"Open in Terminal" with git bash as default breaks tilde expansion

[MGraefe]

I am not really sure if this is a problem of the git bash or Windows Terminal, but here we go:

• I have the git bash loaded into windows terminal with this configuration:

  {
    "commandline": "\"C:/Program Files/Git/bin/bash.exe\" --login -i",
    "guid": "{2ece5bfe-50ed-5f3a-ab87-5cd4baafed2b}",
    "hidden": false,
    "name": "Git Bash",
    "source": "Git",
    "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%"
  },

  This profile is selected as my default, i.e. "defaultProfile": "{2ece5bfe-50ed-5f3a-ab87-5cd4baafed2b}", is set.

• When I launch Windows Terminal from the task-bar everything works fine, e.g. my default path is shown as ~ and things like cd ~ work as well. Everything behaves as expected.
• However when I launch Windows Terminal via right-click in explorer and "Open in Terminal", any tilde completion is broken. cd ~ produces the error bash: cd: /%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%: No such file or directory and I can't use ~ in any command really.
  • I believe this is a problem with the integration into Windows Terminal, as using Git bash here from the explorer context menu opens a shell in which cd ~ works without problems.

Versions:

• Windows Terminal 1.14.2281.0 on Windows 10.
• Git version 2.37.2 (the official release from git-scm.com)

[zadjii-msft]

Does opening Terminal from the explorer address bar repro the same behavior? (wt -d . to open up in the same CWD)

What do the environment variables look like when:

• Terminal is launched via the context menu into git bash
• Terminal is launched via the start menu / taskbar into git bash
• Terminal is launched via the context menu into CMD (i.e. change the default profile to command prompt)
• Terminal is launched via the start menu / taskbar into CMD

I know that's a lot, but I'm just looking for anything that's different here, maybe some smoking gun that some env var didn't propogate

[ghost]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has been marked as requiring author feedback but has not had any activity for 4 days. It will be closed if no further activity occurs within 3 days of this comment.

[MGraefe]

Hi, sorry for the delayed feedback.

• Putting wt -d . into the explorer address bar shows the correct behavior, tilde expansion works.

• Environment variables seem okay, even in the case where tilde expansion is not working:

  BOB@MYPC MINGW64 /c
  $ cd ~
  bash: cd: /c/%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%: No such file or directory
  
  BOB@MYPC MINGW64 /c
  $ echo $HOMEDRIVE $HOMEPATH
  C: \Users\Bob

I am not sure what other environment variables you're interested in. The problem seems to be that bash gets fed the unexpanded cmd-like %HOMEDRIVE% and %HOMEPATH% paths.

[zadjii-msft]

Alright shoot. I can't repro this on

GNU bash, version 4.4.20(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)

git version 2.33.0.vfs.0.0

I wonder if this is a recent regression in git bash. I honestly don't even know the right place to look there.

Like, why is ~ evaluating without expanding %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. That's weird, and that doesn't seem like something that the Terminal would affect.

Does wt -d c:\windows from the Run dialog (win+r) work as expected? I'm totally at a loss here, sorry 😕

[MGraefe]

Hi, thanks for caring.

I did printenv in both scenarios (broken and working tilde expansion) and diff'ed the result. Seems like a couple of environment variables are screwed up, e.g:

-ORIGINAL_PATH=/mingw64/bin:/usr/bin:%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%/bin:(other entries)
+ORIGINAL_PATH=/mingw64/bin:/usr/bin:/c/Users/Bob/bin:/c/Program Files/WindowsApps/Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_1.14.2281.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe:(other entries)

and probably most important

-HOME=/c/%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
+HOME=/c/Users/Bob

also the PATH contains a couple of %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% entries in places where HOME probably gets inserted.

I am not sure what's going on with the env vars when starting from the explorer right-click menu, but something is fairly broken.

[zadjii-msft]

Weird. That's a bit like #7204, but it's almost like HOMEDRIVE and HOMEPATH aren't getting passed s.t. mingw can evaluate them. I wonder if it is because the package dir is getting prepended to the path. I'll leave this open as something in the related web of env var issues. Thanks!

[MGraefe]

Ok, some new findings: I had the environment variable HOME defined as C:\Users\Bob in my normal Windows environment variables user settings. Simply removing that variable makes the tilde expansion for "Open in Terminal" work. I am not sure why I set this environment variable (or which program set it), it's not standard on Windows. Hard to tell when your full-time development machine is getting a bit older...

So most likely Git Bash (or its environment wrapper) has some problems assembling a unix-style HOME path if there's already a HOME environment variable.

However, I am still not sure who is at fault here since everything works fine when I start Windows Terminal regulary. What would be the differences between doing wt -d . in the explorer address bar and doing the right click thingy anyway?!