what is the alternative of `prompt $g` in cygwin - cygwin

In Windows, I can use prompt $g to hide the path and replace it with > in the command prompt as shown in the below picture,
This is extremely beneficial if the path of the current directory long. I'm looking for similar command for cygwin. Any suggestions?

The shell's prompt is taken from the $PS1 variable. If you want to show just >, set the variable to it
PS1='>'
It might be more convenient to use something like \W which displays the current directory name without path:
PS1='\W> '

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Android Studio - cmake - access environement variable?

This question is specific to using cmake as part of Android Studio build process.
I'm using Android Studio 2.2 preview 7 on linux (ubuntu)
Inside the CMakeLists.txt I am able to access the Android NDK path using: ${ANDROID_NDK}
But how can I access:
Any environment variable ?
If not possible, at least the Android SDK path ?
I already tried to used $ENV{name_of_the_environment_variable_here} but it's always empty, even if the environment variable exist. I guess that when gradle invoke cmake it "hide" the env var somehow.
I don't think you can use $ENV, it's just an example of a variable because they're environment variables. However, you should be able to type env and hit enter for a list of the variables you currently have set. Then, the ones you see in the list, you can invoke by typing $VARIABLE_NAME, using a command before them to get them to do something. E.g. echo $VARIABLE will echo your variable to stdout.
I'm not sure how $ANDROID_SDK was set, if it was part of an install process, etc. but generally you would set user environment variables in .profile, .bash_profile or .bashrc configuration files. These files are read by the shell in that order. System-wide variables are set in /etc/environment, /etc/profile, and /etc/bash.bashrc, but you probably don't want to mess with those (most distros encourage making ancillary additions in /etc/profile.local, but that's a story for another answer).
It doesn't particularly matter which one of these files you use, unless what you're trying to do interacts with the order in which they are loaded. Generally, I look for where the variables have been set by either the OS or other stuff I've added and put them near those. You can find where environment variables are set by typing:
% for i in .profile .bash_profile .bashrc; do grep -H PATH $HOME/$i; done
(% is the prompt, don't type %)
.. and this will loop through the 3 files and show you if a user $PATH is set in any of them.
Bash uses the export ENV command as opposed to set ENV, which is from the original sh, which AFAIK is only default on FreeBSD and derivatives like pfSense anymore. Almost all other OS use Bash by default, except MacOS which recently moved to zsh and also uses export, and OpenBSD which uses ksh (nobody uses OpenBSD).
If you want to verify which shell you are using, type echo $SHELL, or echo $0 and hit enter, and it should let you know.
You can add the environment variable ephemerally by typing this command in your bash terminal and pressing enter:
% export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/home/username/AndroidSDK
To be clear, this is an example path, so it'd be best to use the actual path in which your android SDK files reside. However, this example was a default install location Android Studio tried to use when I installed it recently, so if you're not sure where they are, it's probably a good place to check.
To have a more permanent setting of your environment variable, open a text editor and add the line above to one of the configuration files I mentioned in the first paragraph (they'll be in your $HOME folder). Or, you can run this from the prompt and it'll add it to your file automatically:
% echo 'export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/home/username/AndroidSDK' >> $HOME/.bashrc
Take care to use two angle brackets and not one, as one angle bracket will overwrite the entire file with the single line.
How can I access Any environment variable ?
If you're not sure which folder is $HOME, try typing cd $HOME and hitting enter - that'll take you there. That's how you access environment variables - use a command with the invocation of the variable and it should act as if you had typed out the entire thing.
To access environment variables, type echo $NAME_OF_VARIABLE and it should echo it to the screen. If you want to search your three config files I mentioned in the beginning for where an environment variable is set, you can use grep as I did earlier, just changing the search string for whatever you're looking for. E.g. (while in $HOME):
% grep SDK_ROOT .bashrc .profile .bash_profile
Or you can type env to list all the currently set variables and filter them by piping the output to the grep command:
% env | grep SDK
If you want to just list all of the set variables and root around the entire thing, just type env instead of piping it to grep (grep's a filter).
Lastly, I'll give you an example of my $ANDROID_SDK_ROOT $ANDROID_SDK and $SDK_ROOT variables in my .bashrc - I noticed while installing these tools, they use all three (isn't that fun?):
% grep ANDROID .bashrc
export ANDROID_SDK=$HOME/development/Android/SDK
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$HOME/development/Android/SDK
export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK:$JAVA_HOME:$ANDROID_SDK/cmdline-tools/latest/bin:$ANDROID_SDK/build-tools/32.0.0:$ANDROID_SDK/emulator:$ANDROID_SDK/emulator/bin64:$ANDROID_SDK/tools:$ANDROID_SDK/tools/bin:$ANDROID_SDK/extras:$ANDROID_SDK/platform-tools:$HOME/development/AndroidStudio/bin
export ANDROID_STUDIO=$HOME/development/AndroidStudio
% grep SDK_ROOT .bashrc
export SDK_ROOT=$HOME/development/Android/SDK
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=$HOME/development/Android/SDK
Hope that answers some questions, sorry it took so long to give you a response.

