Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com X-Originating-IP: [195.224.233.3] From: "John Vincent" To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Subject: thread about Directory names containing spaces and GDB Date: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 11:32:18 +0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Message-ID: X-OriginalArrivalTime: 01 Aug 2002 11:32:19.0479 (UTC) FILETIME=[186CFA70:01C2394F] Hi, There has been a very long thread regarding problems in gdb which may or may not be related to user names or directory/file names containing spaces. I'd like to add my tuppence worth :-)) Firstly, "cygwin" is a POSIX/Linux emulation layer, and all the packages that are ported to run on windows using cygwin are seperate entities, maintained seperately from cygwin, the action of porting the software should not include changes to it's function, except in a few special cases where it wouldn't make sense to leave the function unchanged. Note that when it does or does not make sense is ultimately the personal choice of the porter, there is no absolute right or wrong answer. When a package is ported, if it originally didn't tolerate file names with spaces, than it won't after porting. If you use a ported program, and you want it to tolerate spaces, you should talk to the program maintaners, not the cygwin porter (unless they happen to be the same). This would be considered off-topic on the cygwin list. Unix/Linux/POSIX allows spaces in file names just like windows, some programs tolerate them, some don't. This used to be a big issue, but in general, modern binaries don't have this problem, and it's only a problem in some scripts. Secondly, this is *free* software, there is no support contract, no "duty of care" on developers, and no guarantee of "fitness for purpose". You download it if it does what you want, if it's useful to you. There's no guarantee that the next version will be as useful to you as the last. In general developers take pride in what they do, and want it to be as useful as possible to as many as possible, but ultimately they have no user to satisfy except themselves. Thirdly, this list is a forum for all users to exchange information on the various programs packaged up with cygwin. Some of the users are also developers, no two have exactly the same level of expertise and experience. If you send email to the list asking a question, the answers represent what the responder thinks may be useful to you. Very often this is a reference to information elsewhere, this is for many reasons, including the following: 1. because it gives the questioner a new source of information they may have previously been unaware of, and avoids the errors that can so easily creep in when technical information is paraphased. 2. because it keeps the volume of discussions on this list lower. This is simply a practical expedient, not a philosophical poition. 3. because someone has taken the time to produce what they believe is a useful source of information, and they want to make sure that others don't ignore their efforts. 4. because they believe that they are showing the questioner how to find answers to this type of question in general. Some questioners will find this patronising, while others will find it generally useful. Sometimes the reference to information elsewhere is not sufficient to answer the questions in the questioners mind, note that like the software itself, the answers are *free* with no guarantees of helpfulness or perspicasity. /John Vincent. _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/