BUG: "git var GIT_SHELL_PATH" is broken on Windows

> Running "git var GIT_SHELL_PATH" on Windows prints "/bin/sh" which is not
> very helpful when the path to the shell is actually
> "C:\Users\gitlab_runner\scoop\apps\mingit-busybox\2.45.2\mingw64\bin\ash.exe"
> 
> Support for GIT_SHELL_PATH was added to "git var" in 1e65721227 (var: add
> support for listing the shell, 2023-06-27) with the aim of making it
> possible for external programs to learn the location of the shell used to
> run the command returned by "git var GIT_EDITOR". As the commit message
> notes this is especially helpful on Windows where the shell isn't
> necessarily in $PATH. Unfortunately the implementation simply prints
> SHELL_PATH which is unused on Windows. As 776297548e (Do not use SHELL_PATH
> from build system in prepare_shell_cmd on Windows, 2012-04-17) explains the
> location of the shell depends on git's installation prefix. For the
> git-for-windows builds it looks like the shell is always in
> "$GIT_EXEC_PATH/../../bin/" but I'm not sure if that is universally true.
> 
> It is possible to work around the bug by doing
> 
>     git -c 'alias.run-editor=!$(git var GIT_EDITOR)' run-editor
> 
> but it would be good to fix "git var GIT_SHELL_PATH" or at least document
> that it is broken on Windows

> On 2024-07-08 at 10:07:17, Phillip Wood wrote:
> > Running "git var GIT_SHELL_PATH" on Windows prints "/bin/sh" which is not
> > very helpful when the path to the shell is actually
> > "C:\Users\gitlab_runner\scoop\apps\mingit-busybox\2.45.2\mingw64\bin\ash.exe"
> >
> > Support for GIT_SHELL_PATH was added to "git var" in 1e65721227 (var: add
> > support for listing the shell, 2023-06-27) with the aim of making it
> > possible for external programs to learn the location of the shell used to
> > run the command returned by "git var GIT_EDITOR". As the commit message
> > notes this is especially helpful on Windows where the shell isn't
> > necessarily in $PATH. Unfortunately the implementation simply prints
> > SHELL_PATH which is unused on Windows. As 776297548e (Do not use SHELL_PATH
> > from build system in prepare_shell_cmd on Windows, 2012-04-17) explains the
> > location of the shell depends on git's installation prefix. For the
> > git-for-windows builds it looks like the shell is always in
> > "$GIT_EXEC_PATH/../../bin/" but I'm not sure if that is universally true.
> >
> > It is possible to work around the bug by doing
> >
> >     git -c 'alias.run-editor=!$(git var GIT_EDITOR)' run-editor
> >
> > but it would be good to fix "git var GIT_SHELL_PATH" or at least document
> > that it is broken on Windows
>
> Ugh.  This was indeed supposed to work, but I no longer have access to a
> Windows machine, so we'd need someone who does have one to write up a
> patch.