134 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
134 lines
5.3 KiB
Plaintext
<sect1 id="setup-env"><title>Environment Variables</title>
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<para>
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Before starting bash, you may set some environment variables. A .bat
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file is provided where the most important ones are set before bash in
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launched. This is the safest way to launch bash initially. The .bat
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file is installed in the root directory that you specified during setup
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and pointed to in the Start Menu under the "Cygwin" option. You can
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edit it this file your liking.</para>
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<para>
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The <envar>CYGWIN</envar> variable is used to configure many global
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settings for the Cygwin runtime system. Initially you can leave
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<envar>CYGWIN</envar> unset or set it to <literal>tty</literal> (e.g.
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to support job control with ^Z etc...) using a syntax like this in the
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DOS shell, before launching bash. </para>
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<screen>
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<prompt>C:\></prompt> <userinput>set CYGWIN=tty notitle glob</userinput>
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</screen>
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<para>
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The <envar>PATH</envar> environment variable is used by Cygwin
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applications as a list of directories to search for executable files
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to run. This environment variable is converted from Windows format
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(e.g. <filename>C:\WinNT\system32;C:\WinNT</filename>) to UNIX format
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(e.g., <filename>/WinNT/system32:/WinNT</filename>) when a Cygwin
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process first starts.
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Set it so that it contains at least the <filename>x:\cygwin\bin</filename>
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directory where "<filename>x:\cygwin</filename> is the "root" of your
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cygwin installation if you wish to use cygwin tools outside of bash.
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</para>
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<para>
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The <envar>HOME</envar> environment variable is used by many programs to
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determine the location of your home directory and we recommend that it be
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defined. This environment variable is also converted from Windows format
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when a Cygwin process first starts. Set it to point to your home directory
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before launching bash.
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</para>
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<para>
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The <envar>TERM</envar> environment variable specifies your terminal
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type. It is automatically set to <literal>cygwin</literal> if you have
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not set it to something else.
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</para>
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<para>The <envar>LD_LIBRARY_PATH</envar> environment variable is used by
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the Cygwin function <function>dlopen ()</function> as a list of
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directories to search for .dll files to load. This environment variable
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is converted from Windows format to UNIX format when a Cygwin process
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first starts. Most Cygwin applications do not make use of the
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<function>dlopen ()</function> call and do not need this variable.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="setup-files"><title>Customizing bash</title>
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<para>
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To set bash up so that cut and paste work properly, click on the
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"Properties" button of the window, then on the "Misc" tab. Make sure
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that "Quick Edit" is checked and "Fast Pasting" isn't. These settings
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will be remembered next time you run bash from that
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shortcut. Similarly you can set the working directory inside the
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"Program" tab. The entry "%HOME%" is valid.
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</para>
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<para>
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Your home directory should contain three initialization files
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that control the behavior of bash. They are
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<filename>.profile</filename>, <filename>.bashrc</filename> and
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<filename>.inputrc</filename>. These initialization files will only
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be read if <envar>HOME</envar> is defined before starting bash.
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</para>
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<para>
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<filename>.profile</filename> (other names are also valid, see the bash man
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page) contains bash commands. It is executed when bash is started as login
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shell, e.g. from the command <command>bash --login</command> (the provided
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.bat file does not set the switch). This is a useful place to define and
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export environment variables and bash functions that will be used by bash
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and the programs invoked by bash. It is a good place to redefine
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<envar>PATH</envar> if needed. We recommend adding a ":." to the end of
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<envar>PATH</envar> to also search the current working directory (contrary
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to DOS, the local directory is not searched by default). Also to avoid
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delays you should either <command>unset</command> <envar>MAILCHECK</envar>
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or define <envar>MAILPATH</envar> to point to your existing mail inbox.
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</para>
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<para>
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<filename>.bashrc</filename> is similar to
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<filename>.profile</filename> but is executed each time an interactive
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bash shell is launched. It serves to define elements that are not
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inherited through the environment, such as aliases. If you do not use
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login shells, you may want to put the contents of
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<filename>.profile</filename> as discussed above in this file
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instead.
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</para>
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<para>
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<screen>
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shopt -s nocaseglob
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</screen>
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will allow bash to glob filenames in a case-insensitive manner.
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Note that <filename>.bashrc</filename> is not called automatically for login
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shells. You can source it from <filename>.profile</filename>.
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</para>
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<para>
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<filename>.inputrc</filename> controls how programs using the readline
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library (including bash) behave. It is loaded automatically. The
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full details are in the <filename>readline.info</filename>.
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Due to a bug in the current readline version,
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<filename>.inputrc</filename> cannot contain \r,
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even on text mounted systems.
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Consider the following settings:
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<screen>
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# Make Bash 8bit clean
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set meta-flag on
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set convert-meta off
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set output-meta on
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# Ignore case while completing
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set completion-ignore-case on
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</screen>
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The first three commands allow bash to display 8-bit characters,
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useful for languages with accented characters. The last line makes
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filename completion case insensitive, which can be convenient in a
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Windows environment.
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</para>
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</sect1>
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