Re: [Mingw-users] How do I change username and/or home directory?

[Keith M. <kei...@to...>]

Walter Belhaven wrote:
> Is there a way to change my username and/or home directory in
> MinGW?  I searched the archives but didn't see the answer.
>
> I do see how to do it in cygwin, but I don't see the equivalent
> of /etc/passwd in MinGW.  I do see C:/msys/1.0/etc/profile which
> contains these fateful lines:
>
>  # Set up USER's home directory
>  if [ -z "$HOME" ]; then
>    HOME="/home/$LOGNAME"
>  fi

So if you define HOME before MSYS starts, say by adding a user
environment variable via Windoze Control Panel, then the value you
define there will persist -- this code only sets HOME if it hasn't
been previously defined.

> Can I just edit this to say something like "HOME="/home/foo"
> without breaking everything?

We don't recommend customising /etc/profile, simply because if you
subsequently upgrade your MSYS installation, then your customised
settings will be overridden.  User customisations are best defined
in $HOME/.profile, which isn't overwritten during an upgrade, but
of course, HOME needs to be defined *before* $HOME/.profile can
be invoked.

> I'm the only user on this system, so I don't care if this "breaks"
> for someone else.  I do care if it breaks for me though. :)  I'd
> rather not change my Windows username if at all possible.

Neither changing the definition of HOME, nor even of LOGNAME, should
break anything.  Be aware though, that your Windoze user name will
persist in the text returned by the `id' command, and in any commits
you make to a local CVS -- I wish I knew how to change that, without
resorting to Cygwin for *my* local CVS commits.

Regards,
Keith.