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--- cs:usable_windows [2020/02/12 09:27]
paolo_bolzoni I love candies
+++ cs:usable_windows [2020/04/01 05:01] (current)
paolo_bolzoni little touch up in winpty
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
-==== Admin access ===
+=== Msys2 path mangling ===
+Since Windows expects paths like ''c:/Users/Sato/'' and Unix expects paths like ''/home/Sato'' the Msys2 shell does path mangling so that windows programs will find what is expected.
+For example, one types:
+  ./prg.exe / /c/Users/Sato/Music/
+and the passed arguments (''argv'' in C parlance) are:
+  C:\msys64\home\Sato\prg.exe
+  C:/msys64/
+  C:/Users/Sato/Music/
+Normally this is fine, but seldom it breaks programs. To disable it one needs to setup an environment variable: ''MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL'' ([[https://github.com/msys2/msys2/wiki/Porting#filesystem-namespaces|Documentation]]).
+== Docker ==
+A common example is docker for windows. One probably wants an alias in their ''~/.bashrc''.
+  alias docker='MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL="*" docker'
+So that Msys2 won't mangle any path.
+=== TTY-sensible programs ===
+Few programs, like __nodejs__, have problems using Msys2. When you execute them the console seems to hang. It happens because they expect the stdout do be a TTY, in other words stdout must follow the terminal interface protocol.
+The Mysys2 shell does not:
+  $ node -p -e 'Boolean(process.stdout.isTTY)'
+  false
+Fortunately there is a solution: the program **winpty**
+  $ winpty node -p -e "Boolean(process.stdout.isTTY)"
+  true
+Let us see in action:
+  $ node
+Nothing happens, until you press CTRL-C stopping it.
+  $ winpty node
+  Welcome to Node.js v13.11.0.
+  Type ".help" for more information.
+  >
+Much better! **winpty** can be installed with pacman.
+==== Admin access ====
 Seldom one needs to execute a command as superuser.
@@ Line 35: / Line 85: @@
 [[https://www.autoitscript.com/|AutoIt v3 is a freeware BASIC-like scripting language.]]
-Scripting language able also of automating the Windows GUI that compiles in self contained .exe files.
+Scripting language able of automating the Windows GUI and that compiles in self-contained .exe files.
+==== Clipboard from the command line ====
+Windows now have ''clip'' a program to read content from stdin and write in the clipboard. However the help message does not tell anything about the encoding ''clip'' expects. The encoding is ''utf-16le'', so one needs to use:
+   iconv -f utf-8 -t utf-16le | clip
+Also it can be useful to consider [[http://www.stahlworks.com/dev/swiss-file-knife.html|sfk.exe]] to be able to read //from// the clipboard (among other things ''sfk.exe'' does).

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