From: ty@kau1.kodak.com (Trevor Yann)
Subject: Re: Default linker output filename
10 Nov 1996 18:58:36 -0800
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Cygwin32 could hide the filename extension for .exe files. A .exe extension
could be used for setting execute permission.

i.e.
setting a file to be executable would change the file name to include a .exe
extension.

There would be no need to modify makefiles - an output file of "foo" would
create a file called "foo", which is then marked executable, changing the
name to "foo.exe".  Using the Cygwin32 tools to view the directory
containing the file would show a file "foo" that is executable.

Opening a file would need to be modified to try for the unmodified file
name, then (if that failed), to try the name with .exe appended. Opening a
file with O_EXCL would require additional checking.

Similarly other functions that require file names might have to be modified
to look for a file with .exe extension if they can't find a file with the
unmodified name.

A side effect of this would be that marking a shell script as executable
would make it look like a binary executable.  This would only be a problem
if an attempt to execute the script was made from outside the Cygwin32
environment. 

There are problems introduced by this scheme. It is possible to create a
file "foo" and a file "foo.exe" in the same directory.


Just my 2 cents worth.

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