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Re: Why are Windows paths broken in make 3.81?
On Wed, 26 Jul 2006, Michael Hirsch wrote:
> On 7/21/06, mwoehlke <mwoehlke@XXXXX.XXX> wrote:
<http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#PCYMTNQREAIYR>. Thanks.
> > Michael Hirsch wrote:
> > [snip]
> > > Is it broken only on Windows?
> >
> > That sounds like a silly question... 'are Windows paths only broken on
> > Windows?'
>
> It sounds like a silly question, but it isn't. I tested, and yes, if
> you have a directory named "c:" in Linux, make is broken on that
> directory, too. Since "c:" is a valid name in Linux (and POSIX, I
> believe) I consider that a bug in make. I'll have to report that to
> GNU, as it is not a cygwin issue. The error message on Linux is just
> as incomprehensible as it is Cygwin, too, so at least I know who to
> talk to about it.
While ':' is a valid filename character on Linux (though not on all
filesystems, obviously), it is a special character in make. So you need
to be careful when using it in Makefiles. Just like '>' is a valid
filename character, but you would not expect to be able to use it unquoted
in your shell.
> > > Is this a cywin only bug? What possible reason could there be to
> > > introduce this deliberately?
> >
> > No, as it is not a "bug". However it is specific to Cygwin. See the
> > aforementioned announcement. CGF would have to speak to "why" (and I
> > would appreciate if he would, just because I am curious :-)), but I
> > would guess it is to "encourage" people to use correct (i.e. POSIX)
> > paths.
>
> I guess that was the reason. How disappointing. I always thought
> that cygwin provided a great service by allowing me to use both
> windows and posix paths. I'll miss that capability a lot.
I don't think any of the Cygwin package maintainers would deliberately
break existing functionality for some purist reasons. Besides, there's no
need to guess. CGF already stated the reason: maintaining a
Cygwin-specific patch to support this functionality has become too
cumbersome, and CGF decided that his volunteer effort is better spent
doing other, more important things for Cygwin.
HTH,
Igor
--
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