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From: "lhall AT pop DOT ma DOT ultranet DOT com" <lhall AT pop DOT ma DOT ultranet DOT com>
To: soren_andersen AT fastmail DOT fm, cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: DOS <-> Bash interaction...
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 16:24:08 -0500
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This issue isn't Cygwin specific, since setting of the SHELL 
environament variable is handled by the shell itself.  As such,
discussion of this is really off-topic for this list.
I found a quick check of the bash man page and searching for
SHELL shed allot of light on the subject however.  You might 
want to check it out yourself.  

I don't set SHELL in any startup files or my Windows environment.
SHELL is always set to /bin/bash for me.

Larry

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Soren A soren_andersen AT fastmail DOT fm
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 21:01:32 +0000 (UTC)
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: DOS <-> Bash interaction...


Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu> wrote around 28 Jan 2003 
news:Pine DOT GSO DOT 4 DOT 44 DOT 0301281140120 DOT 26400-100000 AT slinky DOT cs DOT nyu DOT edu:

> If you get something different as the first entry, your /etc/profile does
> *append* the standard paths to the contents of $PATH.  This means you've
> probably changed it at some point in the past.  Change it back.

Right. And yes, I have read the rest of the articles in the thread, but
found that one question gets left behind immediately, in the course of
running down the PATH issue: that was, the very top issue Hannu raised,
which is "what does $SHELL contain"? I am wondering what Cygwin does by
default -- I have been using highly modified bash initialization files
for a very long time now and so I cannot find out by merely going and
looking at my own.

Do any of the init files that bash reads set, query or export SHELL?
Would it be a good idea for them to do so?

It seems to me that when I set up Cygwin (my installation on Win98SE
thereof, that is), I had to set SHELL and export it, in my bash init
file, when I worked on achieving good integration with the editor GVIM
(the Win32 GUI version of the VIM editor). This memory-impression
suggests that Cygwin isn't exporting SHELL by default. Confirm or
denials, anyone? ;-)

I actually have 3 "choices" of SHELL on this Win98 box, because I've
installed a partly-functioning CMD.exe from a Win2K SDK release by M$.
So I have available a command.com, a CMD.exe, and a bash.exe. I *always*
want to be using the bash.exe in connection with any Cygwin stuff I am
doing, but in the past have wanted CMD.exe, for instance, in connection 
with other things (MinGW-ish, but that's OT here...). Almost never
do I intentionally want command.com, of course.

This is all rhetorical and general-interest for me personally, since I
already have Cygwin doing what I want it to in these areas. I am not
calling for a change of any specific sort, just asking for discussion
for the purposes of increasing general understanding.

   Soren A

-- 
"So, tell me, my little one-eyed one, on what poor, pitiful,
defenseless planet has my MONSTROSITY been unleashed?"
                       - Dr. Jumba, Disney's "Lilo & Stitch"


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