How to start IE with a URL in a CYGWIN session.

Question

I have a windows xp machine set up with Cygwin running the ssh service, on that machine I have a bat script that opens up IE using the following command "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe" "http://windowsxpbox:3000/flex/flexUnitTests?debug=true#automated=true".

The script runs fine when I'm calling it locally on that xp machine, I am trying to call that same bat script remotely from another machine and achieve the same result but with IE opened on the remote machine, my problem is when the bat script is called remotely nothing happens on the remote machine.

Answer 1

aren't cygwin paths like /drive/c/....?

Answer 2

Cygwin's shell doesn't know how to execute a batch script. Use cygwin to start cmd.exe, and let that run the batch file. E.G.

/cygdrive/c/Windows/System32/cmd.exe /c "c:\myscript.bat"

Edit: if you'd rather run explorer directly rather than relying on a batch file, the following works properly for me:

$ "/cygdrive/c/Program Files/Internet Explorer/iexplore.exe" "http://windowsxpbox:3000/flex/flexUnitTests?debug=true#automated=true"

Answer 3

Just:

cygstart "http://www.google.com"

where google.com is your desired URL.

cygstart launches the default windows program for a path. So this way you get the user’s preferred web browser...