AutoHashBang - HashBangs for AutoHotkey

[geek]

In computing, a shebang (also called a sha-bang, hashbang, pound-bang, hash-exclam, or hash-pling), is the character sequence consisting of the characters number sign and exclamation mark (that is, "#!") at the beginning of a script.

Specify which AHK to use with your script with an interpreter directive. Simply put ;#! C:\Path\To\AutoHotkey.exe at the top of your .ahk or .ahc file to switch interpreters.

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To install or uninstall, just run the script file directly. If the script is moved while it is installed, the .ahk and .ahc shell associations will be broken, so it is recommended to uninstall before moving it.

When AutoHashBang is installed, it will create a second copy of AutoHotkey.exe called AutoHotConsole.exe. It will then set AutoHotConsole to be a console application, allowing scripts run through it to use StdIn/Out from a normal console.

AutoHashBang will override the shell extensions for .ahk and .ahc files with itself being run through AutoHotkey.exe and AutoHotConsole.exe, respectively. Because of how windows works, you can't choose whether to be a console app after execution starts, so that's why a separate shell association for it is necessary.

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AutoHashBangs support a handful of variables, listed below:

• A_ScriptDir
• A_WorkingDir
• A_AppData
• A_AppDataCommon
• A_LineFile
• A_AhkPath

Note that A_AhkPath is the full path, so if you want to use the directory, use %A_AhkPath%\.. instead of just %A_AhkPath%.

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Source

[joedf]

Nice-o!

[guruglenn]

Sounds inteersting. But why does AutoHashBang change the .ahk file association? And if .ahc is invented for console, why do you need to interpret a she-bang line at all? Console apps could just use .ahc, and GUI apps .ahk...

[geek]

The main point of AutoHashBang is not to add console support, but to allow for easy version switching. For example, if you want to test a beta version of AHK v2, you could put ;#! %A_ScriptDir%\AhkBeta.exe and have it run through the beta executable in the script's directory. I also wanted it to support console versions of AutoHotkey, but because of restrictions in how Windows works as a whole I had to do the second file extension.

[evilC]

I take it that there is no way to have this affect which interpreter scite uses? I am guessing probably not.

A couple of other suggestions:
Might I suggest allowing a space between the ; and the # ?
if RegExMatch(Script, "`a)^\s*`;\s*#!\s*(.+)", Match)
That's a mistake I won't be making again

If the hashbang path does not contain a \ character, it is not specifying a path, so assume the AHK folder.
That way, you can just do ;#!SomeAhkExe.exe to run with SomeAhkExe.exe in your AHK folder.

I forked and submitted a pull request, should you wish to include these changes

[Edit] Hmm, thinking about it, my code breaks a hashbang of solely %A_AhkPath%. However, this would make no sense anyway, as that would be the same as no hashbang.
It would also break hashbangs of the other lone ahk vars, but without a \, these seem useless.
So more logic may be required, but I don't see it breaking any sane use-cases