1
I have installed the rxvt shell, now I wonder how I am supposed to execute rxvt without having to start cygwin default shell first.
I have tried the instruction on the following site, but when I have made that .shortcut file rxvt will only execute briefly and then exit.
starcorn
Posted 2011-01-06T15:49:51.780
Reputation: 2 136
6
To sow more confusion :)
1) rxvt isn't a shell - it's a terminal emulator, specifically meant to emulate the DEC vt100 series physical terminal. The -e /bin/bash in the accepted answer is what kicks off your shell (bash in this case), passing bash --login to make it a login shell.
2) Besides rxvt you may want to try mintty. I find it more modern, and cleaner. It's a more native Windows style app, with Windows cut and paste rules. I like it better, YMMV. I have no Cygwin install in front of me to test this, but C:\cygwin\bin\mintty.exe -e /bin/bash --login should work
3) Also look at the chere command line app, which adds the registry entries to say 'start shell here' to your explorer windows. It allows you to say which terminal emulator to use.
Rich Homolka
Posted 2011-01-06T15:49:51.780
Reputation: 27 121
1
Installing the rxvt package should have put a start menu entry for it into the Cygwin folder in All Programs.
(Btw, you might also want to try mintty, which has a more native UI than rxvt and which supports Unicode.)
ak2
Posted 2011-01-06T15:49:51.780
Reputation: 3 387
0
The rxvt shortcut that works for me is
Target: C:\cygwin\bin\rxvt.exe -display :0 -fn "Lucida Console-14" -tn rxvt-cygwin-native -e /bin/bash --login
Start In: C:\cygwin\bin
Can you see if this works?
dsolimano
Posted 2011-01-06T15:49:51.780
Reputation: 2 778
That shortcut will also open briefly and then just shut down. I have tried just open rxvt.exe clean from bin\ now to see if it could be some problem with the .exe file, and it works. It also works when executing rxvt from cygwin. – starcorn – 2011-01-06T16:00:46.660
it works now, I just had to remove the last bit Start In: C:\cygwin\bin – starcorn – 2011-01-06T16:08:08.840
Does it really need the -display :0? I thought rxvt's point was to not use X. – Rich Homolka – 2011-01-06T16:47:29.173
Hi @Rich, it doesn't use X. the -tn rxvt-cygwin-native means that it runs as a Windows GUI app. I'm not sure if the display command is necessary, but it is on the native mode shortcut that gets created when you install rxvt, and that shortcut has worked for me, so I posted it as-is, going on the assumption that the rxvt install script knows better than I. – dsolimano – 2011-01-06T18:48:23.137
Hey @dsolimano, I don't think the -tn does what you think it does. It merely sets the TERM env var to rxvt-cygwin-native. If it works for you, it works :) – Rich Homolka – 2011-01-06T19:14:01.320
Good point @Rich. It looks like Cygwin's rxvt may be looking at how it is invoked and configuring itself appropriately. – dsolimano – 2011-01-06T20:23:29.030
Yep, rxvt takes an unset display or display :0 to mean that it should use its Windows UI mode, whereas for any other display setting it uses X. – ak2 – 2011-01-06T22:16:56.780
mintty was a better option :) – starcorn – 2011-01-06T19:22:44.727
Amusingly, Mintty is what I use as well. +1. – dsolimano – 2011-01-06T21:17:51.403