Re: Cygwin bash

["Mark J. Reed" <markjreed at gmail dot com>]

>From John Emmas:

> When I double click the 'Cygwin' icon on my Windows desktop, a DOS-like
> window opens which I'm led to believe is Cygwin's bash terminal.  However,
> with every version of Linux that I've used, the bash terminal had menus
> allowing me to do certain things like (for example) copying & pasting text.
> Cygwin's terminal window is more like a DOS one with no menus and very
> limited copy & paste features.  Is that correct or has something gone wrong
> with my installation?

The window (a.k.a. "terminal emulator") that you run bash in is wholly
independent of bash itself.   This is as true on Linux as it is on
Windows, and any given Linux distribution will have more than one
terminal program you can use (xterm, gnome-terminal, kterm, ...).
Things are more integrated in Windows but there are still some nice
replacements for that window that will work with the regular old
Windows command shell.

While you can copy and paste with the standard "DOS box" window, it is
not easy, and copying is especially laborious.  It requires an extra
step (you have to go into "mark mode" via Edit->Mark before you can
select anything); you have to select a rectangular area; and the
copied text includes newlines at the line breaks even if the original
text was simply wrapped.  It is, however, better than nothing, and a
good thing to know how to do in case you get stuck some time needing
the capability.

Oh, and the easiest way to get to the Edit menu is to right-click on
the window's title bar - no need to mouse all the way over to the icon
in the corner.

But I definitely recommend using rxvt instead.

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