Terminal shell switching

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11487564-B1
Application number	US-202117313956-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 6, 2021
Priority date	May 6, 2021
Publication date	Nov 1, 2022
Grant date	Nov 1, 2022

Abstract

Switching shells attached to a terminal. Suppose that a shell has already output text into the terminal, and at that point a new shell is to be attached to the terminal. That subsequent shell is then started up, and text output is gathered from that new shell. Content representing that new shell is then displayed in the terminal. As an example, if the output is the same for the new shell as it was for the old shell, the terminal can just keep the old output displayed in the terminal, and eliminate the need to also output the identical output from the new shell. If the output of the new shell is different than that of the old shell, the terminal may be refreshed and the new content rendered perhaps in a single frame and/or without displaying text associated with this switching activity.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable hardware storage devices that store computer-executable instructions that are executable by the one or more processors to cause the computing system to:
cause a terminal to be displayed on a user interface, wherein:
the terminal is configured to receive text commands entered in the user interface,
a terminal component provides the text commands to an attached shell that is attached to the terminal,
the terminal is further configured to display text output, which is generated by the attached shell based on the text commands and which is provided to the terminal via the terminal component, and
the terminal is integrated in an integrated development environment (IDE);

trigger a shell attachment switch in which the terminal switches from being attached to a previous shell to being attached to a subsequent shell, wherein:
the shell attachment switch is triggered (i) after the previous shell has already generated first output, (ii) after the first output has already been provided to the terminal by the terminal component, and (iii) after the terminal has already displayed the first output, and
the shell attachment switch in triggered in response to a detection that the IDE has modified an environmental variable of the terminal, where the environmental variable determines a behavior and/or an access to the terminal;

after the subsequent shell is started, cause the terminal component to gather second output from the subsequent shell; and
after the terminal component provides the second output to the terminal, cause the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

2. The computing system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the shell attachment switch further includes:
removing the first output from being displayed in the terminal; and
causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

3. The computing system in accordance with claim 2 , the second output being displayed starting where a start of the first output had been displayed.

4. The computing system in accordance with claim 2 , wherein removing the first output and causing the second output to be displayed occurs in a same display frame such that in a previous frame the first output is displayed and in an immediately following frame the second output is displayed without the first output being displayed.

5. The computing system in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the second output is displayed in the terminal without displaying events representing that the previous shell has been switched with the subsequent shell.

6. The computing system in accordance with claim 2 , wherein the shell attachment switch is performed in response to detecting that an environment variable of the previous shell has been added, removed, or changed.

7. The computing system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the shell attachment switch further includes:
determining whether the second output from the subsequent shell is the same as the first output; and
if the second output is determined to be the same as the first output, causing the first output to continue to be displayed without displaying the second output from the subsequent shell.

8. The computing system in accordance with claim 7 , wherein the terminal component is further configured to provide subsequent output, which is generated by the subsequent shell, to the terminal after the second output has already been displayed in the terminal.

9. The computing system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the shell attachment switch includes:
determining whether the second output from the subsequent shell is the same as the first output; and
if the second output is determined to not be the same as the first output, removing the first output from the terminal and causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

10. The computing system in accordance with claim 1 , wherein the shell attachment switch includes:
stopping the previous shell so that the previous shell is no longer attached to the terminal.

11. A method for facilitating a shell attachment switch, said method comprising:
causing a terminal to be displayed on a user interface, wherein:
the terminal is configured to receive text commands entered in the user interface,
a terminal component provides the text commands to an attached shell that is attached to the terminal,
the terminal is further configured to display text output, which is generated by the attached shell based on the text commands and which is provided to the terminal via the terminal component, and
the terminal is integrated in an integrated development environment (IDE);

triggering a shell attachment switch in which the terminal switches from being attached to a previous shell to being attached to a subsequent shell, wherein:
the shell attachment switch is triggered (i) after the previous shell has already generated first output, (ii) after the first output has already been provided to the terminal by the terminal component, and (iii) after the terminal has already displayed the first output, and
the shell attachment switch in triggered in response to a detection that the IDE has modified an environmental variable of the terminal, where the environmental variable determines a behavior and/or an access to the terminal;

after the subsequent shell is started, causing the terminal component to gather second output from the subsequent shell; and
after the terminal component provides the second output to the terminal, causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

12. The method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal includes:
removing the first output from being displayed in the terminal; and
causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

13. The method in accordance with claim 12 , wherein removing the first output and causing the second output to be displayed occur in a same display frame such that in a previous frame the first output is displayed, and in an immediately following frame the second output is displayed without the first output being displayed.

14. The method in accordance with claim 12 , the method being performed without displaying events representing that the previous shell has been switched with the subsequent shell.

15. The method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal includes:
determining whether the second output from the subsequent shell is the same as the first output; and
if the second output is determined to be the same as the first output, causing the first output to continue to be displayed without displaying the second output from the subsequent shell.

16. The method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal includes:
determining whether the second output from the subsequent shell is the same as the first output; and
if the second output is determined to not be the same as the first output, removing the first output from the terminal and causing the second output to be displayed in the terminal.

17. The method in accordance with claim 11 , wherein the environmental variable includes one or more of a location of a repository, identification of a home directory, or a type of the terminal.

18. A computer system configured to facilitate a shell attachment switch, said computer system comprising:
one or more processors; and
one or more computer-readable hardware sto

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Imms Daniel John
• Maetzel Kai-Uwe

Classifications

• G09G5/24 Primary

  Generation of individual character patterns · CPC title

• G06F3/14

  Digital output to display device {; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units} · CPC title

• G06F9/45512 Primary

  Command shells · CPC title

• G06F9/485

  Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution (G06F9/4881 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title