Terminal Setup in Windows 7.

Every developer will undoubtedly love the bash terminal of Linux and its flavors.Easy setup, autocomplete, out-of-the-box support for most day-to-day commands, console switching.
Unfortunately the Windows terminal and even the Powershell are impossible to work with on a daily basis.
This post will give a detailed analysis on how to setup your terminal for windows.
We will be using Console2 and Cygwin together to create the ultimate development environment.

Step 1: Install Cygwin

Go to https://cygwin.com/ and download the installation file depending upon your windows

Step 2: Install the following packages for it

You can initialize the setup again, Cygwin will again ask for the packages to install.
Here are the most-important packages

1. Admin: cygrunsrv
2. Doc: cygwin-doc
3. Doc: man
4. Editors: vim, nano
5. Interpreters: perl
6. Mail: fetchmail
7. Mail: mutt
8. Mail: procmail
9. Net: inetutils
10. Net: openssh
11. Net: openssl
12. Net: autossh
13. Net: rsync
14. Shells: bash
15. Shells: rxvt
16. Text: less
17. Utils: cygutils

Step 3: Install Console2

Download Console2 from http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/files/
Here is the link to the latest release http://sourceforge.net/projects/console/files/latest/download?source=files

Step 4: Change Default Settings of Console2

Right-click -> Edit -> Settings.
Mostly adapted from Scott’s.

1. Console:
   1. Shell: C:\cygwin64\Cygwin.bat
   2. Startup Directory: H:/ [your daily workspace]
2. Appearance:
   1. Font: Consolas
   2. Size: 15
   3. Color: Kermit Green
   4. Selection Color: White
   5. Window Transparency: Alpha, 40%
3. Behaviour:

   Tick every checkbox in Copy & Paste

4. Hotkeys:

   I love the default hotkeys in default cmd of ubuntu
   The most important Hotkeys

   New Tab: Ctrl+T

   New Tab 2: Ctrl+Shift+T

   Copy: Ctrl+Shift+C

   Paste: Ctrl+Shift+V

   Close Tab: Ctrl+Q

   Next Tab: Ctrl+Tab

   Previous Tab: Ctrl+Shift+Tab

5. Tabs:

   Add one more tab for Bash

   1. Title: Bash
   2. Icon: C:\cygwin64\Cygwin-Terminal.ico
   3. Shell: C:\cygwin64\Cygwin.bat

Done.You can now start using console2 like a pro.

Step 5: Install apt-cyg

Everyone developer loves the simplicity of apt-get install, you can have that finally for your windows laptop by using a package called as apt-cyg.
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/transcode-open/apt-cyg/master/apt-cyg
mv apt-cyg /bin/apt-cyg
chmod +x /bin/apt-cyg
apt-cyg install nano

Step 5: Extra: You can even add power-cmd

Under Tabs in Settings
+Add one more tab
Shell: %SystemRoot%\syswow64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
Icon: Download http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7f/Windows_PowerShell_icon.png and set path to it.

Step 6: Set up ssh

Right Click on Cygwin icon and select Run as Administrator
Enter the following command
ssh-user-config

1. Shall I create SSH1 RSA key: No
2. Shall I create SSH2 RSA key: Yes (more secure)
3. Enter passphrase (like a password):
4. Enter passphrase again

Done.

Step 7: For node-js Users, run dos2unix


apt-cyg install dos2unix
dos2unix /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files/nodejs/npm


References:

1. http://www.hanselman.com/blog/Console2ABetterWindowsCommandPrompt.aspx
2. http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BetterCygwinTerminal
3. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17825023/installing-additional-packages-for-cygwin
4. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/41560/how-to-get-ssh-command-line-access-to-windows-7-using-cygwin/
5. http://infrablue.tripod.com/cygwin.html
6. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21206812/how-add-commands-to-cygwin-npm