resolve windows environment variables for paths

[goyalyashpal]

will it make sense to resolve the windows environment variables (enclosed in %) for paths in the msys2 shell?

this will make the windows environment variables like %localappdata% and others to work.
these are supported in windows stuff like windows explorer, cmd (but surprisingly, not in powershell)

i was thinking of using like this:

$ cd %localappdata%

$ mv %userprofile%/some-file /d/my-dir

currently these variables are not resolved and error is shown: bash: cd: %localappdata%: No such file or directory

[Biswa96]

will it make sense to resolve the windows environment variables (enclosed in %) for paths in the msys2 shell?

No, it's a convention to use % for environment variables in Windows or DOS like OS. Whereas $ is used for unix-like environment.

In case of bash, % is used for other purposes, like string format specifier, pattern matching, arithmetic operation etc. More info can be found in bash man page https://www.man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/bash.1.html.

this will make the windows environment variables like %localappdata% and others to work.

If you want to use cmd like syntax you can use msys2 by adding the installation directories in %PATH% env. variable in cmd or powershell. But some tools may not work as expected.

[goyalyashpal]

cmd like syntax [with msys2 tools], you can use msys2 by adding the installation directories in %PATH% env. variable in cmd or powershell

ahw, really nice. yep, ls "%localappdata%" worked from cmd (not from powershell - this might be due to old powershell instance, but couldn't figure out its version lol)

also, powershell /? doesn't work from bash - so, its interesting that the environment interacts and modifies the command invocation. i had only read this in msys2 documentation, but experiencing it this drastically for the first time.

kinda amazing.

also, i was thinking of adding these windows environment variables in the $ format in one of my msys config file, then doing something like ls "${localappdata}"

[Biswa96]

ls "%localappdata%" worked from cmd

It works from msys2 bash also. See the following output.

$ echo $LOCALAPPDATA
C:\Users\x\AppData\Local

$ ls -lash $LOCALAPPDATA | wc -l
42

[goyalyashpal]

[with the dollar instead of percents] It works from msys2 bash also. See the following output.

brilliant :) super neat, one more reason to love msys2 from my side

reminder to self,

• yes, it has to be case sensitive
• any wrong variable with result in empty value, which will lead to unexpected results (will likely involve the ~ dir), so, try to figure a way to output the executed commands (like the debug or smth)

[hmartinez82]

In powershell, it's $env:<name of variable> . E.g.: $env:localappdata

[goyalyashpal]

• wow, it resolves it even while typing for tab completion, nice :)

• other differences: it shows error for non defined i.e. null variables (for e.g. userprofiles) - which is better than silently proceeding to completion. this silent completion in bash causes wrong behaviour in some cases

• one more thing which improves the experience in powershell: ability to undo/redo the typing - this is probably the biggest thing i miss in bash

• last thing missing in bash would be colored syntax highlighting of the input commands

[hmartinez82]

Use powershell from Windows Terminal, it has color support

[goyalyashpal]

yep, i was saying about it missing in bash

[sskras]

yep, i was saying about it missing in bash

... in libreadline, I guess.

EDIT: And it seems it supports the Undo: Readline Cheat Sheet

It's the Ctrl-_ combo (Ctrl+Shift+- on my keyboard).

Sadly, Redo doesn't seem to be supported.