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Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:01:23 +0100
From: Dave Korn <dave DOT korn DOT cygwin AT googlemail DOT com>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: Forward slashes in path and pipes
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Andrew DeFaria wrote:
> Found out a funny thing about Cygwin today. I've known for a while that
> forward slashes works as well as backslashes when specifying a path to
> execute. So all of the following work from a cmd prompt:
> 
> C:> C:\Cygwin\bin\ls
> C:> C:\Cygwin/bin\ls
> C:> C:/Cygwin/bin/ls
> 
> Also the following works:
> 
> C:> C:\Cygwin\bin\ls | more
> 
> However the following fails:
> 
> C:> C:\Cygwin/bin\ls | more
> 
> It fails with something like "C:\Cygwin\bin not found" (From memory).
> 
> What does this have to do with Cygwin you say? 

  Nothing.  This is cmd.exe's idiosyncratic command-line parsing behaviour.  Try
quoting it:

> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>C:\Cygwin/bin\ls | more
> 'C:\Cygwin' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> operable program or batch file.
> 
> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>"C:\Cygwin/bin\ls" | more
> Application Data
> Cookies
> Desktop
> Favorites
> Local Settings
> My Documents
> NTUSER.DAT
> NetHood
> PrintHood
> Recent
> SendTo
> Start Menu
> Templates
> default.pls
> ntuser.dat.LOG
> ntuser.ini
> schedlog.txt
> 
> 
> C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator>

  For some reason (the presence of the pipe?) cmd.exe parses the forward slash
as an options separator rather than a path component in one case but not the
other.  Quoting removes the ambiguity.

    cheers,
      DaveK

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