Stopping a shell command with Ctrl-C now raises a KeyboardInterrupt to support stopping a text script which ran the shell command.

On POSIX systems, shell commands and processes being piped to are now run in the user's preferred shell instead of /bin/sh.

Author: kmvanbrunt

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -49,6 +49,9 @@
     * Added `include_py` keyword parameter to `cmd2.Cmd.__init__()`. If `False`, then the `py` command will
       not be available. Defaults to `False`. `run_pyscript` is not affected by this parameter.
     * Made the amount of space between columns in a SimpleTable configurable
+    * On POSIX systems, shell commands and processes being piped to are now run in the user's preferred shell
+      instead of /bin/sh. The preferred shell is obtained by reading the SHELL environment variable. If that
+      doesn't exist or is empty, then /bin/sh is used.
 
 ## 1.5.0 (January 31, 2021)
 * Bug Fixes

cmd2/cmd2.py

@@ -2114,10 +2114,10 @@ def complete(  # type: ignore[override]
                 ansi.style_aware_write(sys.stdout, '\n' + err_str + '\n')
                 rl_force_redisplay()
             return None
-        except Exception as e:
+        except Exception as ex:
             # Insert a newline so the exception doesn't print in the middle of the command line being tab completed
             self.perror()
-            self.pexcept(e)
+            self.pexcept(ex)
             rl_force_redisplay()
             return None
 
@@ -2199,7 +2199,11 @@ def sigint_handler(self, signum: int, _: FrameType) -> None:
 
         # Check if we are allowed to re-raise the KeyboardInterrupt
         if not self.sigint_protection:
-            raise KeyboardInterrupt("Got a keyboard interrupt")
+            self._raise_keyboard_interrupt()
+
+    def _raise_keyboard_interrupt(self) -> None:
+        """Helper function to raise a KeyboardInterrupt"""
+        raise KeyboardInterrupt("Got a keyboard interrupt")
 
     def precmd(self, statement: Union[Statement, str]) -> Statement:
         """Hook method executed just before the command is executed by
@@ -2430,9 +2434,9 @@ def runcmds_plus_hooks(
                     line, add_to_history=add_to_history, raise_keyboard_interrupt=stop_on_keyboard_interrupt
                 ):
                     return True
-            except KeyboardInterrupt as e:
+            except KeyboardInterrupt as ex:
                 if stop_on_keyboard_interrupt:
-                    self.perror(e)
+                    self.perror(ex)
                     break
 
         return False
@@ -2623,12 +2627,17 @@ def _redirect_output(self, statement: Statement) -> utils.RedirectionSavedState:
             # Create pipe process in a separate group to isolate our signals from it. If a Ctrl-C event occurs,
             # our sigint handler will forward it only to the most recent pipe process. This makes sure pipe
             # processes close in the right order (most recent first).
-            kwargs = dict()
+            kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = dict()
             if sys.platform == 'win32':
                 kwargs['creationflags'] = subprocess.CREATE_NEW_PROCESS_GROUP
             else:
                 kwargs['start_new_session'] = True
 
+                # Attempt to run the pipe process in the user's preferred shell instead of the default behavior of using sh.
+                shell = os.environ.get("SHELL")
+                if shell:
+                    kwargs['executable'] = shell
+
             # For any stream that is a StdSim, we will use a pipe so we can capture its output
             proc = subprocess.Popen(  # type: ignore[call-overload]
                 statement.pipe_to,
@@ -2654,7 +2663,7 @@ def _redirect_output(self, statement: Statement) -> utils.RedirectionSavedState:
                 new_stdout.close()
                 raise RedirectionError(f'Pipe process exited with code {proc.returncode} before command could run')
             else:
-                redir_saved_state.redirecting = True
+                redir_saved_state.redirecting = True  # type: ignore[unreachable]
                 cmd_pipe_proc_reader = utils.ProcReader(proc, cast(TextIO, self.stdout), sys.stderr)
                 sys.stdout = self.stdout = new_stdout
 
@@ -3825,8 +3834,8 @@ def do_set(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
                     orig_value = settable.get_value()
                     new_value = settable.set_value(utils.strip_quotes(args.value))
                 # noinspection PyBroadException
-                except Exception as e:
-                    self.perror(f"Error setting {args.param}: {e}")
+                except Exception as ex:
+                    self.perror(f"Error setting {args.param}: {ex}")
                 else:
                     self.poutput(f"{args.param} - was: {orig_value!r}\nnow: {new_value!r}")
                 return
@@ -3863,8 +3872,30 @@ def do_set(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
     @with_argparser(shell_parser, preserve_quotes=True)
     def do_shell(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
         """Execute a command as if at the OS prompt"""
+        import signal
         import subprocess
 
