Windows Guide¶
Installation¶
The easy way¶
The easiest way to install xonsh on windows is through the Anaconda Python Distribution and the conda package manager.
Note
Be sure to install the version with Python3.4 or later. Xonsh is not yet supported on legacy Python (2.7).
Install xonsh with the following command:
> conda config --add channels conda-forge
> conda install xonsh
Note
For the bleeding edge development version use conda install -c xonsh/channel/dev xonsh
This will install xonsh and all the recommended dependencies. Next, run xonsh:
> xonsh
snail@home ~ $
Install from source¶
To install xonsh from source on Windows, first install Python v3.4+ from http://python.org. Remember to select “Add python to PATH” during installation.
Next, install the prompt_toolkit dependency via pip
:
> pip install prompt-toolkit
While prompt-toolkit is considered an optional dependency, it is the recommended alternative to pyreadline for Windows users. For Windows, it is recommended to use a replacement console emulator. Good choices are cmder or conemu.
Download the latest xonsh-master.zip from github and unzip it
to xonsh-master
.
Now install xonsh:
> cd xonsh-master
> python setup.py install
Next, run xonsh:
> xonsh
snail@home ~ $
Usage¶
Color style¶
The dark red and blue colors are complete unreadable in Windows’ default
terminal. To give new users the best experience Xonsh automatically
replaces some of the dark colors with more readable alternatives (e.g. blue
becomes cyan). The behaviour is controlled with the $INTENSIFY_COLORS_ON_WIN
environment variable.
It is possible to configure the Windows console with readable default colors. This following console_colors.reg registry file will configure the colors to more reable defaults.
With better colors configured, $INTENSIFY_COLORS_ON_WIN
can be disabled and
the prompt can be changed to match how it looks on posix and mac. Add the
follwing to the xonsh run control file .xonshrc
:
>>> $INTENSIFY_COLORS_ON_WIN = False
>>> $PROMPT = $PROMPT.replace('INTENSE_','').replace('CYAN','BLUE')
Name space conflicts¶
Due to ambiguity with the Python dir
builtin, to list the current
directory via the cmd.exe
builtin you must explicitly request
the .
, like this:
>>> dir .
Volume in drive C is Windows
Volume Serial Number is 30E8-8B86
Directory of C:\Users\snail\xonsh
2015-05-12 03:04 <DIR> .
2015-05-12 03:04 <DIR> ..
2015-05-01 01:31 <DIR> xonsh
0 File(s) 0 bytes
3 Dir(s) 11,008,000,000 bytes free
Many people create a d
alias for the dir
command to save
typing and avoid the ambiguity altogether:
>>> aliases['d'] = ['cmd', '/c', 'dir']
You can add aliases to your ~/.xonshrc
to have it always
available when xonsh starts.
Unicode support for Windows¶
Python’s utf-8 unicode is not compatible with the default shell ‘cmd.exe’ on Windows. The package win_unicode_console
fixes this. Xonsh will use win_unicode_console
if it is installed. This can be disabled/enabled with the $WIN_UNICODE_CONSOLE`
environment variable.
Note
Even with unicode support enabled the symbols available will depend on the font used in cmd.exe.
The packages win_unicode_console
can be installed using pip or conda.
> pip install win_unicode_console
> conda install --channel xonsh win_unicode_console