I enjoy using the bash command prompt that comes with msysgit. Every once in a while I find myself having to launch the Visual Studio 2008 Command Prompt – usually to initiate a build without having to open a solution up in Visual Studio.  This is annoying when I already have a bash window open in the desired folder.  In the spirit of automating things I do often, I’ve written a batch file that calls out to Visual Studio’s command-line environment setup script before launching git bash.  This ensures the correct PATH is set along with other required environment variables.  Here’s how I’ve set things up:

  1. Create the wrapper batch file

    Save the following script as git_bash_vs.bat.  Remember to modify the Visual Studio and msysgit paths in the script.
    2. @set myVsDir="e:\development\vs2008\VC\"
@pushd %myVsDir%
@call %myVsDir%\vcvarsall.bat x86
@popd
@"E:\development\git\bin\sh.exe" --login -i
  2. Modify the Git Bash start menu shortcut

    Edit the Git Bash shortcut by right clicking on it and selecting Properties.  Now, update the Target to point at your git_bash_vs.bat script, and set the Start In directory to be wherever you wish. (I usually set this to my project directory where all of my source code is stored.)

    git_bash_shortcut

If you also happen to have External Tool entries in Visual Studio that launch git bash, don’t forget to update them too!

Print | posted on Tuesday, January 04, 2011 12:16 AM