Simulating linux terminal in browser
Solution 1
The full linux is http://docker.io, the rest is https://github.com/Runnable/dockworker
We're not simulating the terminal but as Kyle says, replicating the terminal over websockets (with an ajax fallback).
In the browser we're using https://github.com/chjj/term.js which was derived from Fabrice Bellard's emulator. It handles the output, and also the keystroke capture.
Solution 2
Let me prefix this by saying it is NOT a good idea to do this.
But, You can spawn a shell and use web-sockets or XMLHttpRequests to push keypresses to the spawned server process. Here's a working example of one that runs on windows. Unfortunately, I didn't get around to hooking up / figuring out Ctrl+c. But, you should get the gist of it.
require("underscore");
var Server = {},
express = require("express"),
path = require("path"),
sys = require("sys"),
application_root = __dirname;
global.Server = Server;
Server.root = application_root;
global.app = express();
Server.setup = require("./lib/setup.js").setup({
//redis: require("./lib/redis-client").createClient(),
app: app,
//mongoose : require("mongoose"),
io : require("socket.io"),
express : express,
port: 1773,
paths : {
views : path.join(application_root,"app","views"),
root : path.join(application_root,"public"),
controllers : path.join(application_root,"app","controllers"),
models : path.join(application_root,"app","models")
}
});
var proc = require('child_process'),
cmd;
app.socket.on('connection', function(socket) {
if (!cmd) {
//console.log('spawning cmd');
cmd = proc.spawn('cmd');
//console.log(cmd?'CMD started':'CMD not started');
if (cmd.stdout) {
//console.log('stdout present');
cmd.stdout.on('data',function(data) {
if (data) {
//console.log("data: "+data);
socket.emit('cmd', ""+data);
}
});
}
if (cmd.stderr) {
cmd.stderr.on('data', function(data) {
//console.log('stderr present');
if (data) {
socket.emit('cmd', ""+data);
}
});
}
cmd.on('exit', function() {
//console.log('cmd exited');
socket.emit('cmd', '[CMD Shutdown]');
if (cmd) {
cmd.kill();
cmd = null;
}
});
}
socket.on('sendCmd', function(data) {
if (data && data.buffer) {
var kB = data.buffer.replace("\r","\n");
if (cmd && cmd.stdin) {
cmd.stdin.write(kB);
}
}
});
socket.on('disconnect', function() {
console.log('connection closed');
if (cmd) {
cmd.stdin.end(); //.kill();
if (cmd) {
cmd.kill();
cmd = null;
}
}
});
});
Edit: Actually, this is a portion of a working example. It's missing the client side where you capture and send the keystrokes to the server. But, it should give you the general idea.
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DevC
Updated on July 05, 2022Comments
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DevC almost 2 years
I have read about Fabrice Bellard's linux simulation in browser.
How does Linux emulator in Javascript by Fabrice Bellard work?
Today I stumbled upon this site, where they are simulating full linux terminal in browser, I am able to run python, perl etc. I know they are running their site on node.js, but I couldn't figure out how they exactly simulating the terminal.
http://runnable.com/UWRl3KlLuONCAACG/read-files-from-filesystem-in-python
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StaleMartyr over 10 yearsthrough ajax request...try to open firefox webconsole and you can see a series of ajax requests :-)
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