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Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:41:30 +0200
From: Matthias Andree <matthias DOT andree AT gmx DOT de>
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Subject: Re: Is this a known problem with getenv() ?
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John Emmas schrieb:
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "John Emmas"
>>
>> I might just try experimenting with a very simple program and see if I
>> still get the error
>>
> I partially tracked down the problem, although I don't quite know how to
> solve it.  If I write this simple console app:-
> 
> #include <stdio.h>
> #include <stdlib.h>
> 
> int main ()
> {
>    printf ( getenv ("PATH") );
>    return 0;
> }

Gee, that is INSECURE. Insert some % in PATH for major fun including crashes
(anyone mistyping CMD.COM like variable expansions for instance, for instance
%USERPROFILE%)

For the records, the right way to do it is either:

	puts(getenv("PATH"));

or

	printf("%s\n", getenv("PATH"));


I've seen commercial Windows Explorer extensions (SECURITY software incidentally
that shipped with my laptop) kill my Explorer from such beginner's mistakes, and
it's a pity such bogus code is in publicly visible archives and needs to be
corrected through messages like mine.

> it outputs the correct path.  However, if I create a GUI app and launch it
> under 'X', the path seems to change and includes lots of duplicated folders.

Probably one of the start scripts adds lots of entries, and X...

> I figured out that startxwin.bat is adding a few duplicated entries to my
> path but that doesn't explain why there are so many duplications and I don't
> know where the others might be coming from.  However, I don't get any
> duplicates at all if I run XWin directly, instead of starting it with
> startxwin.bat.

...isn't the sole candidates. Check the manuals of involved shells for which
files they read at startup, under which conditions, and how. .bashrc, .profile
and corresponding files under /etc are prime candidates.

This isn't Cygwin or Cygwin/X specific though, but general Unix behaviour.

Cheers

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