Question

I’d like to put my cmd.com window into a mode where Control-C does not generate a SIGINT signal to Python (ActiveState if it matters).

I know I can use the signal module to handle SIGINT. The problem is that handling SIGINT is too late; by the time it is handled, it has already interrupted a system call.

I’d like something equivalent to the *nix “raw” mode. Just let the input queue up and when it is safe for my application to read it, it will.

Maddeningly enough, msvcrt.getch() seems to return Control-C as a character. But that only works while the program is blocked by getch() itself. If I am in another system call (sleep, just to use an example), I get the SIGINT.

Answer 1

You need to call the win32 API function SetConsoleCtrlHandler with NULL (0) as its first parameter and TRUE (1) as its second parameter. If you’re already using pywin32, win32.SetConsoleCtrlHandler is fine for the purpose, otherwise ctypes should work, specifically via ctypes.windll.kernel32.SetConsoleCtrlHandler(0, 1)/