[Mingw-users] rxvt, %HOME%, and .Xdefaults

[Daniel R. <da...@pc...>]

> Dan Raymond wrote:
> > I was trying to configure my terminal settings (bg/fg color, window
> > size) in my ~/.Xdefaults file but it wasn't working.  I poked around a
> > little bit and concluded that the problem was that rxvt didn't know
> > where my home directory was when it was invoked in msys.bat.  I inserted
> > a "set HOME=c:\path\to\home" and it started working.  But then I saw the
> > following comment in the changelog:
> >
> > rem 2002.05.04  Earnie Boyd  mailto:ea...@us...
> > rem * Remove the SET of USERNAME and HOME.
> >
> > It looks like it may have worked correctly before you made this change.
> > What was the purpose of the change?
>
> I'm thinking it was user request.  It's probably in the archives of
> mingw-msys or mingw-users.  I think it had to do with HOME being already
> set or some such thing.
>
> Earnie

I couldn't find anything in the archives regarding the removal of these 
variables from MSYS.BAT.  Then again, it's ridiculously difficult to search the 
archives.  What I did find was a conversation in July/2003 regarding rxvt and 
the window geometry settings.  It looks like someone else ran into the same 
problem I had and came to the same conclusions.  Maybe it makes sense to put 
those variable definitions back into MSYS.BAT and save future msys users from 
perpetually debugging this problem.