MIME-Version: 1.0
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:10:01 -0800
Message-ID: <CAB3JEf8sr0r1SXXdwU080vq6NxWf8EJyQvTuy_ToiN7oQ4_SCA@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Problems with UNC filenames passed to bash when called from a windows shortcut
From: john refling <netbsdrat AT gmail DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com

This is hard to explain in words, but here goes...


I have noticed that some filenames (with spaces) specified as UNC paths are
not passed properly as positional parameters at the cygwin / windows
interface.


Specifically, I have an XP shortcut to cygwin bash placed in my XP SendTo
folder.  Bash calls another custom script called ARGTEST.sh. The names of
files that were selected by the mouse before clicking the SendTo are tacked
onto the end of the command line by the standard windows mechanism.


These filenames ultimately become the positional parameters for the custom
script, which simply prints them out.  The shortcut is named ARGTEST.


So the "target" for the XP shortcut ARGTEST is the following:


    %SYSTEMDRIVE%\cygwin\bin\bash.exe /ARGTEST.sh


the script /ARGTEST.sh is nothing more than:


    #!/bin/sh
    export PATH=/bin
    for i in "${@}"; do
        echo "$i"
    done
    read -p "Press Enter..."
    exit


In operation, one highlights a bunch of files, say on the XP desktop (a LOCAL
drive), right clicks the mouse, navigates to the SendTo, expands that and
clicks on the ARGTEST menu item.  The result is a bash window popping up
which lists the files that I highlighted and were passed in as positional
args:


    c:\Administrator\Desktop\post_inst.txt
    c:\Administrator\Desktop\USAJobs.doc
    c:\Administrator\Desktop\John.doc
    c:\Administrator\Desktop\How to build.url


We can convert them to cygwin names using $(cygpath "$i")" in the echo line
above and obtain:


    /cygdrive/c/Administrator/Desktop/post_inst.txt
    /cygdrive/c/Administrator/Desktop/USAJobs.doc
    /cygdrive/c/Administrator/Desktop/John.doc
    /cygdrive/c/Administrator/Desktop/How to build.url


All is well.


HOWEVER, when pointing to files on a NETWORK SHARE, eg, //share/file, the
filename are sometimes broken.


Running the same 2 examples above, but selecting files on a network share
results in some wrong results:


    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\how2bu.txt
    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\Questionable
    \q04\place\mnt\mnt\Copy of how2bu.txt                (WRONG!)
    \q04\place\mnt\mnt\tmp - must sort soon                (WRONG!)
    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\.master


with cygpath, conversions are of course wrong (garbage in garbage out):


    //q04/place/mnt/mnt/how2bu.txt
    //q04/place/mnt/mnt/Questionable
    /cygdrive/c/q04/place/mnt/mnt/Copy of how2bu.txt    (WRONG!)
    /cygdrive/c/q04/place/mnt/mnt/tmp - must sort soon    (WRONG!)
    //q04/place/mnt/mnt/.master


NOTICE THAT THE FILENAMES WITH SPACES (or with spaces in any part of the
path) ARE INCORRECT.


Out of interest, we can create an anagolous system using an XP .cmd script
which will also be passed the args as positional parameters. The .cmd script
to print them out is:


    @echo off
    echo.%1
    echo.%2
    echo.%3
    echo.%4
    echo.%5
    echo.%6
    echo.%7
    echo.%8
    echo.%9
    pause


and the results of running this with the desktop (local drive) are:


    c:\Administrator\Desktop\post_inst.txt
    c:\Administrator\Desktop\USAJobs.doc
    c:\Administrator\Desktop\John.doc
    "c:\Administrator\Desktop\How to build.url"


and with the network share are (the one with problems with cygwin):


    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\.master
    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\how2bu.txt
    \\q04\place\mnt\mnt\Questionable
    "\\q04\place\mnt\mnt\Copy of how2bu.txt"
    "\\q04\place\mnt\mnt\tmp - must sort soon"


So, in summary, the files which did not make it through the XP / cygwin
interface correctly, were those on a remote share, and with spaces in the
path, which windows puts QUOTES around and have the \\ UNC path syntax.


I tried looking through the bugs section, but didn't see anything similar.
Also, I think that I've seen this behavour for a few years now.


By the way, mapping the remote share to a drive, say z:, and running the
scripts on those selected files produces the correct filenames. Just the UNC
path //share/dir/file.txt is sometimes wrong.


Is this a bug?


Is there a better way in general for passing selected filenames into scripts
like this?  It seems that there is a limit of around 55 filenames that
windows can pass to either cygwin bash or a .cmd script.  Above that, one
gets the error: "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file.
You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the time," a strage
error given the cause of too many command line parameters (or total
characters).  Obviously things like the builtin windows zip can pass in 1000s
of filenames to work on.


Thanks,


John Refling

--
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple