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Date: Fri, 03 Apr 2009 08:38:55 -0400
From: Charles Wilson <cygwin AT cwilson DOT fastmail DOT fm>
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Subject: Re: compilation with cygport spoiled by spaces in pathnames?
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Thomas Wolff wrote:

> Is this a generic problem? From the make output, it's not clear which program 
> actually raised the problem ("Can't find c:\Program on PATH.") - gcc, mv, rm?
> I had the impression that spaces in path names (which unfortunately do occur 
> under Windows) are usually handled properly.

No, spaces are NOT usually handled "properly" in the way you mean.

OTOH, they ARE handled "properly" if by "properly" you mean "treated as
separators between words". This is just ONE of the reasons why EVERYBODY
and their sister says "Spaces are DUMB. You're just asking for trouble.
Don't do it if you want to use cmdline tools -- like cygwin"

I'm sorry to say that mixing spaces into Cygwin paths is never going to
work smoothly; there are just too many unix-derived entities that rely
on the spaces-separate-words behavior.  To change them all would
be...more trouble than it is worth.  And there's already a workaound:
mount any external paths that embed spaces:

mount [options] C:/Programs\ Files /program_files

--
Chuck

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