🚀 go-pugleaf

(Ben, any chance you could set your full name in the From field of your
messages? It would make discussions like this less confusing.)

Ben <bgold12@gmail.com> writes:

> On Windows, cmd.exe has the /k switch, which lets you execute a
> command given by a command-line argument, and then the shell remains
> open after finishing the execution of the command.

Note that ‘cmd.exe’ is a program that gives a windowed terminal
emulator, and it is that terminal emulator that remains after the
commands within it have ended.

> I know bash has -c which lets you execute a command given by a
> command-line argument, but then the shell closes after finishing the
> command

The ‘bash’ program, on the other hand, has nothing to do with providing
a terminal emulator; it runs within a terminal provided by something
else.

> (this is analogous to the cmd.exe /c switch).

Analogous, but not helpful in this case. The two jobs of “terminal
emulator” and “command shell” are separate on Unix, but conflated on
Windows.

> My question is, is there a bash equivalent of the cmd.exe /k switch
> that can be used to execute a command and then remain open?

Not in bash (or any shell), no. What you want is to investigate how your
terminal emulator can do this (e.g. by reading the man page for
‘xterm(1)’, ‘gnome-terminal(1)’, ‘rxvt(1)’, or whichever terminal
emulator you choose).

-- 
 \       “Science shows that belief in God is not only obsolete. It is |
  `\                        also incoherent.” —Victor J. Stenger, 2001 |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney