My screenshot
How can I create a launcher for a program (or a script) on MSYS2 that does not show me the black window of the terminal?
My link:
msys2_shell.cmd -mingw64 -c /c/myfolder/program.exe
To run a program in the MSYS2 environment without showing a window, you should right-click on your Desktop or somewhere else in Windows Explorer, select "New", select "Shortcut", and then enter something like this for the shortcut target:
C:\msys64\usr\bin\mintty.exe -w hide /bin/env MSYSTEM=MINGW64 /bin/bash -lc /c/path/to/your_program.exe
Note that there are 4 paths in here. The path to mintty and your_program.exe are absolute paths that you will need to adjust. The paths to env and bash are relative to your MSYS2 installation directory. Note also that the first path must be a standard Windows path, since Windows expects that when it is running a shortcut.
Explanation
It might seem odd to use MinTTY for this, but the first program we launch needs to be some program that was compiled for the Windows subsystem (-mwindows option to GCC), or else Windows will automatically start a new console when we run the program. We pass the -w hide option to MinTTY to tell it not to actually show its own window. Everything after that option is interpreted by MinTTY as a command to run.
So MinTTY will run /bin/env from the MSYS2 distribution and pass the remainder of the arguments on to it. This is a handy utility that is actually a standard part of Linux as well as MSYS2. It sets the MSYSTEM environment variable to MINGW64 (which is important later) and then it runs /bin/bash with the remainder of the command-line arguments. The MSYSTEM variable selects which of the three MSYS2 environments to use, and the value values for it are MSYS2, MINGW32, or MINGW64.
We pass -l to Bash so that it acts as a login script, and runs certain startup scripts. In particular, the /etc/profile script from MSYS2 is essential because it looks at the MSYSTEM environment variable, sees that it is MINGW64, and then sets a bunch of other environment variables (e.g. PATH) to give you the MinGW 64-bit shell environment, or some different environment if you changed MSYSTEM.
Finally, we pass the name of your program as the main argument to bash, so it will run that program after running the initialization scripts.
Related
Problem
When I run a bash script on Windows:
bash my_script.sh
I get linux-gnu for $OSTYPE inside the script.
Why is this like this?
I assume that i have WSL installed is relevant here.
Tested in PowerShell and CMD.
Git bash is returning msys like expected! Thx #user1934428
Background
I want to start some python scripts from bash, but not inside WSL.
From my command line I reach different python versions on windows, but from inside the bash scripts it is using the one inside WSL (except for GitBash).
You're right, running the bash command in PowerShell or CMD will launch WSL to run your script. You confirm this (and see which version of WSL) by running cat /etc/issue in your bash script. Your WSL environment will have an independent set of environment variables (not just $OSTYPE). You can see this by comparing the output of Get-ChildItem -Path Env:\ in PowerShell to the output of env (after you launch bash from PowerShell).
I suspect that the python version discrepancy you're seeing is a result of the PATH variable in your WSL runtime not matching what you have set in your PowerShell environment. You can fix your version issue by setting an alias containing a path to the python executable you want to use by adding alias python=/c/path/to/python.exe to the start of your bash scripts.
Alternatively, you can use a tool like Cygwin or git-bash to run your scripts. I'm not sure if they will use the same path variables as Windows so you may need to set those manually too.
I am creating an installation using InstallShield 2018 in windows 10. I need to execute a script file (.sh) in Ubuntu from a function in Installscript. I tried the following but it did not work:
szCmdPath = "C:\\Users\\Admin\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\WindowsApps\\Ubuntu.exe";
szCmdLine = ". /mnt/d/test.sh";
LaunchAppAndWait( szCmdPath, szCmdLine, WAIT);
However I can execute the exact same file in Ubuntu Terminal and it works great. I did turn on Window sub system for Linux and install Ubuntu on windows. Why is this happening? Why can I run cmd.exe from installscript but not Ubuntu?
Thank you in advance.
EDIT 1: if I pass an empty string as parameter, Ubuntu is start and waits for my input commands. But when I pass the path to my script file, nothing happened except a flash of the terminal console before my installation goes on running.
From my reading, wsl and ubuntu differ slightly. It looks like wsl is a bit magical and occasionally similar to bash -c or ubuntu -c, whereas you can consider Ubuntu.exe as somewhat equivalent to /bin/bash.
