Change the location of the ~ directory in a Windows install of Git Bash
I am not even sure I am asking the right question. Let me explain my situation:
This is about Git on Windows 7.
My company sets up the Windows user directory on a network drive, not on the local hard drive (for backup and other purposes beyond the scope of this question). I cannot change that policy.
I CAN have local files outside of that scheme however and that is how my Apache server is set up. Entirely local.
I installed Git. It installs Bash. When I fire up Bash and cd ~ (change to the root directory) I find that it (the Bash root) points to my network user directory. I want it not to do that. I want ~ to be elsewhere on my hard drive. I want it so that when I perform other operations such as installing a certificate, an SSH key, etc. its defaults will not automatically use that network directory.
I have searched in vain everywhere, and all I can find refers to answers that involve aliases, redirection, and the location $HOME points to. But that is not what I want at all.
The question is: Can I change that directory? And if so: How?
UPDATE: So, $HOME is what I need to modify. However I have been unable to find where this mythical $HOME variable is set so I assumed it was a Linux system version of PATH or something. Anyway...
I do have a "profile" file under git/etc. Here are the contents (notice no $HOME):
# To the extent possible under law, the author(s) have dedicated all
# copyright and related and neighboring rights to this software to the
# public domain worldwide. This software is distributed without any warranty.
# You should have received a copy of the CC0 Public Domain Dedication along
# with this software.
# If not, see <http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/>.
# System-wide profile file
# Some resources...
# Customizing Your Shell: http://www.dsl.org/cookbook/cookbook_5.html#SEC69
# Consistent BackSpace and Delete Configuration:
# http://www.ibb.net/~anne/keyboard.html
# The Linux Documentation Project: http://www.tldp.org/
# The Linux Cookbook: http://www.tldp.org/LDP/linuxcookbook/html/
# Greg's Wiki http://mywiki.wooledge.org/
# Setup some default paths. Note that this order will allow user installed
# software to override 'system' software.
# Modifying these default path settings can be done in different ways.
# To learn more about startup files, refer to your shell's man page.
MSYS2_PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
MANPATH="/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/man:/share/man:${MANPATH}"
INFOPATH="/usr/local/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/info:/share/info:${INFOPATH}"
MINGW_MOUNT_POINT=
if [ -n "$MSYSTEM" ]
then
case "$MSYSTEM" in
MINGW32)
MINGW_MOUNT_POINT=/mingw32
PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/bin:${MSYS2_PATH}:${PATH}"
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/lib/pkgconfig:${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/pkgconfig"
ACLOCAL_PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/aclocal:/usr/share/aclocal"
MANPATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/man:${MANPATH}"
;;
MINGW64)
MINGW_MOUNT_POINT=/mingw64
PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/bin:${MSYS2_PATH}:${PATH}"
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/lib/pkgconfig:${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/pkgconfig"
ACLOCAL_PATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/aclocal:/usr/share/aclocal"
MANPATH="${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/share/man:${MANPATH}"
;;
MSYS)
PATH="${MSYS2_PATH}:/opt/bin:${PATH}"
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/usr/lib/pkgconfig:/usr/share/pkgconfig:/lib/pkgconfig"
;;
*)
PATH="${MSYS2_PATH}:${PATH}"
;;
esac
else
PATH="${MSYS2_PATH}:${PATH}"
fi
MAYBE_FIRST_START=false
SYSCONFDIR="${SYSCONFDIR:=/etc}"
