Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:26:09 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-no-personal-reply-please AT cygwin DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: Why are Windows paths broken in make 3.81?
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On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 10:12:51AM -0600, Michael Hirsch wrote:
>>Yes. See <http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-announce/2006-07/msg00008.html>.
>>If you are using a POSIX-like "OS" (i.e. Cygwin), you should be using
>>POSIX paths. That's not an inconvenience, that's called writing a bad
>>makefile. If you aren't using Cygwin for the POSIX environment, you
>>should be using MinGW.
>
>I see.  Unfortunately, I am trying to use cygwin to make my life
>easier on Windows, but I am still constrained to use windows programs.
>Many of them cannot use the cygwin paths, but require a path like
>"c:/my/path.exe".  It will be very difficult to switch back and forth
>between path representations.  I guess I do need to look into MinGW.

Maybe someone here would be willing to post a sed transformation which
would change c:\some\dos\path to /cygdrive/c/some/dos/path.

>>> Is it broken only on Windows?
>>
>>That sounds like a silly question... 'are Windows paths only broken on
>>Windows?'
>
>It sounds like a silly question, but it isn't.  I tested, and yes, if
>you have a directory named "c:" in Linux, make is broken on that
>directory, too.  Since "c:" is a valid name in Linux (and POSIX, I
>believe) I consider that a bug in make.  I'll have to report that to
>GNU, as it is not a cygwin issue.  The error message on Linux is just
>as incomprehensible as it is Cygwin, too, so at least I know who to
>talk to about it.

I don't think there is a make on any non-windows OS which will deal well
with filenames that contain colons.  However, you might have better luck
if you quote the colon with a '\'.

>>No, as it is not a "bug". However it is specific to Cygwin. See the
>>aforementioned announcement. CGF would have to speak to "why" (and I
>>would appreciate if he would, just because I am curious :-)), but I
>>would guess it is to "encourage" people to use correct (i.e. POSIX) paths.
>
>I guess that was the reason.  How disappointing.  I always thought
>that cygwin provided a great service by allowing me to use both
>windows and posix paths.  I'll miss that capability a lot.

You are not helpless here.  You can keep using the old version of make.
You can try to adapt the patches to the new version of make and use
that yourself.  This is free software.  You don't have to rely on what
the "vendor" is supplying you.

cgf

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