If you try to run /bin/bash . /mnt/d/test.sh from a bash prompt, things don't go well. So the correct approach will depend on the contents of your script and what you need to happen. I think one of the following options are the most likely:
remove . from your command; instead run ...\Ubuntu.exe /mnt/d/test.sh
add -c to your command; instead run ...\Ubuntu.exe -c . /mnt/d/test.sh
Note that %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\Ubuntu.exe is a special file (zero bytes), so it's also plausible that it needs some special handling. For instance, maybe it requires a 64-bit caller. If that's the case, you may need to wrap it in a call through a 64-bit cmd prompt. My quick tests don't show this as likely, however, so I think it will work without this extra indirection.
On Windows, if I start c:\msys64\mingw64.exe, it opens a shell, where I can build my project, let's say by calling a release bash script (to simplify). Everything works fine.
Now, I would like to execute my release script on mingw64 directly, without interaction.
I tried:
c:\msys64\mingw64.exe /c/the/full/path/release
A window opens and closes, it does not work.
I attempted to use bash directly, but it seems the environment is not correctly set:
> c:\msys64\usr\bin\bash -c ls
/usr/bin/bash: ls: command not found
> c:\msys64\usr\bin\bash -c /bin/ls
... it works ...
So it is obvious that the environment is not the same as when execute c:\msys64\mingw64.exe then call ls.
How to execute my release script as if I were in the shell started by mingw64.exe?
To run a Bash shell script in MSYS2 without showing a window, you should right-click on your Desktop or somewhere else in Windows Explorer, select "New", select "Shortcut", and then enter something like this for the shortcut target:
C:\msys64\usr\bin\mintty.exe -w hide /bin/env MSYSTEM=MINGW64 /bin/bash -l /c/Users/rom1v/project/release.sh
Note that there are 4 paths in here. The path to mintty and release.sh are absolute paths that you will need to adjust. The paths to env and bash are relative to your MSYS2 installation directory. Note also that the first path must be a standard Windows path, since Windows expects that when it is running a shortcut.
Explanation
It might seem odd to use MinTTY for a non-interactive script, but we need to use some program that was compiled for the Windows subsystem (-mwindows option to GCC), or else Windows will automatically start a new console when we run the program. We pass the -w hide option to MinTTY to tell it not to actually show a window. Everything after that option is interpreted by MinTTY as a command to run.
So MinTTY will run /bin/env from the MSYS2 distribution and pass the remainder of the arguments on to it. This is a handy utility that is actually a standard part of Linux as well as MSYS2. It sets the MSYSTEM environment variable to MINGW64 (which is important later) and then it runs /bin/bash with the remainder of the command-line arguments.
We pass -l to Bash so that it acts as a login script, and runs certain startup scripts. In particular, the /etc/profile script from MSYS2 is essential because it looks at the MSYSTEM environment variable, sees that it is MINGW64, and then sets a bunch of other environment variables (e.g. PATH) to give you the MinGW 64-bit shell environment.
Finally, we pass the name of your script as the main argument to bash, so it will run that script after running the initialization scripts.
Error handling
Note that if your Bash script has an error, you won't get any notification, because the shortcut above doesn't open any console windows. I personally would find that pretty annoying. I'd probably remove the -w hide option, then make a wrapper bash script that just does something like:
run_my_main_script || sleep 10000
So if the main script is successful, exit right away, otherwise keep the window open for 10000 seconds. You don't have to even put that wrapper script in its own file, you can just put it in the shortcut as the argument to Bash's -c option (don't forget to wrap it in double quotes).
Thanks to the answers from #David Grayson, I managed to call my release script with msys2/mingw from a Windows console (cmd), with additional directories (for Java and Meson) in $PATH:
c:\msys64\usr\bin\env MSYSTEM=MINGW64 c:\msys64\usr\bin\bash -l -c "PATH=\"/c/Program Files/Java/jdk1.8.X_XXX/bin:/c/Program Files/Meson:$PATH\" /c/Users/rom1v/project/release"
add an supplement to the above: if u want to the output of shell script
reference：https://mintty.github.io/mintty.1.html
-l, --log FILE|-
Copy all output into the specified log file, or standard output if a dash is given instead of a file name. (Implies -o Logging=yes.)
If FILE contains %d it will be substituted with the process ID. See description of equivalent option "Log file" (Log=) below for further formatting options and hints.
Note that logging can be toggled from the extended context menu.