# TMP and TEMP as defined in the Windows environment must be kept
# for windows apps, even if started from msys2. However, leaving
# them set to the default Windows temporary directory or unset
# can have unexpected consequences for msys2 apps, so we define
# our own to match GNU/Linux behaviour.
ORIGINAL_TMP=$TMP
ORIGINAL_TEMP=$TEMP
#unset TMP TEMP
#tmp=$(cygpath -w "$ORIGINAL_TMP" 2> /dev/null)
#temp=$(cygpath -w "$ORIGINAL_TEMP" 2> /dev/null)
#TMP="/tmp"
#TEMP="/tmp"
case "$TMP" in *\\*) TMP="$(cygpath -m "$TMP")";; esac
case "$TEMP" in *\\*) TEMP="$(cygpath -m "$TEMP")";; esac
test -d "$TMPDIR" || test ! -d "$TMP" || {
TMPDIR="$TMP"
export TMPDIR
}
# Define default printer
p='/proc/registry/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/Device'
if [ -e "${p}" ] ; then
read -r PRINTER < "${p}"
PRINTER=${PRINTER%%,*}
fi
unset p
print_flags ()
{
(( $1 & 0x0002 )) && echo -n "binary" || echo -n "text"
(( $1 & 0x0010 )) && echo -n ",exec"
(( $1 & 0x0040 )) && echo -n ",cygexec"
(( $1 & 0x0100 )) && echo -n ",notexec"
}
# Shell dependent settings
profile_d ()
{
local file=
for file in $(export LC_COLLATE=C; echo /etc/profile.d/*.$1); do
[ -e "${file}" ] && . "${file}"
done
if [ -n ${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT} ]; then
for file in $(export LC_COLLATE=C; echo ${MINGW_MOUNT_POINT}/etc/profile.d/*.$1); do
[ -e "${file}" ] && . "${file}"
done
fi
}
for postinst in $(export LC_COLLATE=C; echo /etc/post-install/*.post); do
[ -e "${postinst}" ] && . "${postinst}"
done
if [ ! "x${BASH_VERSION}" = "x" ]; then
HOSTNAME="$(/usr/bin/hostname)"
profile_d sh
[ -f "/etc/bash.bashrc" ] && . "/etc/bash.bashrc"
elif [ ! "x${KSH_VERSION}" = "x" ]; then
typeset -l HOSTNAME="$(/usr/bin/hostname)"
profile_d sh
PS1=$(print '\033]0;${PWD}\n\033[32m${USER}@${HOSTNAME} \033[33m${PWD/${HOME}/~}\033[0m\n$ ')
elif [ ! "x${ZSH_VERSION}" = "x" ]; then
HOSTNAME="$(/usr/bin/hostname)"
profile_d zsh
PS1='(%n@%m)[%h] %~ %% '
elif [ ! "x${POSH_VERSION}" = "x" ]; then
HOSTNAME="$(/usr/bin/hostname)"
PS1="$ "
else
HOSTNAME="$(/usr/bin/hostname)"
profile_d sh
PS1="$ "
fi
if [ -n "$ACLOCAL_PATH" ]
then
export ACLOCAL_PATH
fi
export PATH MANPATH INFOPATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH USER TMP TEMP PRINTER HOSTNAME PS1 SHELL tmp temp
test -n "$TERM" || export TERM=xterm-256color
if [ "$MAYBE_FIRST_START" = "true" ]; then
sh /usr/bin/regen-info.sh
if [ -f "/usr/bin/update-ca-trust" ]
then
sh /usr/bin/update-ca-trust
fi
clear
echo
echo
echo "###################################################################"
echo "# #"
echo "# #"
echo "# C A U T I O N #"
echo "# #"
echo "# This is first start of MSYS2. #"
echo "# You MUST restart shell to apply necessary actions. #"
echo "# #"
echo "# #"
echo "###################################################################"
echo
echo
fi
unset MAYBE_FIRST_START
Answer
I don't understand, why you don't want to set the $HOME environment variable since that solves exactly what you're asking for.
cd ~ doesn't mean change to the root directory, but change to the user's home directory, which is set by the $HOME environment variable.
Quick'n'dirty solution
Edit C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\etc\profile and set $HOME variable to whatever you want (add it if it's not there). A good place could be for example right after a condition commented by # Set up USER's home directory. It must be in the MinGW format, for example:
HOME=/c/my/custom/home
Save it, open Git Bash and execute cd ~. You should be in a directory /c/my/custom/home now.
Everything that accesses the user's profile should go into this directory instead of your Windows' profile on a network drive.
Note: C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\etc\profile is shared by all users, so if the machine is used by multiple users, it's a good idea to set the $HOME dynamically:
HOME=/c/Users/$USERNAME
Cleaner solution
Set the environment variable HOME in Windows to whatever directory you want. In this case, you have to set it in Windows path format (with backslashes, e.g. c:\my\custom\home), Git Bash will load it and convert it to its format.
If you want to change the home directory for all users on your machine, set it as a system environment variable, where you can use for example %USERNAME% variable so every user will have his own home directory, for example:
HOME=c:\custom\home\%USERNAME%
If you want to change the home directory just for yourself, set it as a user environment variable, so other users won't be affected. In this case, you can simply hard-code the whole path:
HOME=c:\my\custom\home