A way to replace a shortcut with an absolute path in linux

I have a program that needs to be provided with an absolute path to a particular file - call it xfile located at /home/user/.hidden/sub/sub2/xfile
Is there a way to make some sort of replacement function whereby I would type xfile, press TAB and have it replaced by the absolute path?
I've tried creating an alias and exporting it under ~/.profile but the program hasn't liked it so far.
If your shell is bash, then add the following line into your ~/.bashrc
export xfile="/home/user/.hidden/sub/sub2/xfile";
Logout, login again, and then use it by calling:
your_program $xfile
The only difference, instead of typing tab you type $.
I don't know solution for completing relative path to absolute path but you can write something like that in your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profileinstead of alias.
function your_program()
{
/path/to/your_program $PWD/$1
}

What is this $PATH in Linux and how to modify it

I have a few questions on this $PATH in Linux.
I know it tells the shell which directories to search for executable files, so:
What does it mean an environmental variable?
How to change its path? and is it recommended to change it?
IF i change it what are the consequences?
To get your path current $PATH variable type in:
echo $PATH
It tells your shell where to look for binaries.
Yes, you can change it - for example add to the $PATH folder with your custom scripts.
So: if your scripts are in /usr/local/myscripts to execute them you will have to type in a full path to the script: /usr/local/myscripts/myscript.sh
After changing your $PATH variable you can just type in myscript.sh to execute script.
Here is an example of $PATH from RHEL:
/usr/kerberos/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/home/user/bin
To change your $PATH you have to either edit ~/.profile (or ~/.bash_profile) for user or global $PATH setting in /etc/profile.
One of the consequences of having inaccurate $PATH variables is that shell will not be able to find and execute programs without a full $PATH.
Firstly, you are correct in your statement of what $PATH does. If you were to break it somehow (as per your third point), you will have to manually type in /usr/bin/xyz if you want to run a program in /usr/bin from the terminal. Depending on how individual programs work, this might break some programs that invoke other ones, as they will expect to just be able to run ls or something.
So if you were to play around with $PATH, I would suggest saving it somewhere first. Use the command line instruction
echo $PATH > someRandomFile.txt
to save it in someRandomFile.txt
You can change $PATH using the export command. So
export PATH=someNewPath
HOWEVER, this will completely replace $PATH with someNewPath. Since items in path are separated by a ":", you can add items to it (best not to remove, see above) by executing
export PATH=$PATH:newPath
The fact that it is an environmental variable means that programs can find out its value, ie it is something that is set about the environment that the program is running in. Other environmental variables include things like the current directory and the address of the current proxy.
this is simple and i do like this way.
Open the linux bash shell and print the environment variables:
printenv
I copy "PATH" variable to a text editor and edit as I want. Then update the PATH like this
export PATH= /variable dir list/
It Works.
or if you want to add an single variable use this command.
export PATH = $PATH:/variable_dir_path/
This will extends the PATH with your new directory path.

