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Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 07:11:04 -0700
From: Eric Blake <ebb9 AT byu DOT net>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com, mailinglist AT dazjorz DOT com,
   debian-kcygwin-devel AT lists DOT sourceforge DOT net
Subject: Re: [bugreport] Two slashes should not indicate remote machine or  special  directory
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According to Sjors Gielen on 1/25/2009 6:46 AM:
> Hey all,
> 
> In Cygwin (the CVS version), it seems paths starting with two slashes
> are "special paths" for accessing remote machines or bypassing the mount
> table.
> 
> This however is incompatible with Linux, where i.e. //etc is a valid
> path. See, for example: (`ls` indicators removed for readability)

Not only is it perfectly compatible with Linux, but it is allowed by
POSIX.  This is a design decision that all portable programs must be aware
of - you cannot blindly use '//' to mean '/', and not just because of cygwin.

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_266
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap04.html#tag_04_12
"A pathname that begins with two successive <slash> characters may be
interpreted in an implementation-defined manner, although more than two
leading <slash> characters shall be treated as a single <slash> character."

> 
> Therefore, I'm suggesting to remove "//" as a
> special path from conv_to_win32_path.

Won't happen.  We've intentionally defined it as a synonym for Windows
\\server\share notation.

- --
Don't work too hard, make some time for fun as well!

Eric Blake             ebb9 AT byu DOT net
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