X-Recipient: archive-cygwin AT delorie DOT com
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=sourceware.org; h=list-id
	:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-archive:list-post
	:list-help:sender:message-id:date:from:mime-version:to:subject
	:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding;
	 q=dns; s=default; b=MXGBT4hG17txOZeiaNJpgq+oq4J034r2tcGF1eWMz1O
	mUiR9XL2K0I7ntQq2L6luG96kMTb+Wkhd5VgRrtojc6Voe+n5KKdfctnvQ6Rgr6B
	fqIH0lY8uz372JatNM/iBQmg9+leEigAkAQvv7JCtoUEAFbshNLvOAuqN7jHfzkI
	=
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed; d=sourceware.org; h=list-id
	:list-unsubscribe:list-subscribe:list-archive:list-post
	:list-help:sender:message-id:date:from:mime-version:to:subject
	:references:in-reply-to:content-type:content-transfer-encoding;
	 s=default; bh=bMprcEx1FiXmSzgfuNlKIgrDo3c=; b=Jgq7bBkbKgfhKealM
	KJCwobwliraQmNS3qEQU37KNJislqKDKTjk4yhzCC54gw3d8w3a1f+QQlQZv2jEf
	3gEJCzhMSnd554MSYXT7QXNxOH9jCLsYIpJ0N3wvfar4TxPUdr8IYh+Sqdrk06Ca
	k3y2CZavTbnmbgpV1vHRfk9qE4=
Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com; run by ezmlm
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>
List-Subscribe: <mailto:cygwin-subscribe AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Archive: <http://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/>
List-Post: <mailto:cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
List-Help: <mailto:cygwin-help AT cygwin DOT com>, <http://sourceware.org/ml/#faqs>
Sender: cygwin-owner AT cygwin DOT com
Mail-Followup-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none
X-Virus-Found: No
X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_50,KAM_LAZY_DOMAIN_SECURITY autolearn=no version=3.3.2
X-HELO: demumfd002.nsn-inter.net
Message-ID: <55C34D1F.6020503@towo.net>
Date: Thu, 06 Aug 2015 14:03:43 +0200
From: Thomas Wolff <towo AT towo DOT net>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.7.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: Cygwin 2.2.0-1
References: <announce DOT 20150803131950 DOT GA18878 AT calimero DOT vinschen DOT de> <55BFB64C DOT 1010802 AT towo DOT net> <20150803192940 DOT GA19315 AT calimero DOT vinschen DOT de> <loom DOT 20150804T094839-714 AT post DOT gmane DOT org> <895515CC-6BB7-41E7-AEA5-30FBBE071153 AT etr-usa DOT com> <87wpxac2bj DOT fsf AT Rainer DOT invalid> <20150805075435 DOT GP17917 AT calimero DOT vinschen DOT de> <55C1D2BC DOT 60507 AT towo DOT net> <20150805101252 DOT GV17917 AT calimero DOT vinschen DOT de>
In-Reply-To: <20150805101252.GV17917@calimero.vinschen.de>
X-TagToolbar-Keys: D20150806140342838
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-purgate-type: clean
X-purgate-Ad: Categorized by eleven eXpurgate (R) http://www.eleven.de
X-purgate: clean
X-purgate: This mail is considered clean (visit http://www.eleven.de for further information)
X-purgate-size: 2153
X-purgate-ID: 151667::1438862625-0000676C-CD5DDC54/0/0
X-IsSubscribed: yes

On 05.08.2015 12:12, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Aug  5 11:09, Thomas Wolff wrote:
>> Am 05.08.2015 um 09:54 schrieb Corinna Vinschen:
>> ...
>>> So the idea was:
>>>
>>>    set HOME=foo		<- ignored, set HOME from passwd DB entry
>>>    set HOME=C:/foo	<- same
>> No, please don't!
>>>    set HOME=//foo/bar	<- same
>>>    set HOME=/foo/bar	<- valid, taken
>>>
>>> Right now, when started from a non-Cygwin process, Cygwin takes the
>>> value of $HOME and simply calls the Win32->POSIX conversion function.
>>> It does so for a long time, but is that right?
Yes!
>>>    Especially if %HOME% is
>>> a non-absolute == relative path, the resulting POSIX value of $HOME
>>> depends on the current directory when starting Cygwin.
>> Other POSIX systems don't handle this situation well either, so I don't see
>> a need to act here.
> Other POSIX systems don't usually get a broken path.  The path is set
> by the login process with the value taken from the passwd DB.  That's
> what should be the default for Cygwin processes started from non-Cygwin
> processes as well.  Of course Cygwin has to use $HOME because it could
> be set for a reason.  But typically we don't need $HOME from Win32
> processes, unless it's propagated from another Cygwin parent process.
>
> The general idea is to make sure the passwd DB contains the correct
> home dir and then use that.
It's a long Unix tradition that you can set HOME to something arbitrary 
before starting a shell (and if you choose a relative or non-existing 
path, it's your own fault). This should be maintained, whether doing so 
within Cygwin or from Windows. As you say, if somebody's setting HOME in 
Windows, they are doing this on purpose.
And people shouldn't be told to set HOME to a value not valid in the 
environment they are setting it. Also considering that two applications 
were mentioned that use it within Windows.
Finally, I think people shouldn't be told they cannot use the 
traditional Unix feature (well-known to some) anymore because they 
should use some more modern DB configuration method (system-specific, to 
be studied...).

Thomas

--
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