extraterm.exe exits with "TypeError: Cannot read property 'cygwinDir' of null" about extraterm HOT 14 CLOSED

It is having trouble finding your cygwin installation directory. It looks in the windows registry at
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Cygwin\setup\rootdir to see if the installer recorded the dir there. If that fails it also looks for cygwin in the default Babun install location ($user_home/.babun/cygwin or something).

I'm cooking up some code now so that people can explicitly say as a command option where cygwin is located. It shouldn't take long.

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2016-03-17 20:43:56.415 DEBUG [main #0] Found cygwin installation: C:\cygwin64

Is this lying?

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@Freaky Is there or was there ever, a cygwin installation in C:\cygwin64? It sounds reasonable. That is the default installation directory if you use the installer.

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There is.

To be clear, here's the full backtrace:

TypeError: Cannot read property 'cygwinDir' of null
at Object.factory (C:\extraterm-0.5.0-win32-x64\resources\app\src\ptyproxy.js:106:52)
at main (C:\extraterm-0.5.0-win32-x64\resources\app\src\main.js:49:40)
at Object.<anonymous> (C:\extraterm-0.5.0-win32-x64\resources\app\src\main.js:584:1)
at Module._compile (module.js:425:26)
at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:432:10)
at Module.load (module.js:356:32)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:313:12)
at Module.require (module.js:366:17)
at require (module.js:385:17)
at Object.<anonymous> (C:\extraterm-0.5.0-win32-x64\resources\app\main.js:8:1)

This hack in ptyproxy.js lets the app launch, albeit I don't actually get a shell, just a "Welcome to Extraterm!":

var sessionProfile = config.expandedProfiles[0];
var pythonExe = findCygwinPython("c:\\cygwin64");

My lack of config would explain why sessionProfile would be null.

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OK, it just looks like it can't find cygwin.

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So why does it say "Found cygwin installation"?

Lack of shell is tracked down to the dummy passwd file I made because for some reason cygwin setup didn't make one.

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Yup, that's it - duff passwd file causes sessionProfile to be null. Fixing that lets me roll back my hack.

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And this would explain why it's missing and how to generate them if needed: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28573763/i-am-unable-to-find-the-etc-passwd-file-in-cygwin

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I wonder if it is worth the effort to check for a nonsense value from /etc/passwd and then default to /bin/bash.

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To be clear, the initial error was there being no /etc/passwd, because cygwin doesn't create one any more.

You should really be using getpwent(3) and friends rather than poking at it directly.

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extraterm also finds my cygwin directory.

2016-03-17 16:46:41.589 DEBUG [main #0] Found cygwin installation: C:\cygwin64

My issue may be related to you parsing the passwd file. I changed my home directory path in the passwd file to point outside of the C:\cygwin64 directory.

UCA:unused:1000:513:U-9J88PS1\UCA,S-1-5-21-1060225852-1179717075-1491434510-1000:/cygdrive/k/home:/bin/bash

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Cygwin doesn't create a /etc/passwd anymore?? I guess that is possible.

I would use getpwent() if I had it but Electron (and Extraterm) are not cygwin applications on Windows so they don't have direct access to cygwin's compatibility layer. It doesn't even have direct access to a PTY. This is why is uses Python in cygwin to act as a proxy. This python is inside the cygwin world and bridges the two.

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I've spun this missing /etc/passwd problem into its own issue #9 .

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I think I've covered the problems discussed in this thread in other issues. v0.6.0 will have these cygwin related fixes.

closing.

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