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#279042 - 04/04/2006 14:52 Different terminal program than cmd.exe?
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Due to my new job, I unfortunatly have to to go back to Windows XP. Anyhow, I will be working in the shell a lot, and have Cygwin already running. The irritating part though is the inflexability of the shell window when running under cmd.exe. Is there a better Windows shell program similar in flexibility to say PuTTY for resizing and generally acting like a unix shell?

I still may request an OS X box and use Remote Desktop if things don't go to well. I'm already fighting a lot with Outlook, trying to use the "Saved Search" folders. It's not a wonder I haven't seen others use them, the interface for them is absolutly horrible.

And no matter what I do, pounding on F9-F11 does nothing. Grr.


Edited by drakino (05/04/2006 02:48)

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#279043 - 04/04/2006 15:00 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
cushman
veteran

Registered: 21/01/2002
Posts: 1380
Loc: Erie, CO
Why not use one of the shells that comes with Cygwin? Like bash? I haven't used cmd.exe since I installed cygwin.
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Mark Cushman

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#279044 - 04/04/2006 15:07 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: cushman]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
The problem is bash seems to run inside a cmd.exe process, doing things like limiting resizing to 80 characters wide. I just realised I'm looking for a terminal program, not a shell program, sorry. So, whats a good terminal program for Windows that plays well with Cygwin's bash.exe?

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#279045 - 04/04/2006 15:14 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
The width and height of the command shell window, the prompt, etc. can all be changed in the Properties dialog of the command prompt windows. You can save the settings for all future bash/cmd.exe windows, too.
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- Tony C
my empeg stuff

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#279046 - 04/04/2006 15:24 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: tonyc]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5682
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
The width and height of the command shell window, the prompt, etc...


Yeah, you just can't change them on the fly.
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-- roger

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#279047 - 04/04/2006 15:24 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: tonyc]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Ok, found those settings, however there appears to be no way to do this dynamicially. So if I start with an 80x44 window, I can't decide in the middle of the session to resize it to 120x70 or something in a quick manner that I can find. I suppose I'm looking for the convience of most OS X and Linux terminals that allow live resizing via the mouse.

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#279048 - 04/04/2006 16:07 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
Attack
addict

Registered: 01/03/2002
Posts: 598
Loc: Florida
Defiler got Cygwin bash running on XP without using cmd.exe but I don't know how. Next time I talk to him I will get the info from him or get him to post it.
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Chad

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#279049 - 04/04/2006 17:18 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: Attack]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
If you run the cygwin X server, then you can just run bash inside an xterm or rxvt or whatever. It almost, almost feels like a normal Unix situation except key things are broken. Most notably (to me, at any rate), if I start up ssh-agent and then run another xterm, it doesn't inherit the environment variables from the old shell, so I have to set the appropriate environment variables in the new shell.

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#279050 - 05/04/2006 01:37 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: DWallach]
genixia
Carpal Tunnel

Registered: 08/02/2002
Posts: 3411
Quote:
If you run the cygwin X server, then you can just run bash inside an xterm or rxvt or whatever. It almost, almost feels like a normal Unix situation except key things are broken. Most notably (to me, at any rate), if I start up ssh-agent and then run another xterm, it doesn't inherit the environment variables from the old shell, so I have to set the appropriate environment variables in the new shell.


What he said.
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#279051 - 05/04/2006 01:53 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Can you edit the subject line to read "than" instead of "then", please? It's driving me nuts.
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Bitt Faulk

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#279052 - 05/04/2006 03:13 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: wfaulk]
ricin
veteran

Registered: 19/06/2000
Posts: 1495
Loc: US: CA
Haha, I came to the thread thinking the same thing.
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#279053 - 05/04/2006 03:22 Re: Different terminal program than cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
http://gecko.gc.maricopa.edu/~medgar/puttycyg/

Posting that as mostly a reminder to myself. It allows Putty to hook to Cygwin. It may be what I need, I'll try it tomorrow at work. I'm half tempted to smuggle in my Mac Mini and be done with it though.

edit, another URL for myself: http://www.scalefree.info/2006/02/quicksilver_equ.html


Edited by drakino (05/04/2006 03:27)

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#279054 - 05/04/2006 14:19 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: wfaulk]
tanstaafl.
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/07/1999
Posts: 5543
Loc: Ajijic, Mexico
Can you edit the subject line to read "than" instead of "then", please? It's driving me nuts.

