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Subject: Re: 'cp' utility bug when <dest-name>.exe file exist.
From: "Matthew B. Smith" <melkor AT orangpalantir DOT org>
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Date: Tue, 08 Jun 2010 20:17:16 -0400
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Ill throw in my two cents.  I don't want to overwrite an existing file
accidentally.  Ie if I ls > foo and that writes to foo.exe I would be
frustrated.  This hasn't happened to me yet so it might not be to big of
a problem.  It seems a bit odd that the behavior would change if there
is a file in the directory of a different name.  

Preferable I would like cp foo bar, to create a file "bar" without an
extension as opposed to overwriting "bar.exe".  Anyway its good to have
heard about this.

mbs

On Tue, 2010-06-08 at 12:22 -0400, RISINGP1 AT nationwide DOT com wrote:
> >> I disagree.  This seems to me to be adopting the Microsoft policy of 
> doing
> >> the user's thinking for them:  "I don't care what they want - we know
> >> what's best for them."  If a person wants to have "foo" and "foo.exe" 
> in
> >> the same directory, that should be allowed.  A few times getting 
> tripped
> >> up by the wrong thing executing will be a good life lesson for the 
> person,
> >> and teach about how different operating systems work to boot.  Should I
> >> create "foo" as an executable, and "foo.exe" exists, then if I want to 
> run
> >> "foo.exe", I should have to call it out specifically.  I can see this
> >> might cause some confusion should, unbeknownst to the user, "foo.exe"
> >> exists earlier in the path than "foo", but that would become an
> >> education on how to use the PATH variable.  This confusion arises
> >> from Cygwin's kowtowing to Microsoft's dubious idea of using extensions 
> to
> >> control the handling of files.
> >
> >If you took away Cygwin's .exe extension handling and just relied on
> >file permissions like Unix, then using Cygwin tools from a cmd.exe
> >prompt would become problematic.
> >
> >Windows wants that .exe (or .bat or .cmd or .msi, etc) extension and
> >doesn't give a whip if you chmod a file's permissions +x.  Without an
> >extension, Windows has no idea what to do with the file.
> >
> >That's fine if you never do anything with Cygwin commands outside of a
> >Cygwin shell, but I don't think this is a globally desirable
> >behaviour.
> >
> 
> Just a question:
> 
> Shouldn't it be up to the user to determine how a file is to be used, and
> name the file accordingly?
> 
> If the file is to used only in a Cygwin environment, leave the extension
> off is desired.
> 
> If the file is to used in both a Cygwin and a Windows environment, add an
> extension (like ".sh" or ".exe" or whatever is needed).  It is easy enough
> to teach Windows how to recognize what to do with a new extension (like
> ".sh").
> 
> I am just against operating systems making decisions for the user, or
> restricting him/her unnecessarily.  And, yes, I know that this happens
> all the time...
> 
> Phil Rising    risingp1 AT nationwide DOT com
> 
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