How to provide non textual commands using java program...

[Pras Tiwari]

I want to control remote terminal through java program by providing commands to remote screen through java program.

I am able to give textual commands to remote screen using java program as follows:-

session.getOutputStream().write(("find abc.xml").getBytes());

However I want to pass some nontextual commands though java program such as "CTRL + C" or "ESC" keys on keyboard to remote terminal. How can I do this?

Many thanks in advance...

--Pras

[William Brogden]

Those keystroke do produce "text" characters but they are "control characters" not printing characters.

This wikipedia article discusses them, scroll down for a table giving the hex values.

You have to "escape" control characters with a \ when creating Java Strings.

\xhh The character with hexadecimal value 0xhh

Bill

[Pras Tiwari]

Hi William

Thanks for your reply...I gone through document

So for ESC key, is the below statement correct?

session.getOutputStream().write(("\X1B").getBytes());

or

session.getOutputStream().write(("\e").getBytes());


Also how about sending combination of 2 characters? say "CTRL + C" ?

Please provide your input on this.

Many thanks again.

[William Brogden]

You need to go back and read that article again.

Also how about sending combination of 2 characters? say "CTRL + C" ?

When you hold down CTRL and press C on a keyboard, the low level operating system turns that into a single control code character which gets sent to the application input. You are NOT sending two characters.

Look at that table again - see the line

000 0011	003	3	03	ETX	␃	^C		End of Text

That notation ^C is what we use for CTRL + C.

Bill

[Brian Legg]

I may be mistaken but I think when you press multiple keys like CTR + C it adds thier values together into one. And I do literally mean it "adds" them together.

[William Brogden]

That is a mistaken impression presumably derived from the common practice of writing CTRL + C to mean "holding the ctrl key down while pressing C."

The actual keyboard input handler deep down in the operating system keeps track of individual keyboard events which probably look something like this:

Ctrl key down
C key down
C key up
Ctrl key up

The actual data from a modern keyboard does not look a thing like ASCCI codes - back in the days of teletypes it was another story and keys such as ctrl and shift actually modified what the keyboard hardware sent.

Fortunately modern programmers dont have to know about this level.
Bill