Now, can you edit the subject line to read "from" instead of "than", please? It's driving me nuts.



tanstaafl.
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"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

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#279055 - 05/04/2006 14:59 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: tanstaafl.]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
I don't agree with your argument, Doug. "Different from" implies a difference in function, whereas "different than" implies simply "something else".

Consider: "I want a glass different from that one" vs. "I want a glass different than that one." The first would imply that you want a goblet instead of a tumbler, for example, while the second implies that you simply want a different one, goblet, tumbler, same style, different style, etc. You might make the argument that the correct adjective in the second should be "other" rather than "different".

American Heritage Book of English Usage on the subject
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Bitt Faulk

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#279056 - 05/04/2006 15:42 Re: Different terminal program than cmd.exe? [Re: drakino]
bonzi
pooh-bah

Registered: 13/09/1999
Posts: 2401
Loc: Croatia
Might be an overkill, but you could start cygwin ssh daemon and then use any ssh client. Just tried it with putty.

Update: Hm, I never used this myself before you promted me to try it, but now I find it quite handy. stty updates window geometry params correctly, vi respects it... Thanks!

Cheers!


Edited by bonzi (05/04/2006 17:18)

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#279057 - 05/04/2006 18:34 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: DWallach]
jpt
new poster

Registered: 10/11/2005
Posts: 35
Quote:
If you run the cygwin X server, then you can just run bash inside an xterm or rxvt or whatever. It almost, almost feels like a normal Unix situation except key things are broken. Most notably (to me, at any rate), if I start up ssh-agent and then run another xterm, it doesn't inherit the environment variables from the old shell, so I have to set the appropriate environment variables in the new shell.


+1

To make ssh-agent work in a shell that was spawned by a process that didn't know about the ssh-agent, put something like this in your .bashrc (i use zsh, dunno if any part of this won't work in bash):

Code:
start-agent ()
{
if [[ -f ~/.ssh-auth ]]; then
. ~/.ssh-auth
[[ -e $SSH_AUTH_SOCK ]] && return
fi
eval $(ssh-agent) >/dev/null
echo "SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK" > ~/.ssh-auth
echo "SSH_AGENT_PID=$SSH_AGENT_PID" >> ~/.ssh-auth
[[ -n $DISPLAY ]] && ssh-add < /dev/null || ssh-add
}

kill-agent ()
{
if [[ ! -z $SSH_AGENT_PID ]]; then
rm -f ~/.ssh-auth
kill -9 $SSH_AGENT_PID
rm $SSH_AUTH_SOCK
unset SSH_AUTH_SOCK SSH_AGENT_PID
fi
}

start-agent



Now the "start-agent" function will check if there's a running agent, connect to the running one if there is, or otherwise start one (and add your default key). "kill-agent" will terminate the running agent if you want to for some reason.

To pass an environment variable (like XUSERFILESEARCHPATH) to all X programs, not just new shells, set it in your window manager startup script (.fvwmrc for me).
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#279058 - 09/04/2006 19:36 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: Attack]
Attack
addict

Registered: 01/03/2002
Posts: 598
Loc: Florida
I talked to Defiler and he pointed me to this URL.
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Chad

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#279059 - 09/04/2006 19:54 Re: Different shell program then cmd.exe? [Re: Attack]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Thanks, I'll keep that handy. For now I am using the Putty with Cygwin support, as I have no need for X. Seems though I might be getting a separate Linux box soon anyhow, so at that point I can just use synergy to merge the two stations into one workable station.

Still not getting along with Outlook very well, but thats another topic.

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