I use WSL almost exclusively, and only switch to main windows for browsing and running Windows native programs. I have a git repository located at /mnt/c/myrepo. In order to "install" the code inside /mnt/c/myrepo I need to move it to /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed. Instead of executing cp -r /mnt/c/myrepo /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed every time I do a git pull from /mnt/c/myrepo, I would like to symlink /mnt/c/myrepo to /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed. However when I do this, the program which consumes /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed isn't able to view the "contents" of renamed as a directory.
I have been all over the WSL github repo and issue tracker trying to find a solution to this issue. I see a lot of exclamations about how symlinks "just work". I have enabled every Windows 10 developer feature I can find, I even followed some reddit thread where someone claimed that purchasing Pengwin and creating a symlink from Pengwin would ensure this compatibility, but I still can't seem to make this work.
The basic usage I need, is allow me to view "renamed" as a directory from windows, or for windows to recognize the symlink as a symlinked directory.
from wsl:
ln -s /mnt/c/myrepo /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed
from windows:
open file explorer
navigate to c:\otherlocation
open mydir and view the contents as if it were a native directory
How do I do this?
Do the symlink in Windows, in cmd.exe:
mklink /d C:\otherlocation\renamed C:\myrepo
It doesn't make sense creating the symlinks in WSL if both directories are in Windows.
This symlink will work in WSL as well.
The solution to this problem is simply to use the relative path when declaring the link. If you want to link from windows to windows, you should relatively path from the current directory and then you can link anywhere you wish.
From the example, instead of this:
ln -s /mnt/c/myrepo /mnt/c/otherlocation/renamed
Do this:
cd /mnt/c/otherlocation
ln -s ../../myrepo ./renamed
Related
I'm working a programming project from school and decided to give Bash for windows a try. I downloaded the skeleton files for the project and pasted them inside the folder where my bash home folder should be. When I open the terminal and go inside the folder it shows as if there was nothing there even though I'm at the right folder. How can I get the files to be displayed?
EDIT: By now, there is actually a supported way to access these files. You have to use the \\wsl$\Legacy "network" share. For example, you could access your WSL home folder in Windows using \\wsl$\Legacy\home\<username>. Still, you should not directly access the lxss directory.
You are not supposed to touch the LXSS folder ever. The files there are use special attributes which are not understood by normal Windows applications to provide the features of a full Linux file system which NTFS on its own can't provide.
There is one hard-and-fast rule when it comes to Bash on Windows:
DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, create and/or modify Linux files
using Windows apps, tools, scripts, consoles, etc. Creating/changing
Linux files from Windows will likely result in data corruption and/or
damage your Linux environment requiring you to uninstall & reinstall
your distro! Note: Your “Linux files” are any of the files and folders
under %localappdata%\lxss – which is where the Linux filesystem –
distro and your own files – are stored on your drive
If you want to copy a file into a WSL directory which is not under /mnt, then use WSL to copy the file, i.e. use cp /mnt/c/original/folder/of/the/file.txt ~/ for example.
A more advanced alternative is starting a local SSH server in WSL and using Win-SSHFS to mount the WSL root as a drive in Windows. This way, file access will go through WSL.
Its unclear what you're asking in your question. What did you paste? Whole files? Text? Where did you paste it? Did you do the pasting into the bash window? If so was it inside a text file or did you just paste to the prompt? I'm going to assume that you pasted files to the directory that you believe that your bash home opens in i.e ~/. You may not be pasting the files into the correct directory because the default directory for bash on windows is not where you would assume it to be. you should be able to reach your desktop by typing cd /mnt/c/Users/yourUserNameHere/Desktop
I just installed babun, a variant of Cygwin. I want the cygwin user home directory to equal my windows home directory.
So, to be clear, I don't want to add the cygwin home to the C:\Users as a new user, I want it to be the same as my current windows home directory.
Now, according to this post, How can I change my Cygwin home folder after installation?, there is a neat way to make the cygwin home directory point to your windows home directory.
You open the file /etc/nsswitch.conf and make sure is has a line db_home: windows. However, after restarting my pc, echo $HOME still says /home/chiel.tenbrinke, which is not what is should be. It should say something like /cygdrive/c/Users/Chiel.tenBrinke.
Why is this not working?
My cygwin version is CYGWIN_NT-6.1-WOW IM-Chiel-2015 1.7.35(0.287/5/3) 2015-03-04 12:07 i686 Cygwin.
Babun has a surprisingly good FAQ. The last entry in the FAQ is How to Use the Windows home directory as Babun's home directory?
For me, it boiled down to:
Create an env var for $HOME = /Users/my_account_name via Win+R sysdm.cpl
Run mkpasswd -l -p "$(cygpath -H)" > /etc/passwd
Run babun install
I'm not sure why Babun doesn't recognize the standard cygwin setting in /etc/nsswitch.conf, and I'm a bit surprised there was no mention of this setting in the Cygwin FAQ. I'm a bit concerned that in spite of what a great collection Babun is, it may fall out of sync with Cygwin quickly if not properly maintained.
