how can I use unix commands using the tcsh that is shipped with houdini?

I was about to download cygwin….but I found a post somewhere saying there is a shell that is shipped with houdini….

how is this accessed in the textport?

thanks in advance for anyhelp!

By “textport”, I assume you mean the Command Line Tools. The easiest way is along the lines of:
- Install cygwin
- Add cygwin to your PATH environment variable
- Start Command Line Tools
- run: csh -l

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by command line tools…when I said textport I meant the textport pane that is within houdini…

but how can I find the command line tools….?

and how would I add cygwin to my PATH environment variable permanently after I install it?

thanks edward!

Sorry, by “Command Line Tools”, I meant the menu item by that name from the Start menu (ie. Start > All Programs > Side Effects Software > etc…).

From the Houdini textport, you can use the “unix” command (see online help). It basically spawns a csh instance to execute the command.

As for the PATH environment variable. Right-click on My Computer, choose Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables.

thanks! currently downloading cygwin…hopefully everything runs smooth….

Er, what are you trying to do exactly? I mean, why do you want to run the unix tools?

I just starting using unix on mac os and found it very useful…

I think there is a lot of cool tricks you could come up with like automating the setting up of creating folders to render to…or creating textfiles from information that is being passed back and forth…

so I just finished up the install… went into the properties and the environment variables..

in the user variables I created new…

then set variable to PATH
then set value to C:\cygwin

is this correct?

the cygwin folder is in the root of C:

I think you need to set it c:\cygwin\bin

works like a charm!

just wondering…I've gotten everything to work…but one small issue…

if I make or remove directories it works fine…

but lets say I do a simple command like unix ls

nothing prints in the textport…no list or anything….

-it does work when using command line tools…but not the textport

in order for ls to work, you'll need an ls alias pointing to the opls command (or you could just use opls)..

that alias should be already set up in new houdini launches (see 123.cmd).. but to check, go to settings->aliases and variables (Alt-A)..


edit: i just noticed you said nothing prints at all, which is odd.. if it doesn't recognize a command, you should atleast be getting a ‘unknown command’ return.. don't know what to say there..

my variables do have the ls and opls alias set….

i am not trying to print out operators though…not sure if I'm being 100% clear

I am trying to print a list of directories of folders on my hardrive in the unix working directory… which you can find ou the location by typing “upwd”

so I am then navigating using “ucd”…so I am not navigating in houdini…but on the computer…

I am using “unix ls” to print out a list of directories in the current working unix directory….

hopefully this clears things up…

still no output…

Try:
echo `system(“ls”)`

thanks edward….

wierd that it worked without using the unix command first…

I guess the system automatically is refering to unix