+        kwargs: Dict[str, Any] = dict()
+
+        # Set OS-specific parameters
+        if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
+            # Windows returns STATUS_CONTROL_C_EXIT when application stopped by Ctrl-C
+            ctrl_c_ret_code = 0xC000013A
+        else:
+            # On POSIX, Popen() returns -SIGINT when application stopped by Ctrl-C
+            ctrl_c_ret_code = signal.SIGINT.value * -1
+
+            # On POSIX with shell=True, Popen() defaults to /bin/sh as the shell.
+            # sh reports an incorrect return code for some applications when Ctrl-C is pressed within that
+            # application (e.g. less). Since sh received the SIGINT, it sets the return code to reflect being
+            # closed by SIGINT even though less did not exit upon a Ctrl-C press. In the same situation, other
+            # shells like bash and zsh report the actual return code of less. Therefore we will try to run the
+            # user's preferred shell which most likely will be something other than sh. This also allows the user
+            # to run builtin commands of their preferred shell.
+            shell = os.environ.get("SHELL")
+            if shell:
+                kwargs['executable'] = shell
+
         # Create a list of arguments to shell
         tokens = [args.command] + args.command_args
 
@@ -3876,19 +3907,25 @@ def do_shell(self, args: argparse.Namespace) -> None:
         # still receive the SIGINT since it is in the same process group as us.
         with self.sigint_protection:
             # For any stream that is a StdSim, we will use a pipe so we can capture its output
-            proc = subprocess.Popen(
+            proc = subprocess.Popen(  # type: ignore[call-overload]
                 expanded_command,
                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE if isinstance(self.stdout, utils.StdSim) else self.stdout,  # type: ignore[unreachable]
                 stderr=subprocess.PIPE if isinstance(sys.stderr, utils.StdSim) else sys.stderr,  # type: ignore[unreachable]
                 shell=True,
+                **kwargs,
             )
 
-            proc_reader = utils.ProcReader(proc, cast(TextIO, self.stdout), sys.stderr)
+            proc_reader = utils.ProcReader(proc, cast(TextIO, self.stdout), sys.stderr)  # type: ignore[arg-type]
             proc_reader.wait()
 
             # Save the return code of the application for use in a pyscript
             self.last_result = proc.returncode
 
+            # If the process was stopped by Ctrl-C, then inform the caller by raising a KeyboardInterrupt.
+            # This is to support things like stop_on_keyboard_interrupt in run_cmds_plus_hooks().
+            if proc.returncode == ctrl_c_ret_code:
+                self._raise_keyboard_interrupt()
+
     @staticmethod
     def _reset_py_display() -> None:
         """
@@ -4545,8 +4582,8 @@ def _generate_transcript(self, history: Union[List[HistoryItem], List[str]], tra
                 # then run the command and let the output go into our buffer
                 try:
                     stop = self.onecmd_plus_hooks(history_item, raise_keyboard_interrupt=True)
-                except KeyboardInterrupt as e:
-                    self.perror(e)
+                except KeyboardInterrupt as ex:
+                    self.perror(ex)
                     stop = True
 
                 commands_run += 1

cmd2/utils.py

@@ -601,8 +601,8 @@ def send_sigint(self) -> None:
         import signal
 
         if sys.platform.startswith('win'):
-            # cmd2 started the Windows process in a new process group. Therefore
-            # a CTRL_C_EVENT can't be sent to it. Send a CTRL_BREAK_EVENT instead.
+            # cmd2 started the Windows process in a new process group. Therefore we must send
+            # a CTRL_BREAK_EVENT since CTRL_C_EVENT signals cannot be generated for process groups.
             self._proc.send_signal(signal.CTRL_BREAK_EVENT)
         else:
             # Since cmd2 uses shell=True in its Popen calls, we need to send the SIGINT to

tests/test_cmd2.py

@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 import builtins
 import io
 import os
+import signal
 import sys
 import tempfile
 from code import (
@@ -902,6 +903,22 @@ def test_stty_sane(base_app, monkeypatch):
         m.assert_called_once_with(['stty', 'sane'])
 
 
+def test_sigint_handler(base_app):
+    # No KeyboardInterrupt should be raised when using sigint_protection
+    with base_app.sigint_protection:
+        base_app.sigint_handler(signal.SIGINT, 1)
+
+    # Without sigint_protection, a KeyboardInterrupt is raised
+    with pytest.raises(KeyboardInterrupt):
+        base_app.sigint_handler(signal.SIGINT, 1)
+
+
+def test_raise_keyboard_interrupt(base_app):
+    with pytest.raises(KeyboardInterrupt) as excinfo:
+        base_app._raise_keyboard_interrupt()
+    assert 'Got a keyboard interrupt' in str(excinfo.value)
+
+
 class HookFailureApp(cmd2.Cmd):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         super().__init__(*args, **kwargs)