Console2 + putty/Cygwin ssh + xterm-256 integration

Question

I've successfully switched to Console2 on my Windows box, and I'm quite satisfied with that. (If you don't know it, try it: it lets you group both cmd.exe and Cygwin sessions in the same, tabbed window).

Now I'd like to integrate my PuTTY sessions too.

I could use plain ssh in Console2, but I need 256 colors (xterm-256) for my fancy remote vim setup :-). Here's the question: how can I setup a ssh client through Console2 to support 256 colors ?

I'm currently using Putty Connection Manager for that, and it is almost good enough, even if it doesn't look too stable.

Answer 1

No can do. Console2 is a UI wrapper around hidden Windows consoles, which are inherently limited to 16 colours as they only have 4 colour bits per character cell.

Have a look at mintty for an xterm-compatible Cygwin terminal with 256-colour support and a native Windows UI. No tabs though, and limited support for native Windows console programs.

Answer 2

If you use ANSICON along with PuTTY, you can have it show up in Windows. Just copy the ansicon files into your console2 directory and then create a new tab using this:

C:\Program Files\Console2\ansicon.exe "C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe" -load PROFILE

Source: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Console2ABetterWindowsCommandPrompt.aspx#46f4752f-a42d-4205-be52-4cef95eed79a

Answer 3

Since I need colors only for Vim, my current workaround is to:

• choose a 16-color vim colorscheme (I like solarized dark)
• configure it on remote machine .vimrc
• setup system colors for PuTTY session the same way (for popular color schemes like solarized you can find ready-made config files)
• if you want, you can find color config files for Console2 too

Answer 4

You may try ConEmu (I'm an author of it).

It supports xterm-256 color, but I'm not sure if it will works in ssh. Also, you may run PuTTY in ConEmu tab: "putty -new_console".