How do I launch/use Cygwin as the shell for TortoiseHg?

Question

In the settings for TortoiseHg, there is an option to select what shell you would like to use. The two defaults listed are, as you might expect, "windows_command_prompt" and "powershell" but I would like to use Cygwin. From the documentation: http://tortoisehg.readthedocs.org/en/latest/settings.html#tortoisehg There is some help text...

Specify the command to launch your preferred terminal shell application. If the value includes the string %(reponame)s, the name of the repository will be substituted in place of %(reponame)s. (restart needed)

Default, Windows: cmd.exe /K title %(reponame)s

Default, OS X: not set

Default, other: xterm -T "%(reponame)s"

I know I can launch Cygwin normally from windows just like the shortcut does...

C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico -

And I figure I can add on extra options to adjust the title...

C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe -T "%(reponame)s" -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico -

but when I set that as the shell, I get an error saying that TortiseHg is unable to start that command.

I can reduce the command to just...

C:\cygwin64\bin\mintty.exe

and it still doesn't work.

Is TortoiseHg adding on commands meant for Windows-style shells which wouldn't be compatible with Cygwin?

Is there a way to make Cygwin my shell for TortoiseHg?

Answer 1

All that is needed in the "Shell" options line is mintty

I installed chere, which seems to have made a difference https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9637601/open-cygwin-at-a-specific-folder

I like putting the icon back, so it grows to mintty -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico

The title can be changed by adding back in the -T option (to the repo name "%(reponame)s" or the full path "%(root)s").

I also had a cd command in my .bashrc file, so I had to get rid of that. (it would force the directory change every time bash was opened)