*nix shell/terminal in m$-win

*nix shell/terminal in m$-win

If you’re currently a WinX user, and would like to run BASH/ZSH type commands, BUT, you are NOT keen to go the w10 route with its built in ubuntu-shell…..
There are a few options available to you:

  • msys2
  • gitbash
    • this was initially my preferred choice, but I had some compatibility issues with SSH/GPG, so I changed to babun
  • cygwin
    • babun is, IMHO, the best option!
    • cygwin based – with a lot of VERY nice enhancements.

    There are a few little funnies that I discovered with it, so hopefully this will save you the trouble of stumbling over the same problems.

    • It recommends installing into your HOME directory – DO this (you are very likely to get permissions errors if you don’t)
    • I thought I would be clever and install into a different directory for common access – which was disastrous. These guys really know what’s what, so stick with their plan
    • The daily “Auto-update” is a little annoying in terms of startup speed – get used to that – it’ll save you time in the long run
    • The daily update will mostly tell you that you ARE up to date – but it’s not always true
    • IMHO… c:\home\USERNAME\.babun\update.bat is a better update check
    • the default .babun location is /home/USERNAME/.babun, which means in absolute paths,
      • your SHELL path for / is c:\home\USERNAME\.babun/cygwin
      • within the SHELL, ~ is c:\home\USERNAME\.babun/cygwin/home/USERNAME
        • this is where you would find your ~/.ssh/ subdir etc
        • If you use it to generate SSH keys, .babun uses /etc/ssh_host* instead of the *nix default of /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*

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