portable-cmd

Overview

portable-cmd.bat is a batch file for Windows that launches a command prompt ready to use various tools simply by double-clicking it. If the tools are not already installed, it automatically downloads portable versions of development tools (Git, CMake, and Python) into the workspace folder located directly under the batch file, extracts them, and sets their paths. This allows you to start a command prompt for a specific environment just by running that project's portable-cmd.bat, without having to think about any setup steps.

How to Run

Execute

portable-cmd.bat

or Download & Execute

powershell -NoProfile -Command "$f='portable-cmd.bat'; (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/issixx/portable-cmd/main/portable-cmd.bat') -replace \"`r?`n\",\"`r`n\" | Set-Content $f -Encoding ASCII; cmd /k $f"

After execution, the paths for the installed portable versions will be configured.

Portable Tools

• Git:
• CMake:
• Python: Embedded version with pip, virtualenv, and requirements.txt installation
• Python venv: Virtual environment creation and auto-activation with venv/virtualenv
• Chrome, ChromeDriver:
• FFmpeg:
• Node.js:
• Go:
• Svn:

System Installation SDKs

• CUDA Toolkit: Downloads installer and installs after user confirmation (interactive)
• Vulkan SDK: Downloads installer and installs after user confirmation (interactive)

Directory Structure (Auto-created on execution)

<root>
│
├─ workspace          ← Default workspace directory
│   └─ lib            ← Portable binaries for each tool are stored here
│       ├─ git
│       ├─ cmake
│       ├─ python
│       ├─ chrome
│       ├─ ffmpeg
│       ├─ nodejs
│       ├─ go
│       └─ svn
└─ requirements.txt  ← (Optional) Python package list

• workspace is created under the execution directory (%~dp0).
• If the current directory path is already too long, it will automatically switch to %USERPROFILE%\<base directory name>\workspace.

Installation Tool Configuration

• By default, only Git and Python are installed.
• To install other tools, either modify the settings directly or create a wrapper batch file like the following.

my-portable-cmd.bat

:: portable tools
set ENABLE_GIT=1
set ENABLE_CMAKE=1
set ENABLE_UV=1
set ENABLE_PYTHON=1
set ENABLE_CHROME=1
set ENABLE_FFMPEG=1
set ENABLE_NODEJS=1
set ENABLE_GO=1
set ENABLE_SVN=1

:: sdks
set ENABLE_CUDA=1
set ENABLE_VULKAN=1

:: launch portable-cmd
call "%~dp0portable-cmd.bat"
if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto :ERROR

:: Switch to interactive mode if the script is called directly
:: (Check if this batch filename is included in the startup command)
echo %CMDCMDLINE:"=% | find /I "%~f0"
if not ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    cmd /K
)

:SUCCESS
exit /b 0

:ERROR
	echo #############
	echo #  !error!  #
	echo #############
	pause
exit /b 1

• You can also change the binaries to be installed.

set PORTABLE_GIT_URL=https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/download/v2.47.0.windows.2/PortableGit-2.47.0.2-64-bit.7z.exe
set PORTABLE_CMAKE_URL=https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.30.5/cmake-3.30.5-windows-x86_64.zip
set PORTABLE_CMAKE_URL=https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v3.28.6/cmake-3.28.6-windows-x86_64.zip
set PORTABLE_PYTHON_URL=https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.13.0/python-3.13.0-embed-amd64.zip
set PORTABLE_PYTHON_URL=https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.12.9/python-3.12.9-embed-amd64.zip
set PORTABLE_PYTHON_PIP_URL=https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
set PORTABLE_PYTHON_REQUIREMENT_MODULES=blinker==1.7.0 selenium-wire==5.1.0 selenium==4.23.1 requests setuptools packaging
set PORTABLE_CHROME_URL=https://storage.googleapis.com/chrome-for-testing-public/138.0.7204.168/win64/chrome-win64.zip
set PORTABLE_CHROME_DRIVER_URL=https://storage.googleapis.com/chrome-for-testing-public/138.0.7204.168/win64/chromedriver-win64.zip
set PORTABLE_FFMPEG_URL=https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/latest/ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl.zip
set PORTABLE_NODEJS_URL=https://nodejs.org/download/release/v22.19.0/node-v22.19.0-win-x64.zip
set PORTABLE_GO_URL=https://go.dev/dl/go1.25.1.windows-amd64.zip
set PORTABLE_SVN_URL=https://www.visualsvn.com/files/Apache-Subversion-1.14.5-3.zip

set CUDA_URL=https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.6.2/local_installers/cuda_12.6.2_560.94_windows.exe
set VULKAN_URL=https://sdk.lunarg.com/sdk/download/1.3.296.0/windows/VulkanSDK-1.3.296.0-Installer.exe

Important Notes

• Tool paths are only valid for processes launched from that batch file.
• For example, if you want to launch VS Code with the auto-installed Python available, launch VS Code from within portable-cmd like this:

portable-cmd.bat
code .\

• To install Python modules:

  • Install using python -m pip install <module>.

• To create a venv environment with portable Python:

  • Run python -m virtualenv <venv-name>

• To use system tools:

  • Set set USE_SYSTEM_EXE=1 to use already installed tools that are in the PATH.

• To use system Python with venv:

  • Additionally set set ENABLE_PYTHON_VENV=1 to use system Python while installing dependency modules with venv.

License

• MIT
• See LICENSE.