DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=sourceware.org; h=list-id
	:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-archive:list-post
	:list-help:sender:from:to:references:in-reply-to:subject:date
	:message-id:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding;
	 q=dns; s=default; b=GOYxd8LWOFvNy1VyTrA0vsRVuNlgujVqVRrfmBqk8tx
	jFBW5AdAcUadV0YDZCYr6KuD0engEPCxlBxdWkBJnwq9okge3hCMxwqqLF2TlNw2
	JPlKeg+O+umwtdRsb5IwEdhmNytSodS2SrNb1aByOF8oUvd7t4DOoq9ch5YyKb+I
	=
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help@cygwin.com; run by ezmlm
Sender: cygwin-owner@cygwin.com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin@cygwin.com
From: <gmt@malth.us>
To: <cygwin@cygwin.com>
References: <003501ce6b5f$b41f2c10$1c5d8430$%fedin@samsung.com> <kpn4kk$p88$1@ger.gmane.org> <036c01ce6b6d$0ada5090$208ef1b0$@malth.us> <kpnfp7$urd$1@ger.gmane.org>
In-Reply-To: <kpnfp7$urd$1@ger.gmane.org>
Subject: RE: UNC and POSIX paths
Date: Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:54:52 -0700
Message-ID: <03b201ce6b83$c5b62720$51227560$@malth.us>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

On Mon, 17 Jun 2013, at 10:07, Andrew DeFaria thusly quipped:
> On 06/17/2013 08:12 AM, gmt@malth.us wrote:
>>> Why not simply fix the "not very well written configure scripts and
>>> makefiles"instead? BTW I've never come across a single one of those.
>>> Where are you getting yours?
>> Can't answer this offhand (aware you didn't ask me :P) but, under the
>> misguidance of PM's like Gentoo(portage) and rpm(build), when combined
>> with poorly and/or belligerently written packaging scripts, this can
>> happen incessantly.  But that mostly only comes up when building
>> Frankencygwins. Sometimes you can fix it by forcing something like
>> --prefix=///usr/local.

> I'm trying to understand the reluctance towards "fixing the problem" and
instead
> the insistence on "putting a band aid on it". So in the above, why would
you not
> instead do --prefix=/usr/local?

This  is indeed a band-aid in the truest sense of the metaphor.  It relies
on the specificity of POSIX's reservation of "//" for platform purposes (and
cygwin's correct implementation of same) -- unlike "//", anything matching
the regex "^///[/]*$" is, indeed, equivalent to "/".  So, as if the POSIX
"//" reservation wasn't an obscure enough fact, here is a way to /really/
impress people at cocktail parties :)

As to why not fix the upstreams committing these atrocities, it's the
obvious reason -- occasionally one encounters a large body of dense,
non-fixable-by-sed/perl, poorly commented "spaghetti" script-code that makes
"clever," deep usage of the assumption that "//" == "/".  Being able to turn
this feature off at one's option would enable them to rule out "//" as a
problem when they suspect it might be, and have the additional benefit of
not having to fix such code, in order to run it.

-gmt


--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple