Q:

Running a batch file in git shell

Under Windows 7 I have a batch file for checking the status of some repos and outputting the returns to a file (with standard powershell issued git commands).
This works fine when launched from git shell, my question is how can I do this without launching git shell first?
So I want to be able to enter in a standard prompt or in a runnable batch file a command / commands which will launch a given batch file in git shell.

A:

If you consider what git-cmd.bat does, all you need to do is to set the right variable %PATH% before your git commands in your script:
If you don't, here is what you would see:
C:\Users\VonC>git --version
'git' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I have uncompressed the latest portable version of msysgit.
Put anywhere a test.bat script (so no powershell involved there) with the following content:
@setlocal

@set git_install_root="C:\Users\VonC\prg\PortableGit-1.7.11-preview20120620"
@set PATH=%git_install_root%\bin;%git_install_root%\mingw\bin;%git_install_root%\cmd;%PATH%

@if not exist "%HOME%" @set HOME=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
@if not exist "%HOME%" @set HOME=%USERPROFILE%

@set PLINK_PROTOCOL=ssh

REM here is the specific git commands of your script

git --version
echo %HOME%
git config --global --list

Make sure HOME is correctly set, because Git will look for your global git config there.
The result will give you:
C:\Users\VonC>cd prog\git

C:\Users\VonC\prog\git>s.bat

C:\Users\VonC\prog\git>git --version
git version 1.7.11.msysgit.0

C:\Users\VonC\prog\git>echo C:\Users\VonC
C:\Users\VonC

C:\Users\VonC\prog\git>git config --global --list
user.name=VonC

Note: that same script would work perfectly from a powershell session.

