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Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:34:42 +0100
From: Thomas Wolff <towo AT towo DOT net>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: allow executing a path in backslash notation
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On 10.03.2010 11:03, Ilya Beylin wrote:
> The problem is that DOS paths are treated differently, even within the
> same program.
> Take for instance, bash:
>
> $ builtin test -x "$WINDIR\system32\cmd.exe"&&  echo ok
> yes
> $ builtin exec "$WINDIR\system32\cmd.exe" /C echo ok
> -bash: exec: C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe: not found
>
> That makes a lot of headache both for users and for programmers who
> have to remember about all such special cases
>    
Not really for programmers, as Corinna has demonstrated, unless you 
refer to shell script programmers.
So there's fewer special situations in which this might be relevant, I 
think.
And the limitation doesn't need "exec" to be involved but applies to 
"normal" invocation as well as file name expansion, too.
Surprising (and the trigger of my response) is the observation that a 
single "/" substituted for one backslash, i.e. a mixed style path name, 
changes the situation:

$ echo D:\\cygwin17\\bin\\min*.exe
D:\cygwin17\bin\min*.exe
$ echo D:\\cygwin17\\bin/min*.exe
D:\cygwin17\bin/mined.exe D:\cygwin17\bin/mintty.exe

So maybe for consistency it might be worth patching bash to fully 
support DOS style paths?
------
Thomas

> Cheers
> Ilya
>
> On 10 March 2010 10:25, Corinna Vinschen<corinna-cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>  wrote:
>    
>> On Mar  9 13:47, Ilguiz Latypov wrote:
>>      
>>>        
>>>> The bottom line is that if you want to use MS-DOS
>>>> paths, then use a MinGW or DJGPP version of make.exe.  make.exe is not
>>>> going to be patched.
>>>>          
>>> The patch was to cygwin1.dll, but I am not insisting.
>>>        
>> Trouble is, I don't even see the problem.  Executing a file in DOS
>> notation is already possible:
>>
>>   bash$ cat<<  EOF>  exec.c
>>   #include<unistd.h>
>>
>>   int
>>   main (int argc, char **argv)
>>   {
>>     char *args[] = { argv[1], "abc", 0};
>>     execv (argv[1], args);
>>     return 1;
>>   }
>>   EOF
>>   bash$ gcc -o exec exec.c
>>   bash$ ./exec /bin/echo
>>   abc
>>   bash$ ./exec C:\\cygwin\\bin\\echo
>>   abc
>>
>>
>> Corinna
>>
>> --
>> Corinna Vinschen                  Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to
>> Cygwin Project Co-Leader          cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
>> Red Hat
>>
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