Launch-Software "Execute Linux Commands on Windows"
Directly execute Git Bash Commands from PowerShell
Introduction
Summary: This article introduces “Invoke-GitBash (Alias:
gitbash)”, a PowerShell script designed to directly execute Git Bash commands (such asdiff,sed,grep,awk,xxd,file) within PowerShell. This script caters to the need for easily utilizing Linux commands in a Windows environment.
Do you ever find yourself working in a Windows environment and wishing you had access to Linux commands? I certainly do. Linux commands like sed and grep are incredibly useful for text processing, diff is invaluable for comparing file differences, and awk is powerful for data manipulation. While these frequently used commands are simple and single-purpose, implementing them from scratch as PowerShell scripts can be surprisingly complex and time-consuming—if not impossible.
There are several ways to use Linux commands in a Windows environment. This time, I opted to use the Linux commands bundled with Git for Windows. My requirements were simple: first, to be able to execute Git Bash commands directly from PowerShell without shell switching; and second, to enable pipeline input/output so that PowerShell’s powerful features could be combined with Git Bash commands.
These motivations led me to create the PowerShell script, Invoke-GitBash. This script allows you to directly execute the Git Bash commands included with Git for Windows from within PowerShell. This means you can easily leverage powerful Linux commands like diff, grep, and sed even while working in a Windows environment.
Prerequisites
- ✓ Homemade script: pwsh-sketches installation
- ✓ Git for Windows installation
- ✓ Tested environment details here
Solving the Problem
1. Understanding the Problem
Let’s outline the common challenges when using Linux commands in a Windows environment.
Table: Frustrations/Problems with Linux Command Usage in Windows
| Category | Frustration/Problem | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Startup Overhead | Requires launching Git Bash separately. | I want to execute commands directly from PowerShell. |
| Command Path Management | You need to be aware of the executable paths for Git Bash commands. It’s hard to remember them. | Automate path resolution to enable simple command execution. |
| Shell Switching | Switching between PowerShell and Git Bash disrupts workflow and focus. | Enable command execution within a unified PowerShell environment. |
| Output Handling | It can be difficult to smoothly handle Git Bash command output in PowerShell. | I want to handle standard input/output with PowerShell pipelines. |
2. Devising a Plan
Here’s the implementation strategy for a PowerShell script that directly executes Git Bash commands from PowerShell.
| Challenge | Solution Plan |
|---|---|
| Rapid Startup | Create a PowerShell wrapper function to call Git Bash commands. |
| Path Abstraction | Automatically detect the Git for Windows installation path, or allow it to be specified in settings. |
| Seamless Integration | Pass arguments directly to Git Bash commands and return results to the PowerShell stream. |
| PowerShell Integration | Support input/output via pipelines. |
Note: This time, Git Bash command output will be treated as plain text rather than converted into PowerShell objects. (Implementing the conversion for all the numerous Git Bash commands is beyond my scope.)
3. Carrying Out the Plan
Installation
Install the PowerShell script “Invoke-GitBash
(Alias: gitbash)”.
- Install pwsh-sketches
- Dot-source the function:
. path/to/the/pwsh-sketches/operator-minimum.ps1- Configure PowerShell’s character encoding settings to UTF-8
. path/to/the/pwsh-sketches/src/Invoke-GitBash_function.ps1- Adding this line to your PowerShell profile (
$PROFILE) will automatically load the function when PowerShell starts, which is convenient.
- Verify operation:
- Run
man Invoke-GitBashorman gitbashto check if the help documentation appears.
- Run
Execution
Let’s try using “Invoke-GitBash
(Alias: gitbash)” in practice.
The basic usage is to follow Invoke-GitBash with the Git Bash command you want to execute (like a subcommand) and its arguments.
Example 1: Displaying a file list with the ls command
Invoke-GitBash ls -la
This yields the same result as running ls in Git Bash.
You can also use the alias, as shown below. I’ll use the alias for the rest of the examples.
gitbash ls -la
Example 2: Displaying file differences with the diff command
Create file1.txt and file2.txt.
file1.txt:
line 1
line 2
line 3
file2.txt:
line 1
line A
line 3
line 4
Display the differences with the following command:
gitbash diff file1.txt file2.txt
Output:
2c2
< line 2
---
> line A
3a4
> line 4
You can also specify arguments. For example, to display differences with the -u option, do the following:
gitbash diff file1.txt file2.txt -u
Output:
--- file1.txt 2025-06-16 05:49:10.790945100 +0900
+++ file2.txt 2025-06-16 05:49:19.351187500 +0900
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
line 1
-line 2
+line A
line 3
+line 4
However, be aware that Git Bash command arguments can sometimes conflict with PowerShell arguments.
gitbash diff file1.txt file2.txt -p
Invoke-GitBash: Parameter cannot be processed because the parameter name 'p' is ambiguous. Possible matches include: -ProgressAction -PipelineVariable.
