How can I run Cygwin Bash Shell from within Emacs?

Question

I am running GNU Emacs on Windows so entering:

M-x shell

launches the Windows command-line DOS shell. However, I would like to instead be a

Answer 1

In addition to @Chris Jones' answer about avoiding the --login argument to bash, I set the following command line arguments:

 (setq explicit-bash-args '("--noediting" "-i"))

The --noediting option prevents interference with the GNU readline library and the -i option specifies that the shell is interactive. I also use the .emacs_bash file in my home directory for any emacs specific bash customizations.