Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help@cygwin.com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner@cygwin.com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin@cygwin.com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin@cygwin.com Reply-To: Cygwin List Message-Id: <5.1.0.14.0.20030930123307.0283c890@127.0.0.1> X-Sender: Date: Tue, 30 Sep 2003 12:42:40 -0400 To: Matt Swift , Cygwin List From: Larry Hall Subject: Re: ln and mkshortcut inconsistent in handling of .exe extension In-Reply-To: References: <5.1.0.14.0.20030929161708.028d6fe0@127.0.0.1> <5.1.0.14.0.20030929161708.028d6fe0@127.0.0.1> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" At 06:02 PM 9/29/2003, Matt Swift you wrote: >>> "L" == Larry wrote: > > L> 'ln' and 'mkshortcut' have different behavior for a reason. See > L> . > L> The difference is why 'mkshortcut' exists. Otherwise, we'd just have > L> 'ln' (which is all we had for quite some time until the need for > L> different behavior was realized). > > > >I had seen that discussion. I found no discussion of the particular >interaction of shortcuts/symlinks and the special handling of the .exe >extension. To predict the results of the commands I listed, I had to >experiment. > >Second, I still don't understand why `ln' shouldn't behave the way I >suggested: how is it better the way it is than if `ln -s' never >created broken shortcuts The documentation I directed you to explains why 'ln -s' functions as it does and from that follows the need for 'mkshortcut'. 'ln -s' doesn't create 'broken shortcuts'. It creates symbolic links with UNIX semantics. That's the goal. If you want/need a Windows-style shortcut with all the semantics that implies, use 'mkshortuct'. Is that the point you were missing? >and 'ln' (hardlink) defaulted to a target of >"foo.exe" when the supplied target "foo" doesn't exist? I'm inclined to agree on this. I think symmetry here would be a good thing. Still, I haven't done any real investigation of this issue so I was withholding any bold proclamation on it. I'm sure it fits into the category of if you're inclined to investigate further. -- Larry Hall http://www.rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office 838 Washington Street (508) 893-9889 - FAX Holliston, MA 01746 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/