I tried an easier way and works perfectly so far.
Just mv your home folder to the location you want, and make a symlink
The first execution after move may prompt errors, run babun install will fix everything.
in /etc/nsswitch.conf
db_home: /cygdrive/c/Users/%H
I'm using git portable on windows. It's rather user friendly, but there is one thing that bothers me. Every time I run it I have to type the entire path to the project directory, which is quite long sometimes. Maybe it's not a serious problem, but it would be very nice to shorten it. I tried the following:
bash script.sh // cd in this file // nothing happens
create symbolic link it - it just copies the directory
create windows shortcut - can't open it within git console
Anybody managed to solve this?
You can right click on the Windows shortcut that launches Git Bash, edit its properties and modify the "Start in" path to your project path. Every time you launch this shortcut, it will cd into that project path.
Or you can add an alias to your ~/.bashrc like below:
alias proj="cd /path/to/project/"
This will allow you to cd into the project dir on demand by typing the alias name at the prompt.
If you run git-bash.bat from Portable git, it should work mostly as normal git installation. So, to work with a specific repository, just cd into it:
cd /c/code/MyRepo/
git whatever
I've added
cd /c/dev
to
~/.bashrc
with
echo cd /c/dev >> ~/.bashrc
But I'm running MSysGit the non-portable version. Hope this helps in some way anyway.
I start the msysGit Bash using the provided batch file (the one that simulates a Linux environment). Bash starts up in msysGit's home directory (on my flashdrive). I would like to leave this directory to go to my project's directory (also on my flashdrive). So, I enter "$ cd .." This has no effect at all. I type "$ ls" and I'm definitely still in the Git folder. I try "cd ~" which brings me to my user folder, but I can't get to the root directory of my flashdrive. How can I get there with msysGit Bash?
I cannot use git-cmd.bat because the computers at my school deny access to cmd.exe.
Alternative question: How can I run git-cmd without needing administrator permissions?
If there is another distributed-model version control system that works better on portable devices (especially on systems where cmd is restricted and I'm not an administrator), I'll gladly switch to it (if you know of one, please tell).
You should be able to access the root directory of any drive by specify its driver letter:
(for instance)
cd /e
Looking for a solution to quickly navigate to long paths in a shell (particularly Max OS X Terminal.app).
Say my path is ~/This/Is/A/Really/Long/Path/That/I/Would/Rather/Not/Type/Frequently
Instead of cd ~/This/Is/A/....
I would like to be able to store favorites/bookmark directories so I could do "cd myPath"
Are there any binaries or tools available to do something like this?
I've found the packages 'Apparix' and 'Goto' which together make the stuff dreams are made of for us terminal junkies.
Naturally, I had trouble installing Apparix, but I figured it out in the end.
How To Install Apparix on Mac OS X:
Download the tarball from Apparix's homepage.
Unpack the tarball, cd to the unpacked folder.
Run this command ./configure --prefix=$HOME/local && make && make install.
Run man apparix, scroll down to the heading BASH-style functions, copy everything within that section (delimited with ---) and paste it into ~/.bash_profile.
That's it. You should now have Apparix up and running on OS X (further install info and usage is on Apparix's homepage).
Another solution is to use Bashmarks, which allows you to this
$ cd ~/This/Is/A/Really/Long/Path/That/I/Would/Rather/Not/Type/Frequently
$ s shortname # save current path as `shortname`
$ cd /
$ g shortname # cd to ~/This/Is/A/Really/Long/Path/That/I/Would/Rather/Not/Type/Frequently
You can use aliases (stick them in your ~/.bash_profile if you want them to always load)
alias cd_bmark1='cd ~/This/Is/A/Really/Long/Path/That/I/Would/Rather/Not/Type/Frequently'
Then use by just typing
cd_bmark1
into the console
I know you already found an answer that worked for you, but a couple of more lightweight suggestions that might help others looking for similar things
If your directories are relatively fixed, just long and far away from each other, you can use the CDPATH environment variable to add directories to the search path when typing the "cd" command. If the directory name you try to cd to isn't in the current directory, the other entries in your CD path will also be looked at (and it's also tab complete aware, at least in bash and zsh).
Switching to zsh rather than bash and using the excellent directory stacks abilities. With it, you can maintain a history of directories that you've visited, view the history with the "dh" alias, and easily switch to a directory by using quick shortcuts (ex: cd -3 to switch to the 3rd directory in your history stack).
Why not having a symlink ?
ln -s ~/This/Is/A/Really/Long/Path/That/I/Would/Rather/Not/Type/Frequently bmark
cd bmark
I use to.sh daily to create and navigate bookmarked paths in bash. It supports tag autocompletion and the ability to easily add/remove bookmarks.
https://github.com/Grafluxe/to.sh
Full disclosure, I wrote this tool :)