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Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 11:59:12 +0000
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Subject: Re: cygpath -w for non-existent server
From: Andy Koppe <andy DOT koppe AT gmail DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
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On 6 December 2010 11:34, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> Hi Andy,
>
> On Dec =C2=A04 16:07, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>> On Dec =C2=A04 06:35, Andy Koppe wrote:
>> > With non-existent server foo, and Cygwin 1.7.7 or the latest 1.7.8 sna=
pshot:
>> >
>> > $ cygpath -w //foo/bar
>> > \\foo\bar
>> >
>> > $ cygpath -w //foo
>> > cygpath: error converting "//foo" - No such file or directory
>> >
>> > Is that as intended?
>> >
>> > Also, both only return after a few seconds delay, so I assume they
>> > trigger network accesses. Is that necessary?
>>
>> Probably yes, due to the way SMB works. =C2=A0The "No such file or direc=
tory"
>> seems wrong though. =C2=A0I'll investigate next week.
>
> Done. =C2=A0The behaviour is perfectly valid.
>
> - "//foo/bar" requires to access the path, which in turn triggers an SMB
> =C2=A0request on the wire. =C2=A0This takes a couple of seconds within Wi=
ndows
> =C2=A0itself, even if the DNS request returns immediately that the server
> =C2=A0doesn't exist. =C2=A0NetBIOS? =C2=A0Anyway, there's nothing Cygwin =
can do about
> =C2=A0it.
>
> - "//foo" is a virtual path, valid only in Cygwin. =C2=A0You can't access
> =C2=A0"\\foo" in the Win32 API using file or directory access functions. =
=C2=A0It
> =C2=A0just doesn't exist as a path. =C2=A0UNC paths are only valid with a=
t least
> =C2=A0two path components as in "\\server\share". =C2=A0Since "//foo" is a
> =C2=A0virtual path, there's no Win32 equivalent. =C2=A0So, from the Windo=
ws
> =C2=A0perspective there's "No such file or directory".

Weird. "\\server" works fine in Explorer and also with cygstart, so I
guess Explorer implements it as some sort of virtual directory. Is
that enough reason to support it as a special case in the Cygwin path
conversion?

Thanks for looking into this.

Andy

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