Re: Use of SHELL env var by login

[Linda Walsh <cygwin at tlinx dot org>]

Andrey Repin wrote:
> > In the absence of /etc/passwd, setting SHELL is the right way to set your login
> > shell.
>
> One of the right ways, I'd say.
> If your aim is the integration of both environments, you MAY set variables,
> but if you then start a login shell, they may be voided by the startup scripts.
> I would advise using "more other" ways to configure Cygwin, i.e. using SAM DB
> comment field.
---
	Windows *doesn't* use "SHELL" to set your command line, it uses
COMSPEC.  So setting SHELL won't do MS programs any good.  I set mine for
the benefit of some non-MS programs that ran windows natively so I could
have an easier time in some of my own scripting.  The form C:/bin/bash.exe
was *NOT* set by cygwin prompting me to set it -- since it cygwin wanted a
windows path it would only have accepted C:\bin\bash.exe.  If it wanted a
non-windows, pure-posix-like path, it would have complained about referring
to /c as "C:".  

It's the unsupported "middle-ground" path that works in 
win32 and cygwin -- but my cygwin is install @ '/' not /c/ (though they
end up at the same point)  -- I mention the C: drive primarily for windows
programs (if they are on another drive, the path /bin/bash.exe is processed
as being on the "current drive", so in program like the _windows_ 
_versions_ of 'vim/gvim', that "cd" to the same directory as the file you are
editing, also end up changing drive letters (a network drive in my setup)
where /bin/bash doesn't work (as /bin/bash would only work when drive 'C' is
current).  You *can* set COMSPEC to something other than "cmd.exe", but I 
would not -- since some windows program depend on COMSPEC to be cmd.exe ( :-( ).

Setting SHELL will have no effect on Microsoft windows program -- it may
on some non-MS programs running on windows, but i've not found it provided
sufficient benefit for the troubles.  





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