Adding a new entry to the PATH variable in ZSH

I'm using zsh terminal, and I'm trying to add a new entry (/home/david/pear/bin) to the PATH variable. I don't see a reference to the PATH variable in my ~/.zshrc file, but doing echo $PATH returns:
/usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
So I know that the path variable is being set somewhere. Where is the PATH variable set / modified for the zsh terminal?
Actually, using ZSH allows you to use special mapping of environment variables. So you can simply do:
# append
path+=('/home/david/pear/bin')
# or prepend
path=('/home/david/pear/bin' $path)
# export to sub-processes (make it inherited by child processes)
export PATH
For me that's a very neat feature which can be propagated to other variables.
Example:
typeset -T LD_LIBRARY_PATH ld_library_path :
Here, add this line to .zshrc:
export PATH=/home/david/pear/bin:$PATH
EDIT: This does work, but ony's answer above is better, as it takes advantage of the structured interface ZSH provides for variables like $PATH. This approach is standard for bash, but as far as I know, there is no reason to use it when ZSH provides better alternatives.
You can append to your PATH in a minimal fashion. No need for
parentheses unless you're appending more than one element. It also
usually doesn't need quotes. So the simple, short way to append is:
path+=/some/new/bin/dir
This lower-case syntax is using path as an array, yet also
affects its upper-case partner equivalent, PATH (to which it is
"bound" via typeset).
(Notice that no : is needed/wanted as a separator.)
Common interactive usage
Then the common pattern for testing a new script/executable becomes:
path+=$PWD/.
# or
path+=$PWD/bin
Common config usage
You can sprinkle path settings around your .zshrc (as above) and it will naturally lead to the earlier listed settings taking precedence (though you may occasionally still want to use the "prepend" form path=(/some/new/bin/dir $path)).
Related tidbits
Treating path this way (as an array) also means: no need to do a
rehash to get the newly pathed commands to be found.
Also take a look at vared path as a dynamic way to edit path
(and other things).
You may only be interested in path for this question, but since
we're talking about exports and arrays, note that
arrays generally cannot be exported.
You can even prevent PATH from taking on duplicate entries
(refer to
this
and this):
typeset -U path
PATH pre-populated
The reason your path already has some entries in it is due to your system shell files setting path for you. This is covered in a couple other posts:
Why and where the $PATH env variable is set?
Where is the source of $PATH? I cannot find it in .zshrc
one liner, without opening ~/.zshrc file
echo -n 'export PATH=~/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
or
echo -n 'export PATH=$HOME/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.zshrc
To see the effect, do source ~/.zshrc in the same tab or open a new tab
Added path to ~/.zshrc
sudo vi ~/.zshrc
add new path
export PATH="$PATH:[NEW_DIRECTORY]/bin"
Update ~/.zshrc
Save ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
Check PATH
echo $PATH
OPTION 1: Add this line to ~/.zshrc:
export "PATH=$HOME/pear/bin:$PATH"
After that you need to run source ~/.zshrc in order your changes to take affect OR close this window and open a new one
OPTION 2: execute it inside the terminal console to add this path only to the current terminal window session. When you close the window/session, it will be lost.
If you are on macOS (I'm on Monterey 12.3.1), you may have been pulling your hair like I did metaphorically. These instructions above all worked for me within the terminal session, but I could never get it to persist no matter what I did with export. Moreover, I couldn't find the .zshrc anywhere.
Turns out Apple does it differently. The file you need to edit is etc/paths. You can simply sudo nano /etc/paths and add your path in a new line. Then simply restart terminal and voila.
for me PATH=$PATH:/path/to/file/bin
then export PATH worked.
to check echo $PATH . other solutions are adding the path temporarily.
I'm on Monterey 12.4 and the only way I could change the path was using the helper function. Editing text files in nano did diddly squat
# append
path+=('/foo/bar/yourpath')
# export to sub-processes
export PATH
to verify your new directory has been added correctly, you can use
print -l $path
thanks to the fact that its type is known to be an array

Vim: `cd` to path stored in variable

I'm pretty new to vim, and I'm having a hard time understanding some subtleties with vim scripting. Specifically, I'm having trouble working with commands that expect an unquoted-string (is there a name for this?). For example
cd some/unquoted/string/path
The problem is that I'd like to pass a variable, but calling
let pathname = 'some/path'
cd pathname
will try to change the current directory to 'pathname' instead of 'some/path'. One way around this is to use
let cmd = 'cd ' . pathname
execute cmd
but this seems a bit roundabout. This StackOverflow question actually uses cd with a variable, but it doesn't work on my system ("a:path" is treated as the path as described above).
I'm using cd as a specific example, but this behavior isn't unique to cd; for example, the edit command also behaves this way. (Is there a name for this type of command?)
TL;DR: use execute 'cd' fnameescape(pathname)
Explanation: Lots of basic commands that take filenames as an argument support backtick syntax:
command `shell command`
or
command `=vim_expression`
so your example may be written as
cd `=pathname`
if you are running this in a controlled environment. You must not use this variant in plugins because a) there is &wildignore setting that may step in your way: set wildignore=*|cd =pathname will make cd fail regardless of what is stored in the pathname and b) if pathname contains newlines it will be split into two or more directories. Thus what you should use for any piece of code you intend to share is
execute 'cd' fnameescape(pathname)
Note that you must not use execute "cd" pathname because it does not care about special characters in pathname (for example, space).
The basic commands in Vim never do any processing of variables (how would it know that you didn't mean to change to the pathname directory instead of the some/path one?). You don't have to be quite as roundabout as you suggested, you can just do:
exe 'cd' pathname
Note that exe concatenates arguments with a space automatically, so you don't have to do:
exe 'cd ' . pathname
A lot time ago I wrote this plugin (function FixPathName() in order to solve this kind of issues. Now vim has some new functions like shellescape() when the path need to be used with external commands.

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