X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org
Message-ID: <4424C1DC.8010005@byu.net>
Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 21:06:52 -0700
From: Eric Blake <ebb9 AT byu DOT net>
User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5 (Windows/20051201)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: ":" in filename
References: <8389af8b0603241937m62e9701y596bed40382bd6f0 AT mail DOT gmail DOT com> <4424BE59 DOT 9184F1E1 AT dessent DOT net>
In-Reply-To: <4424BE59.9184F1E1@dessent.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-IsSubscribed: yes
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

According to Brian Dessent on 3/24/2006 8:51 PM:
> 
> The colon is used by NTFS to signify alternate data streams.  You can
> google for more information about this, e.g.
> <http://www.ntfs.com/ntfs-multiple.htm>.

And that would explain how I managed to create an undeletable file the
other day.  I had been wondering what the explanation was.  Mainly for
archive purposes, the sharutils upstream maintainer made the mistake of
creating a file named ":getpo" in CVS a while ago (which he has now
renamed to "getpo.sh" because of my undeletable file problem).  But when
"cvs up" grabs a new file, it first names it ".new.<filename>", in this
case, ".new.:getpo".  So my "cvs up" failed because the file ".new.:getpo"
didn't exist to be renamed to ":getpo", but at the same time, Windows had
just created a ".new." file including the trailing dot.  And it was
practically undeletable because trailing dots normally can't exist, so no
cygwin functions could reach it.  I finally got rid of the problem file by
using the file's alternate 8.3 name, "new~1", but it sure threw me for a
loop trying to figure out how to delete the file.

It would be nice if cygwin could be more proactive in recognizing : as
invalid in non-managed mounts, rather than passing the : on to the Windows
filename functions, in order to avoid the creation of undeletable
filenames such as ".new." via the help of a colon, but I can live with the
current behavior if adding such a check would slow down the common case.

- --
Life is short - so eat dessert first!

Eric Blake             ebb9 AT byu DOT net
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.2.1 (Cygwin)
Comment: Public key at home.comcast.net/~ericblake/eblake.gpg
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFEJMHc84KuGfSFAYARAoX/AJ9A1MAhZKp7Z4Arv+PENWYCqUlSiwCfYeQU
hQJidaM0ioRFV/LenFkaVDI=
=CN/b
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

--
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/