Command parameters manipulation

[jonathanpoulin]

Hi,

I would like to facilitate the use of TortoiseGit when I am using Total Commander.

Here is the use case. After a directories/files selection, I want to avoid to have to do a right-click on the panel, go to the TortoiseGit contextual menu and click on its right submenu (like 'Diff' or 'Show log'). I can use the keyboard as well, by doing Shift + F10 and navigating the contextual menu using the underlined letters and/or the arrow keys by example. But it would be quicker and easier to skip the contextual menu step. By example, if I want to commit modified file on 2 directories, I would select both of them with the Insert key then do a command to open directly the TortoiseGit' Commit dialog.

I know how to add a button in the button bar to call a program, in that case TortoiseGitProc.exe. I have to pass parameters to it. I know that there is special parameters like %P, %S, etc. The problem is that I don't know if there is a "built-in" way to get the selected directories/files with the following format (i.e. separated by asterisk). I don't want to have to call a .bat file for it.

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c:\path\to\my\dir1*c:\path\to\my\dir2

That's a requirement for the /path parameter of TortoiseGitProc.exe.

Since some of the commands can take a list of target paths (e.g. committing several specific files) the /path parameter can take several paths, separated by a * character.

https://tortoisegit.org/docs/tortoisegit/tgit-automation.html#tgit-automation-basics

Thank you
Jonathan

[ghisler(Author)]

No, unfortunately %P%S separates multiple files by spaces. Maybe write a small EXE which converts the command line?

[gdpr deleted 6]

Don't be afraid of scripting. Batch files are not the only "Windows-built-in" way to script tasks. Powershell to the rescue...

Define a toolbar button with the following command and parameter.

Command:

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powershell.exe -Command "&{$a=(((Get-Content $args[0]) -replace '[\\/]$') -join '*');Write-Host $a;Read-Host}"

Parameter:

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%UL

The command above is an example that shows you the result in a cmd window.
To make it usable, replace this part of the command:

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Write-Host $a;Read-Host

with whatever program you want to invoke. Keep the following in mind, because we are talking here about a Powershell scrip inlined in the command line:
- If the path of the executable and/or arguments need to be quoted, use single quotes (NOT double-quotes as you would normally do).
- The path of the executable needs to be prefixed by a & (ampersand) character. & is the "call" operator in Powershell. If the executable path is quoted, place the & in front outside the leading quote.
- $a is the variable in my script containing the selected file/dir paths with asterisks; use it as argument for the program you want to call where appropriate.

[jonathanpoulin]

Thanks elgonzo for that PowerShell script! That's really nice!

In my case, for TortoiseGitProc.exe program, the parameter /path:"some\path" needs double quotes to work, based on my tests. With single quotes, it won't work. So I end up with the following command, in the case of a TortoiseGit Commit based on the TC selection.

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powershell.exe -WindowStyle Hidden -Command "&{$path=[string]::Format('\"{0}\"', (((Get-Content $args[0]) -replace '[\\/]$') -join '*'));&'C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitProc.exe' /command:commit /path:$path}"

I don't know if there is a cleaner way to do this. If you know, please share.

Other than that, as you see, I tried to hide the PowerShell console that pops each time I invoke the TC command. It does not work with the -WindowStyle Hidden PowerShell' parameter, it still visible ~1s. I know however that I can use the "Run minimized" button option on the TC button bar. But this is not perfect since I can see the PowerShell taskbar button appearing...

[jonathanpoulin]

Just a quick follow-up here. With the command as I shared on my previous post, I found that it is not working when I have no selection and the cursor is on the parent dir [..].

Any way to fix that?

[sqa_wizard]

What should be achieved: Commit ".." ?

[jonathanpoulin]

What should be achieved: Commit ".." ?

Yes, my point was not really logic here. I think that I need to manage it by myself in the PowerShell script. If the parameter returned by TC is empty, I have to pass parameter /path:. (with a dot which mean current directory) to TortoiseGitProc.exe.

[jonathanpoulin]

No, unfortunately %P%S separates multiple files by spaces. Maybe write a small EXE which converts the command line?

Hi Christian! I happy to see that the author of Total Commander himself is answering to my questioning!

So for that case, as you have seen, I am using PowerShell to parse the parameter returned by TC. But I think this is something to consider to add more parameters for different scenarios like it. What do you think? Am I worng here? I think it would be nice to have one that fit my use case as-is. TortoiseGit is really popular.

Thank you for the great tool!
Jonathan

[jonathanpoulin]

Hello again !

Here is below my latest version. Like that, if I have no selection and the cursor is on the parent dir [..], it's like if I had selected everything (i.e. will let me commit all files including those in subdirs). For that I pass the cur dir (using the dot, ".") if there's no selection.

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powershell.exe -Command "& { $path = '.'; if ($args[0]) { $path = '\"{0}\"' -f (((Get-Content $args[0]) -replace '[\\/]$') -join '*') }; & 'C:\Program Files\TortoiseGit\bin\TortoiseGitProc.exe' /command:commit /path:$path }"

But now I would like to ask you if there is an even better way to manage it. I saw that using %UL parameter will copy selection (actually copying files) to the temp dir each time. This is why I got a little delay using that method compared to the "traditional way" using the TortoiseGit right-click contextual-menu.

One more thing. There's some sort of side-effect. I am losing my selection after I close the Commit dialog. This can be annoying if I finally cancel my commit for some reason. I may want to keep the selection. Do you know why this is happening?

I will soon add a bunch of other TC commands that call the TortoiseGit commands. I think this will be really cool! Right now I have assigned the hotkey Shift + C for committing files! I have also added a TortoiseGit menu to the main menu containing the commands!

Thank you

EDIT: I double-checked and in fact TC is not copying files. I was totally wrong. So the slight delay I have is the call to PowerShell, and this is okay finally. Almost as fast as using the context-menu.

[gdpr deleted 6]

Yes, my point was not really logic here. I think that I need to manage it by myself in the PowerShell script. If the parameter returned by TC is empty, I
have to pass parameter /path:. (with a dot which mean current directory) to TortoiseGitProc.exe.

You should be able to do this with another replacement, which can follow the first replacement operator, like:

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-replace '[\\/]$' -replace '^\.\.$', '.'

Please note that i haven't tried and verified this within a script inlined on the commandline. I still hope it works

[jonathanpoulin]

You should be able to do this with another replacement, which can follow the first replacement operator, like:

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-replace '[\\/]$' -replace '^\.\.$', '.'

No, I tried it and it does not work in my case. But a big thanks for all your help. In fact I think the problem is that in this case parameter %UL point to the temp file which is empty. My solution I posted earlier the other day is working.