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Date: Fri, 6 Sep 2002 12:19:12 +1000 (EST)
From: luke DOT kendall AT cisra DOT canon DOT com DOT au
Subject: Can't write any dot files from vi
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
In-Reply-To: <20020906014621.9FC725A84@ivory.research.canon.com.au>
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Message-Id: <20020906021904.5CBF35A76@ivory.research.canon.com.au>

 Subject: Re: Can't write .profile from vi
 
On  6 Sep, I wrote:
>  Thanks for the thought, but of course the :w! doesn't work (that was 
>  the first thing I tried), and as I said, I can write other files in my 
>  home directory (which is a local directory on the PC, not a network 
>  share or anything, BTW).  I can also do this: 
>   
>  	:w xxx 
>  	:q 
>  	cp xxx .profile 

Actually, vi won't let me write any existing file whose name starts with
a ".".  The error is always "E212: Can't open file for writing"

It only affects existing dot files.  And yes, I have write permission
for them all.  (I can edit them with vi by writing them to a file ~/xxx
and copying that over the top of the file.)

This is on WindowsXP on a FAT32 file system.

Even stranger, is the fact that I can create new dot files (e.g. .xxx),
and write them.  I can then copy an old dotfile over .xxx and write
.xxx; and copy .xxx over .xinitrc.  But I still can't write .xinitrc
from inside vi.

What *does* work is this:

	cp .xinitrc .xxx
	rm .xinitrc
	mv .xxx .xinitrc

*Then* I can edit .xinitrc and write it.

The "rm" seemed to have a slightly different noise to other rms; it
sounded like there was a little more disc access, and it took a
fraction of a second longer.

Anyway, I'll wait a couple of days in case anyone would like me to try
some diagnostics.  Failing that, I'll just write a script that applies
the above workaround and I'll be happy; though diagnosing the Cygwin
problem may then become impossible.

luke


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