In this case, you need to enclose the arguments in double quotes to avoid conflict with PowerShell arguments.
gitbash diff file1.txt file2.txt "-p"
Output:
*** file1.txt Mon Jun 16 05:49:10 2025
--- file2.txt Mon Jun 16 05:49:19 2025
***************
*** 1,3 ****
line 1
! line 2
line 3
--- 1,4 ----
line 1
! line A
line 3
+ line 4
Example 3: Searching for strings with the grep command
Create a file named a.txt with the following content:
a.txt:
apple
banana
cherry
apple pie
Search for lines containing apple:
gitbash grep apple a.txt
Output:
apple
apple pie
Example 4: Text replacement with the sed command
Replace “hello” with “world” in a.txt and display the result (note that the original file is not modified).
a.txt:
hello world
hello powershell
Execute the following command:
gitbash sed 's/hello/world/g' a.txt
Output:
world world
world powershell
You can also chain pipelines. The output is the same as above.
gitbash cat a.txt | gitbash sed 's;hello;world;'
The output of PowerShell commands can also be passed via a pipeline.
Get-Content a.txt | gitbash sed 's;hello;world;'
Example 5: Processing data with the awk command
Create a file named data.txt with the following content:
data.txt:
Name,Age,City
Alice,30,New York
Bob,24,London
Charlie,35,Paris
Let’s display only the second column (Age) separated by commas.
gitbash awk -F, '{print $2}' data.txt
Output:
ParserError:
Line |
1 | gitbash awk -F, '{print $2}' data.txt
| ~
| Missing argument in parameter list.
Oh, an error! The comma in the -F, argument conflicts with PowerShell’s array separator. To avoid this, you need to enclose the argument in quotes. This isn’t intuitive, but it’s a known behavior you just have to accept.
gitbash awk "-F," '{print $2}' data.txt
Output:
Age
30
24
35
Alternatively, you can convert the comma-separated data to space-separated data beforehand (for simple CSV data, at least). This way, it can be used much like the Linux awk command (apart from the slight inconvenience of typing gitbash every time).
Get-Content data.txt | gitbash sed 's;,; ;g' | gitbash awk '{print $2}'
Output:
Age
30
24
35
Example 6: Displaying a binary dump with the xxd command
Dump any binary file (e.g., image.jpg or test.bin).
gitbash xxd your_binary_file.bin | Select-Object -First 10
Select-Object -First 10 is a PowerShell command that displays only the first 10 lines to prevent excessive output.
Example 7: Identifying file types with the file command
gitbash file *.*
gitbash file your_document.pdf
gitbash file your_script.sh
By using Invoke-GitBash
(Alias: gitbash), you can seamlessly use the powerful GNU command set included with Git Bash directly from your PowerShell prompt. You can check the list of available commands by running gitbash alone or gitbash show. Here’s the output from my environment:
gitbash show
Output:
'[.exe' gpg-connect-agent.exe rview.exe
addgnupghome gpg-error.exe rvim.exe
applygnupgdefaults gpg-wks-client.exe scp.exe
arch.exe gpg-wks-server.exe sdiff.exe
astextplain gpg.exe sed.exe
awk.exe gpgconf.exe seq.exe
b2sum.exe gpgparsemail.exe setfacl.exe
backup gpgscm.exe setmetamode.exe
base32.exe gpgsm.exe sexp-conv.exe
base64.exe gpgsplit.exe sftp.exe
basename.exe gpgtar.exe sh.exe
basenc.exe gpgv.exe sha1sum.exe
bash.exe grep.exe sha224sum.exe
bashbug groups.exe sha256sum.exe
bunzip2.exe gunzip sha384sum.exe
bzcat.exe gzexe sha512sum.exe
bzcmp gzip.exe shred.exe
bzdiff head.exe shuf.exe
bzegrep hmac256.exe sleep.exe
bzfgrep hostid.exe sort.exe
bzgrep hostname.exe split.exe
bzip2.exe iconv.exe ssh-add.exe
bzip2recover.exe id.exe ssh-agent.exe
bzless infocmp.exe ssh-copy-id
c_rehash infotocap.exe ssh-keygen.exe
captoinfo.exe install.exe ssh-keyscan.exe
cat.exe join.exe ssh-pageant.exe
chattr.exe kbxutil.exe ssh.exe
chcon.exe kill.exe ssp.exe
chgrp.exe ldd.exe start
chmod.exe ldh.exe stat.exe
chown.exe less.exe stdbuf.exe
chroot.exe lessecho.exe strace.exe
cksum.exe lesskey.exe stty.exe
clear.exe link.exe sum.exe
cmp.exe ln.exe sync.exe
column.exe locale.exe tabs.exe
comm.exe locate.exe tac.exe
core_perl logname.exe tail.exe
cp.exe ls.exe tar.exe
