Message-ID: <883284.86806.qm@web30204.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 20:30:13 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Ziser, Jesse" <xezlec AT yahoo DOT com>
Subject: syntax for Cygwin bash invoking Win apps
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
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Hello list,

When I type a command in bash to invoke a Windows application (like cmd.exe=
, for example), I can't seem to find a pattern in the Windows command line =
that actually gets executed.=A0 Ordinary bash syntax does not seem to apply=
 in general when the command is a Windows app, but rather, sometimes specia=
l characters are interpreted in a bash-like way, and sometimes not.=A0 So, =
I'm wondering what determines whether a quote mark or something gets interp=
reted or passed on.

Here are some examples:

$ cmd /c echo "/?"
Displays messages, or turns command-echoing on or off.

=A0 ECHO [ON | OFF]
=A0 ECHO [message]

Type ECHO without parameters to display the current echo setting.

# OK, so I'm getting the Windows echo, not the bash echo.=A0 Good.
# Moving on...
$ cmd /c echo abc
abc

$ cmd /c echo "abc"
abc

$ cmd /c echo "\"abc\""
"\"abc\""

# Wahhh?!

Anyone who knows the explanation would make me very grateful.=A0 I've tried=
 this with other Windows apps too, and the same weirdness seems to occur.

On a related note, I've noticed what appears to be an automatic sort of hal=
f-bash invocation (but not quite?) or something when I run Cygwin commands =
from cmd.exe.=A0 For example,

> c:\cygwin\bin\echo hi
hi

> c:\cygwin\bin\echo "hi"
hi

> c:\cygwin\bin\echo "\"hi\""
"hi"

> c:\cygwin\bin\echo *
myfile myotherfile yetanotherfile ...

And yet...

> c:\cygwin\bin\echo $PATH
$PATH

What the heck is going on?=A0 Are there any rules here at all?=A0 Sorry if =
I'm missing something dumb.=A0 And sorry for apologizing for it.=A0 And....=
..

Thanks in advance,
Jesse


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