environment variables to be passed into WSL

[goreliu]

• A brief description

/init cmd /C set contains too few environment variables, some softwares run failed, like shutdown. In bash.exe, everything is OK.

$ /init shutdown
The system could not find the environment option that was entered.(203)

$ /init cmd /C 'set COMPUTERNAME=MY-PC & shutdown'
Usage: shutdown ...

And without TMP variable, some softwares run failed.

$ /init cmd /C set
COMSPEC=C:\WINDOWS\System32\cmd.exe
PATH=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WBEM;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINDOWSPOWERSHELL\V1.0;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32;C:\WINDOWS;%LOCALAPPDATA%\MICROSOFT\WINDOWSAPPS;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WBEM;C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\WINDOWSPOWERSHELL\V1.0;C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem;C:\WINDOWS\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0;C:\mine\app\0misc\bin;C:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
PATHEXT=.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.JS;.WS;.MSC
PROMPT=$P$G
SYSTEMDRIVE=C:
SYSTEMROOT=C:\WINDOWS
WINDIR=C:\WINDOWS

• Your Windows build number

14951.1000

• Steps / All commands required to reproduce the error from a brand new installation

/init shutdown

microsoft/WSL#1257

[mintty]

See my comment in the WSL issue. I suggest you reopen it.

[mintty]

So you are effectively asking to transfer all environment variables to WSL.
Have you tested whether that's not already the case, perhaps? What if you call wsl.bat after setting a variable?

[goreliu]

I will test it later.

[mintty]

@rprichard wslbridge does not seem to take over the environment to WSL. Could that be added?

[rprichard]

wslbridge has an -E option that transfers explicitly listed variables. (The syntax is either -E VAR to transfer VAR or -E VAR=VAL to set VAR to VAL.) It doesn't currently have a way to copy all the environment variables.

FWIW: When I last checked, Microsoft's bash.exe adapter didn't copy anything. If wslbridge did copy all the variables, I'd have a few questions about the behavior:

(1) Does wslbridge unset variables that weren't set on the Cygwin side?
(2) Maybe wslbridge would only set variables that weren't already set on the WSL side?
(3) Are certain variables blacklisted? (e.g. PATH, HOME, TMPDIR, others?)

[goreliu]

@rprichard There are two kinds of variables: WSL variables (wslbridge-backend need them, -E VAR) and Windows variables (bash.exe need them).

[goreliu]

@mintty

c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>bash
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$ /init cmd /C set | wc -l
39
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$

c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>wsl
c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>

In mintty ...

[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$ /init cmd /C set | wc -l
7
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$

c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>set foo=abc
c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>echo %foo%
abc
c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>bash
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$ /init cmd /C "echo %foo%"
abc
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$ exit
c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>wsl
c:\Users\goreliu\AppData\Local\wsltty>

In mintty ...

[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$ /init cmd /C "echo %foo%"
%foo%
[goreliu@my-pc wsltty]$

[rprichard]

Oh, I see. wslbridge probably just needs to call to cygwin_internal(CW_SYNC_WINENV), like winpty does.

[mintty]

Ah, yes, that sounds like a good idea.

[mintty]

Updated to wslbridge 0.2.1 with wsltty 0.7.0.