Fix for cygwin bash 'pipe' key

[Martin Slack]

From: mgs
To: bug-bash@gnu.org
Subject:
'Pipe' key does not work on Win98 machine with UK keyboard.
Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: i686
OS: cygwin
Compiler: i686-pc-cygwin-gcc
Compilation
CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash.exe' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='i686' -DCONF_OSTYPE='cygwin' -DCO
NF_MACHTYPE='i686-pc-cygwin' -DCONF_VENDOR='pc' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DRECYCL
ES_PIDS  -I.  -I../bash-2.05b -I../bash-2.05b/include -I../bash-2.05b/lib  -g -O
2
uname output: CYGWIN_98-4.10 VASSAL 1.3.12(0.54/3/2) 2002-07-06 02:16 i586
unknown
Machine Type: i686-pc-cygwin

Bash Version: 2.05b
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:
The problem is already known, see for instance near the end of the file:
/usr/doc/cygwin-doc-1.1/txt/readme.txt
where there is a section reading:

Aware of the problem, no solution known.
========================================

Pipe key (`|') doesn't work on non-US keyboards in Win9x/ME
-----------------------------------------------------------

   This might get fixed someday, but meanwhile, just use rxvt, which
does not have this problem.  This is no real loss, because rxvt has many
other advantages.  (Do not attempt to use the "broken" pipe key (`¦')
as a substitute, it is a different character.)

Repeat-By:
Just try the pipe key (shift-backslash) on a UK keyboard.
Fix:
Force the machine to use the hardware code page (437) instead of the default
multilingual code page (850).  Thus the line in config.sys which loads
display.sys should be:

device=c:\windows\command\display.sys con=(ega,437,1)

and the line:

mode con codepage sel=437

can either be included in autoexec.bat in place of the line which selects page
850 or in cygwin.bat before bash is called.  With the latter approach, a
corresponding line can be added at the end of this file to return to code page
850 when quitting cygwin, although I personally find that page 437 also mends
the action of the broken pipe symbol in other Win98 dos boxes.