Add A complete example:
C:\msys64\usr\bin\mintty.exe -w hide -l - c:\msys64\usr\bin\env MSYSTEM=MINGW64 c:\msys64\usr\bin\bash -l -c "PATH=\"$PATH\" /C/Users/Administrator/Desktop/myProject/Demo_C_C++/shell/textProcess/bookNoteHandler.sh" | find /v "/v:Displays all lines that don't contain the specified"
=========
I am trying to set an environment variable for Bash. However, I need this to be set before any of the shell's startup scripts (including /etc/profile), because /etc/profile acts differently based on the value of this variable.
Specifically, I want to create a shortcut to MinTTy that works like git-bash, but I need to set the MSYSTEM environment variable before the shell starts, or at least before it starts processing any startup scripts.
A solution that has MinTTy setting the environment variable before it starts the shell will also be accepted.
Edit:
What I am really looking for is sort of a command-line option to BASH that will set an environment variable, somewhat akin to the -D option to most C (and other) compilers. This would be a "general case" solution. Alternatively, a similar option (command line or configuration) to MinTTy will also do the job.
For my specific need, I have an idea for a potential work-around: Run a BASH script - with no startup scripts - that sets my required variable and execs another shell as a login shell.
Define the target of your shortcut file as follows:
C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe /bin/bash -l -c "MSYSTEM=MINGW64 exec -l bash"
This command:
invokes bash directly as a login shell (-l)
passes it a command (-c) that defines the environment variable of interest (MSYSTEM=MINGW64) and then invokes a new copy of bash (exec -l bash), which inherits the existing environment, plus the new definition, but sources the profile(s) again, due to -l
(and prepends - to the executable name reported in $0 (-bash), as would happen if you started Mintty with just -, which is what the regular Cygwin64 Terminal shortcut does).
An alternative is to set the environment variable in Windows first.
[Not an option for the OP] If the environment variable should always have the same value, set it persistently as follows: run sysdm.cpl, go to the Advanced tab, click on Environment Variables... and define variable MSYSTEM as needed.
To define the variable ad-hoc, create a batch file as follows and make the shortcut target that batch file:
#echo off
# Define the env. variable with the desired value.
set "MSYSTEM=MINGW64"
# Invoke Mintty with a login shell, which will now see the env. variable.
# Adjust the path to mintty.exe as needed.
c:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe -
Note: Opening the batch file from a shortcut briefly opens a regular console window before opening Mintty, which may be undesired.
A simple helper WSH script, as demonstrated in this answer of mine, can prevent this.
You should just be able to do the same as you do in command prompt. Therefore, you can do:
set VAR=VarContents
Although I already accepted an answer above, I found this link that specifically addresses the second part of my question (Mintty specific) or an alternative way of setting an environment variable before running a command.
The contents of the Windows shortcut can be:
C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe -t "Title" /bin/env "MSYSTEM=MINGW64" /bin/bash -l
(Suggested by Mintty Tips:Setting environment variables.)
I installed amazonCLI, as well as Cygwin, and changed the Path env variable to:
%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem;C:\Program Files\Prio;C:\Program
Files\Diskeeper Corporation\ExpressCache\;C:\Program
Files\Amazon\AWSCLI\;C:\cygwin64\bin
When I open the command prompt, first of all it is directly pointing to
C:\Users\Stephane
(which I think is weird). And then when I input something like 'ls', the return error is:
'ls' is not recognized as internal or external command, operable program or batch file
Can you please help me know what I am doing wrong?
Thanks
From the error message you got, it's evident, that you are trying to execute Cygwin's commands from the Windows Console. That's also the reason, why it's executed in your Windows' profile directory instead of the Cygwin's one.
You should read the basics about using the Cygwin first, because it seems you don't know what Cygwin exactly is and how to use it. Maybe you don't need the Cygwin at all, it depends on what you need to accomplish. The is for example GnuWin tool set or UnxUtils, which are just a sets of standalone GNU tools compiled for Windows. Cygwin is more like system than standalone utilities. You can for example execute shell scripts under the Cygwin.
So it depends on your needs. But I simply can't imagine using Windows without Cygwin yet.
You can execute Cygwin's shell from the Windows Console, but I advice you to use MinTTY (which is in directory $CYGWIN_DIR/bin). MinTTY is a terminal emulator, which executes your Cygwin shell (bash by default).
To execute for example bash directly from the Windows Console, just execute $CYGWIN_DIR/bash.exe --login -i.