configuration screen by launching a new PuTTY process.

2. From the Category tree at the left, expand Window and click Translation.

3. Set the Remote character set setting to UTF-8.

4. Set Handling of the line drawing characters to Use Unicode line drawing code points.

5. Expand Connection from the category tree and click Data.

6. Set Terminal-type string to putty.

7. Under the Environment variables section:

   1. Enter LANG in the box labeled Variable.

   2. Enter en_US.UTF-8 (or another UTF-8 locale, e.g. fr_FR.UTF-8) in the box labeled Value.

   3. Click the Add button.

   4. Enter COLORTERM in the box labeled Variable.

   5. Enter truecolor in the box labeled Value.

   6. Click the Add button.

8. Click the Session item in the category tree.

9. Enter FMOS in the text box labeled Saved Sessions.

10. Click the Save button.

Before connecting to an FMOS machine using PuTTY, be sure to click the FMOS entry under Saved Sessions and click the Load button. This will automatically set all of these options.

Alternatively, you can save these settings as the defaults by saving the session as Default Settings.

You may also want to choose a different font. The default, Courier New, can be difficult to read, especially on high-DPI displays. Select a different font by expanding Window and clicking Appearance. Fira Mono, Droid Sans Mono, and Consolas are appropriate font families. Do NOT tick the Allow selection of variable-pitch fonts. Always use a monospace font for command-line interface applications.

PowerShell/cmd.exe (Command Prompt) + ssh

Neither Windows PowerShell nor cmd.exe (Command Prompt) can be configured correctly to use FMOS advanced terminal features. Some glyphs for multi-byte Unicode characters may be available, depending on the fonts installed on your computer.

To configure the font for Command Prompt or PowerShell:

1. Click the icon at the top-left corner of the window.

2. Click Properties.

3. Select the Font tab.

4. From the Font selection box, choose an appropriate font such as Fira Mono, Cascadia Mono, Droid Sans Mono, or Consolas.

5. Click the OK button.

Note that changing the properties of Command Prompt or PowerShell affects all processes launched from the same shortcut. For example, a PowerShell window launched from an icon pinned to the taskbar will have different settings from one launched from the Start menu.

You may need to change some of the sigil characters used by the FMOS CLI if your font does not include glyphs for them. After connecting to the FMOS machine, run the following commands:

export FMOS_CLI_OK_SIGIL='*'
export FMOS_CLI_ERROR_SIGIL='x'
export FMOS_CLI_WARNING_SIGIL='!'
export FMOS_CLI_SPINNER='line'

These settings will apply to all FMOS commands run in this session. You may wish to add them to your ~/.bashrc file to make the settings persistent.

Other Software

The FMOS CLI can be accessed using any terminal software. The enhanced user experience features may not be available, though, unless the terminal software is correctly configured. Consult the documentation for your terminal software for instructions on how to configure it. For the best experience, be sure to

• Use the UTF-8 character set

• Set the LANG environment variable to the appropriate locale (e.g. en_US.UTF-8)

• Set the TERM environment variable to the correct value

• If applicable, set the COLORTERM environment variable to truecolor to enable 24-bit colors