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Mail Archives: cygwin/2008/01/19/22:32:01

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Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2008 21:31:25 -0600
From: paul DOT hermeneutic AT gmail DOT com
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: ps executable does not appear to match source
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> ps from Cygwin is the historically older version, it's using another
> mechanism to get to all the date and, last but not least, it's a core
> Cygwin tool under the Cygwin license.  Feel free to use procps as ps
> by aliasing, but Cygwin's ps will not go away and it can't use procps
> sources for licensing reasons.
>
> Corinna

While aliasing does work for interactive and shell scripts, it does
not work for Perl backtick expressions.  As you can see below,
invoking 'ps' from a Perl script still results in the historically
older version being used.

$ alias ps='/bin/procps.exe'
$ ps --version
procps version 3.2.7
$ perl -we 'print `ps --version`'
ps (cygwin) 1.11
Process Statistics
Copyright 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 Red Hat, Inc.
Compiled on Dec 14 2007

Making a hard link will work, but this adds another layer of
complexity for running a script in systems where the user does not
have administrative permission.  This would require a test in the
initial stages of installation with a hard stop if the hard link does
not exist.  This will generate a delay in installation or usage while
a link is created.

Only coding specifically to Cygwin 'procps.exe' is sure to work.  This
still requires an initial test to ensure that the procps package is
installed and a delay if it is not.

I see that you have used the "licensing reasons' phrase.  Does that
mean that this distasteful situation has no hope of ever improving?

Where can I find a list of Cygwin programs in this situation?  Is 'ps'
the only one?  Are there others?  Please advise.  Thanks.

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