fix: Disable interactive mode in exec by piping stdio (#230)

README.md

@@ -71,6 +71,14 @@ gitopolis exec -- git pull
 gitopolis exec -- git status
 ```
 
+**Note:** Commands executed with `exec` run in a non-interactive (non-TTY) environment to prevent hanging on prompts or pagers. This means:
+- Git commands won't pause for pagers (like `less` for `git log`)
+- Git will default to no-color output, but you can re-enable it with `--color` (e.g., `gitopolis exec -- git log --color`)
+- Commands won't prompt for interactive input
+- SSH/GPG keys must already be loaded and unlocked in ssh-agent or similar
+- Remote SSH host keys must already be accepted (in `~/.ssh/known_hosts`)
+- The easiest way to ensure keys and hosts are all setup and ready if you run into this problem is to run a single git fetch/clone outside gitopolis first. If this proves to be a regular hassle for new users then we could look at doing something about it so add your experience to [issue #236](https://github.com/timabell/gitopolis/issues/236).
+
 #### Getting output as single lines
 
 For compact, parsable output that's easy to sort and analyze use `--oneline`, this will put all the output on a single line for each repo (removing newlines).

src/exec.rs

@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 use crate::repos::Repo;
 use std::env;
-use std::io::{Error, Read};
+use std::io::{BufRead, BufReader, Error, Read};
 use std::process::{Child, Command, ExitStatus, Stdio};
+use std::thread;
 
 pub fn exec(exec_args: Vec<String>, repos: Vec<Repo>, oneline: bool) {
 	let mut error_count = 0;
@@ -100,6 +101,9 @@ fn repo_exec(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<ExitStatus, Error> {
 			.arg("-c")
 			.arg(&exec_args[0]) // Single arg passed directly for shell interpretation
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null()) // Prevent interactive prompts/pagers
+			.stdout(Stdio::piped()) // Prevent TTY detection for pagers
+			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
 	} else {
 		Command::new("sh")
@@ -108,6 +112,9 @@ fn repo_exec(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<ExitStatus, Error> {
 			.arg("--") // $0 placeholder (ignored)
 			.args(exec_args) // These become $1, $2, $3, etc.
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null()) // Prevent interactive prompts/pagers
+			.stdout(Stdio::piped()) // Prevent TTY detection for pagers
+			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
 	};
 
@@ -117,6 +124,9 @@ fn repo_exec(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<ExitStatus, Error> {
 			.arg("/C")
 			.arg(&exec_args[0]) // Single arg passed directly for shell interpretation
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null()) // Prevent interactive prompts/pagers
+			.stdout(Stdio::piped()) // Prevent TTY detection for pagers
+			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
 	} else {
 		// Windows cmd doesn't have an equivalent to sh -c "$@"
@@ -138,17 +148,47 @@ fn repo_exec(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<ExitStatus, Error> {
 			.arg("/C")
 			.arg(command_string)
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null()) // Prevent interactive prompts/pagers
+			.stdout(Stdio::piped()) // Prevent TTY detection for pagers
+			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
 	};
 
-	let exit_code = &child_process.wait()?;
+	// Stream stdout and stderr in real-time using threads
+	let stdout = child_process.stdout.take().expect("Failed to capture stdout");
+	let stderr = child_process.stderr.take().expect("Failed to capture stderr");
+
+	let stdout_thread = thread::spawn(move || {
+		let reader = BufReader::new(stdout);
+		for line in reader.lines() {
+			if let Ok(line) = line {
+				println!("{}", line);
+			}
+		}
+	});
+
+	let stderr_thread = thread::spawn(move || {
+		let reader = BufReader::new(stderr);
+		for line in reader.lines() {
+			if let Ok(line) = line {
+				eprintln!("{}", line);
+			}
+		}
+	});
+
+	let exit_code = child_process.wait()?;
+
+	// Wait for output threads to finish
+	let _ = stdout_thread.join();
+	let _ = stderr_thread.join();
+
 	if !exit_code.success() {
 		eprintln!(
 			"Command exited with code {}",
 			exit_code.code().expect("exit code missing")
 		);
 	}
-	Ok(*exit_code)
+	Ok(exit_code)
 }
 
 fn repo_exec_oneline(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<(Option<String>, bool), Error> {
@@ -160,6 +200,7 @@ fn repo_exec_oneline(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<(Option<String>
 			.arg("-c")
 			.arg(&exec_args[0]) // Single arg passed directly for shell interpretation
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null())
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
 			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
@@ -170,6 +211,7 @@ fn repo_exec_oneline(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<(Option<String>
 			.arg("--") // $0 placeholder (ignored)
 			.args(exec_args) // These become $1, $2, $3, etc.
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null())
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
 			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
@@ -181,6 +223,7 @@ fn repo_exec_oneline(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<(Option<String>
 			.arg("/C")
 			.arg(&exec_args[0]) // Single arg passed directly for shell interpretation
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null())
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
 			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?
@@ -204,6 +247,7 @@ fn repo_exec_oneline(path: &str, exec_args: &[String]) -> Result<(Option<String>
 			.arg("/C")
 			.arg(command_string)
 			.current_dir(path)
+			.stdin(Stdio::null())
 			.stdout(Stdio::piped())
 			.stderr(Stdio::piped())
 			.spawn()?

tests/end_to_end_tests.rs

@@ -1925,10 +1925,14 @@ fn exec_with_special_chars() {
 	// Test with all special characters that need quoting: whitespace, quotes, and shell metacharacters
 	// From needs_quoting(): | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \ " ' * ? [ ] { } ! #
 	// Windows cmd.exe echo outputs escaped quotes for the outer quotes
-	// Windows has mixed line endings: LF from println!(), CRLF from cmd.exe output
+	// Note: BufReader::lines() normalizes line endings to LF on all platforms
 	let expected_stdout = if cfg!(windows) {
-		// Manual construction to match actual output with mixed line endings
-		"\n🏢 repo_a> echo \"test \\\" ' | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \\\\ * ? [ ] { } ! # chars\"\n\\\"test \\\"\\\" ' | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \\ * ? [ ] { } ! # chars\\\"\r\n\n".to_string()
+		r#"
+🏢 repo_a> echo "test \" ' | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \\ * ? [ ] { } ! # chars"
+\"test \"\" ' | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \ * ? [ ] { } ! # chars\"
+
+"#
+		.to_string()
 	} else {
 		r#"
 🏢 repo_a> echo "test \" ' | & ; < > ( ) $ ` \\ * ? [ ] { } ! # chars"
@@ -2254,12 +2258,16 @@ fn exec_with_multiple_tag_groups() {
 	);
 	add_a_repo_with_tags(&temp, "repo3", "git://example.org/repo3", vec!["foo"]);
 
-	// Windows cmd.exe echo outputs CRLF line endings
-	let expected_stdout = if cfg!(windows) {
-		"\n🏢 repo1> echo hello\nhello\r\n\n\n🏢 repo2> echo hello\nhello\r\n\n"
-	} else {
-		"\n🏢 repo1> echo hello\nhello\n\n\n🏢 repo2> echo hello\nhello\n\n"
-	};
+	// Note: BufReader::lines() normalizes line endings to LF on all platforms
+	let expected_stdout = r#"
+🏢 repo1> echo hello
+hello
+
+
+🏢 repo2> echo hello
+hello
+
+"#;
 
 	gitopolis_executable()
 		.current_dir(&temp)