csplit.exe lsattr.exe tee.exe
cut.exe mac2unix.exe test.exe
cygcheck.exe md5sum.exe tic.exe
cygpath.exe minidumper.exe tig.exe
cygwin-console-helper.exe mintheme timeout.exe
d2u.exe mintty.exe toe.exe
dash.exe mkdir.exe touch.exe
date.exe mkfifo.exe tput.exe
dd.exe mkgroup.exe tr.exe
df.exe mknod.exe true.exe
diff.exe mkpasswd.exe truncate.exe
diff3.exe mktemp.exe trust.exe
dir.exe mount.exe tset.exe
dircolors.exe mpicalc.exe tsort.exe
dirmngr-client.exe mv.exe tty.exe
dirmngr.exe nano.exe tzset.exe
dirname.exe nettle-hash.exe u2d.exe
docx2txt nettle-lfib-stream.exe umount.exe
docx2txt.pl nettle-pbkdf2.exe uname.exe
dos2unix.exe newgrp.exe uncompress
du.exe nice.exe unexpand.exe
dumpsexp.exe nl.exe uniq.exe
echo.exe nohup.exe unix2dos.exe
egrep notepad unix2mac.exe
env.exe nproc.exe unlink.exe
ex.exe numfmt.exe unzip.exe
expand.exe od.exe unzipsfx.exe
expr.exe openssl.exe update-ca-trust
factor.exe p11-kit.exe updatedb
false.exe passwd.exe users.exe
fgrep paste.exe vdir.exe
file.exe patch.exe vendor_perl
find.exe pathchk.exe vi
findssl.sh perl.exe view.exe
fmt.exe perl5.38.2.exe vim.exe
fold.exe pinentry-w32.exe vimdiff.exe
funzip.exe pinentry.exe vimtutor
gawk-5.0.0.exe pinky.exe watchgnupg.exe
gawk.exe pkcs1-conv.exe wc.exe
gencat.exe pldd.exe which.exe
getconf.exe pluginviewer.exe who.exe
getemojis pr.exe whoami.exe
getfacl.exe printenv.exe winpty-agent.exe
getflags printf.exe winpty-debugserver.exe
getopt.exe profiler.exe winpty.exe
git-flow ps.exe wordpad
git-flow-bugfix psl-make-dafsa xargs.exe
git-flow-config psl.exe xxd.exe
git-flow-feature ptx.exe yat2m.exe
git-flow-hotfix pwd.exe yes.exe
git-flow-init readlink.exe zcat
git-flow-log realpath.exe zcmp
git-flow-release rebase.exe zdiff
git-flow-support rebaseall zegrep
git-flow-version regtool.exe zfgrep
gitflow-common reset.exe zforce
gitflow-shFlags restore zgrep
gkill.exe rm.exe zipgrep
gmondump.exe rmdir.exe zipinfo.exe
gpg-agent.exe rnano.exe zless
gpg-card.exe runcon.exe znew
4. Looking Back
The Invoke-GitBash command, which I’ve introduced here, aims to make Linux commands more accessible in a Windows environment. Its objectives can be summarized in four points:
- Reduced Startup Overhead: Eliminates the need to launch Git Bash separately, allowing direct execution from PowerShell.
- Seamless Integration: Integrates Git Bash commands into the PowerShell command-line environment for natural use.
- Leveraging Powerful Tools: Provides easy access to frequently useful Linux commands such as
diff,sed,grep,awk,xxd, andfile. - Improved Workflow Efficiency: Reduces disruption to thought processes caused by shell switching, leading to a smoother workflow.
These goals have been largely met, and the Invoke-GitBash command has proven to be an extremely useful tool for users like me who frequently use Linux commands on Windows.
| Challenge | Result | Evaluation |
|---|---|---|
| Startup Overhead | Can directly execute Git Bash commands from PowerShell. | ✅ |
| Command Path Management | Invoke-GitBash resolves the Git Bash executable path, so I don’t have to worry about it. | ✅ |
| Shell Switching | No shell switching needed as everything is done within the PowerShell environment. | ✅ |
| Output Handling | Git Bash command input and output can be passed via PowerShell pipelines. | ✅ |
Terms
To deepen your understanding and enhance your learning through links and shortcuts, here are some relevant technical terms:
- CLI (Command Line Interface)
-
A method of interacting with a computer using text. Unlike a GUI (Graphical User Interface) where you click icons with a mouse, you enter commands using a keyboard to open files or run programs. This blog primarily introduces methods using the CLI.
- Alias
-
A mechanism in PowerShell and other shells to set short names (aliases) for frequently used commands or scripts. For “Invoke-GitBash”, I chose “gitbash” as the alias. Other candidates I considered were
igb,ibash,gbash,pbash, andpwbash. I tried them all, butgitbashwas the only one I remembered after a day, so despite being slightly longer, I adopted it.