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| <html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968"><title>Customizing bash</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="docbook.css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot"><link rel="home" href="cygwin-ug-net.html" title="Cygwin User's Guide"><link rel="up" href="setup-net.html" title="Chapter 2. Setting Up Cygwin"><link rel="prev" href="setup-locale.html" title="Internationalization"><link rel="next" href="using.html" title="Chapter 3. Using Cygwin"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Customizing bash</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="setup-locale.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 2. Setting Up Cygwin</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="using.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="setup-files"></a>Customizing bash</h2></div></div></div><p> |
| To set up bash so that cut and paste work properly, click on the |
| "Properties" button of the window, then on the "Misc" tab. Make sure |
| that "QuickEdit mode" and "Insert mode" are checked. These settings |
| will be remembered next time you run bash from that shortcut. |
| </p><p> |
| Your home directory should contain three initialization files that |
| control the behavior of bash. They are <code class="filename">.profile</code>, |
| <code class="filename">.bashrc</code> and <code class="filename">.inputrc</code>. |
| The Cygwin base installation creates stub files when you start bash |
| for the first time. |
| </p><p> |
| <code class="filename">.profile</code> (other names are also valid, see the bash man |
| page) contains bash commands. It is executed when bash is started as login |
| shell, e.g. from the command <span class="command"><strong>bash --login</strong></span>. |
| This is a useful place to define and |
| export environment variables and bash functions that will be used by bash |
| and the programs invoked by bash. It is a good place to redefine |
| <code class="envar">PATH</code> if needed. We recommend adding a ":." to the end of |
| <code class="envar">PATH</code> to also search the current working directory (contrary |
| to DOS, the local directory is not searched by default). Also to avoid |
| delays you should either <span class="command"><strong>unset</strong></span> <code class="envar">MAILCHECK</code> |
| or define <code class="envar">MAILPATH</code> to point to your existing mail inbox. |
| </p><p> |
| <code class="filename">.bashrc</code> is similar to |
| <code class="filename">.profile</code> but is executed each time an interactive |
| bash shell is launched. It serves to define elements that are not |
| inherited through the environment, such as aliases. If you do not use |
| login shells, you may want to put the contents of |
| <code class="filename">.profile</code> as discussed above in this file |
| instead. |
| </p><p> |
| </p><pre class="screen"> |
| shopt -s nocaseglob |
| </pre><p> |
| will allow bash to glob filenames in a case-insensitive manner. |
| Note that <code class="filename">.bashrc</code> is not called automatically for login |
| shells. You can source it from <code class="filename">.profile</code>. |
| </p><p> |
| <code class="filename">.inputrc</code> controls how programs using the readline |
| library (including <span class="command"><strong>bash</strong></span>) behave. It is loaded |
| automatically. For full details see the <code class="literal">Function and Variable |
| Index</code> section of the GNU <code class="systemitem">readline</code> manual. |
| Consider the following settings: |
| </p><pre class="screen"> |
| # Ignore case while completing |
| set completion-ignore-case on |
| # Make Bash 8bit clean |
| set meta-flag on |
| set convert-meta off |
| set output-meta on |
| </pre><p> |
| The first command makes filename completion case insensitive, which can |
| be convenient in a Windows environment. The next three commands allow |
| <span class="command"><strong>bash</strong></span> to display 8-bit characters, useful for |
| languages with accented characters. Note that tools that do not use |
| <code class="systemitem">readline</code> for display, such as |
| <span class="command"><strong>less</strong></span> and <span class="command"><strong>ls</strong></span>, require additional |
| settings, which could be put in your <code class="filename">.bashrc</code>: |
| </p><pre class="screen"> |
| alias less='/bin/less -r' |
| alias ls='/bin/ls -F --color=tty --show-control-chars' |
| </pre><p> |
| </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="setup-locale.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="setup-net.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="using.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Internationalization </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="cygwin-ug-net.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 3. Using Cygwin</td></tr></table></div></body></html> |
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