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Subject: Re: Programatically finding value of "cygdrive" prefix
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From: Sam Steingold <sds AT gnu DOT org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.4.61.0508161649420.9560@slinky.cs.nyu.edu> (Igor Pechtchanski's message of "Tue, 16 Aug 2005 17:10:25 -0400 (EDT)")
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Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 17:51:00 -0400
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> * Igor Pechtchanski <crpugpun AT pf DOT alh DOT rqh> [2005-08-16 17:10:25 -0400]:
>
>
> was asking for the actual problem that programmatically accessing the
> cygdrive prefix was supposed to solve.

I already explained that in
<http://article.gmane.org/gmane.os.cygwin:67856>.

let me try to do it again:

unix shell scripts and makefiles do not call cygpath.
when they are used under cygwin, they spit out cygwin pathnames
(/cygdrive/c/...) to non-cygwin programs.

[indeed, if I were using only cygwin-based software, I would have been
OK, but I do not.  I prefer the native implementations whenever
possible, so I stick with woe32 versions of CLISP, Mozilla, Emacs and VIM.]

when a non-cygwin program receives a /cygdrive/c/... pathname, it dies.

what are my options?

1. Fix all free software to call cygpath before invoking an editor or a
   browser.  This does not sound too optimistic.

2. Fix editors and browsers to handle cygwin pathnames.  This requires
   an officially published interface, preferably a known registry slot.


-- 
Sam Steingold (http://www.podval.org/~sds) running w2k
<http://www.honestreporting.com> <http://truepeace.org> <http://ffii.org/>
<http://www.jihadwatch.org/> <http://www.savegushkatif.org>
In C you can make mistakes, while in C++ you can also inherit them!

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