Out of a git console: how do I execute a batch file and then return to git console?
WindowsGitBatch FileCmdWindows Problem Overview
I have a small utility script called clear.bat
that does some housekeeping work on my sources.
It is a .bat
file so that I could easily double-click it in Windows Explorer.
Sometimes, I find it more handy to execute it from my Git bash (msysgit, if this matters).
To do this, I type
cmd
clear.bat
exit
cmd
turns my Git bash into a normal cmd
window where I could easily execute my batch. When I type exit
, the cmd
environment is terminated and I'm back in my Git bash.
Could this be achieved in an easier way?
I tried cmd /C clean.bat
since the docs say
Syntax
CMD [charset] [options]
CMD [charset] [options] [/c Command]
CMD [charset] [options] [/k Command]
Options
/C Run Command and then terminate
/K Run Command and then return to the CMD prompt.
This is useful for testing, to examine variables
Edit:
Just noticed that the post is broken.
What I want is to execute clean.bat
from within the Git bash without having to type the three commands above (cmd
, clear.bat
, exit
). I just want to execute the .bat
file from within my Git bash. Obvious way would be to create a separate .sh
file that does the same work but this will lead to double code.
Edit 2:
When I execute cmd /C clean.bat
, the Git bash turns into a plain CMD environment and only displays the prompt. The file clean.bat
does not get executed. It's the same as if I just type cmd
.
Also, adding a /debug
switch does literally nothing. Seems like only cmd
gets evaluated and all further parameters are getting ignored.
Windows Solutions
Solution 1 - Windows
After playing around a bit more, I found the solution myself:
cmd "/C clean.bat"
does the trick. But I got no clue, why...
Solution 2 - Windows
./clear.bat
will do the trick.
Solution 3 - Windows
The Git for Windows (msysGit has been superseded by Git for Windows1) FAQ says you have 3 options:
-
Run programs that have problems using the
winpty
utility. This allows you to keep using the nicer mintty terminal, but can become unwieldy if you need the workaround for many programs. -
Modify the shortcut for Git Bash to run
bash
directly withoutmintty
so it uses the default console host and configure it for "Quick Edit", reasonable size and scroll-back and suitable unicode font. You'll still have to live with the other quirks of console host. -
Install and use ConEmu.
Solution 4 - Windows
I like start clean
, it opens a new window with cmd. This method has some benefits:
- cmd.exe gets a native console
- the new console has a native windows character encoding (e.g. cp1251 vs utf8)
Solution 5 - Windows
At some point, Git for windows added support for the MSYS_NO_PATHCONV
environment variable, so in addition to @eckes and @AlikElzin-kilaka solutions, you can also
MSYS_NO_PATHCONV=1 cmd /c clean.bat
In general, I prefer this solution, as it allows the code to be the closest to resembling normal bash, and there are many ways to export MSYS_NO_PATHCONV
depending on your preferred situation.
Note: Git for Window's bash does not support the MSYS2 environment variable MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL
The other solutions
The weird quoting solution
Why does cmd "/c clean.bat"
not create other errors?
It turns out argument parsing in windows does not follow the same universal rules as it does in *nix. Instead, in windows the arguments are parsed differently based on the runtime you compile against. Basically in windows, the command line arguments are passed in as "one string" and then parsed by the runtime.
See here for more explanation than you could ever want.
E.g. cmd
parses arguments differently then wscript.exe
In the end, you can hopefully find something that works with this method, and it is the most "window-esque" of the three solutions
The // method
This is pretty well explained here and simple to use, but adds an extra /
which does not help readability
Solution 6 - Windows
This will work and it frees the terminal too
nohup ./nucleus.bat &
less nohup.out