How to fix the error: mitmproxy's console interface requires a tty. Please run mitmproxy in an interactive shell environment.

[moh-hassan]

In windows 10, I try to run mitmproxy.exe which is a proxy server that run in an interactive mode,
I get the error:

Error: mitmproxy's console interface requires a tty. Please run mitmproxy in an interactive shell environment.
Stream does not support reading.

I use the next code:

  public static async Task StartProxyAsync()
  {
      var stdOut = Console.OpenStandardOutput();
      var stdErr = Console.OpenStandardError();
      var stdin = Console.OpenStandardError();

      var cmd = CliWrap.Cli.Wrap("mitmproxy")
          // .WithArguments($"")
          .WithStandardOutputPipe(PipeTarget.ToStream(stdOut))
          .WithStandardErrorPipe(PipeTarget.ToStream(stdErr))
          .WithStandardInputPipe(PipeSource.FromStream(stdin))
          .WithValidation(CommandResultValidation.None);

      var task = cmd.ExecuteAsync();
      await task;
  }

Also I tried to run it from within shell "cmd" or "powershell" or even as a batch file , but get the same error.

How to set tty console interface?

[Tyrrrz]

Related to #225.

You can try wrapping it with a winpty:

Cli.Wrap("winpty").WithArguments(["mitmproxy", ...]);

[moh-hassan]

I tried using the Process class with redirecting all standard input/output = true, but get the same error:

stdin is not a tty

The strange is that I can run the next command from within CMD shell using winpty and mitmproxy run with all its interactive features

"C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin\winpty.exe" mitmproxy

It seems that the child process created by Process or CliWrap runs independently and doesn't have the same interactive terminal environment as CMD.
The stdin (standard input) of the child process is not connected to the user's keyboard input; instead, it's connected to the input stream provided by the C# code.
Since mitmproxy expects interactive input from a terminal (tty), it detects that the input is not coming from a human user and raises the 'stdin is not a tty' error.

[Tyrrrz]

Yeah it appears so. I don't know what to suggest. If you end up figuring it out somehow, please let me know because I'm curious myself.

[moh-hassan]

I fixed the error using the Process class without the need of winPty and could apply interactive I/O with mitmproxy and no warning of tty support.
I set all the redirection of standardInput, standardOutput and standardError to false and CreateNoWindow = false

The code is:

var processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo
{
    FileName = "mitmproxy",
    //Arguments = "-p 8080", //default port 8080
    //The next properties are false by default
    RedirectStandardInput = false, // No input redirection
    RedirectStandardOutput = false, // No output redirection
    RedirectStandardError = false, // No error redirection
    UseShellExecute = false, // Don't use shell execution
    CreateNoWindow = false // Show the process window
};

using var process = new Process
{
    StartInfo = processStartInfo
};

process.Start();
await process.WaitForExitAsync(); 
Console.WriteLine($"process.ExitCode {process.ExitCode}");        
 

mitmproxy is working fine with all colored screen and keyboard support (full tty support)
Tested in windows 11, net8.

I couldn't do the same using CliWrap even with setting I/O pipe to Null.

It seems that is because CliWrap set all I/O redirection = `true
and CreateNoWindow = true

It is nice if adding this Interactive action as a new feature to the package that mimic the above code.

My suggestion: is adding a new method, e.g. `WithInteractive() by setting all i/o redirection = false and avoid setting i/o piping.

[Tyrrrz]

Yeah, without redirection it will work. But unfortunately, this means we can't read anything the program writes to the console programmatically, or provide input to it.

[moh-hassan]

That is correct. But such interactive console tools has its own output logs that can be saved to files or using scripts.
They can be passed as arguments and these arguments can be controlled programatically per case.

Plus, running interactive program out of box ( full tty control) with all its i/o capability using a built-in feature of Process class encourage adding this feature to CliWrap.

It is equivalant to:

        .WithStandardOutputPipe(PipeTarget.ToStream(Console.OpenStandardOutput()))
	.WithStandardErrorPipe(PipeTarget.ToStream(Console.OpenStandardError()))
	.WithStandardInputPipe(PipeSource.FromStream(Console.OpenStandardInput()
//But without coding.

This feature can resolve issues like: run ssh #208 , cmd #197 and similar interactive tools.

Also, the important point, this feature can allocate a pseudo-terminal for running command-line applications