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=noW56Fz+Oh+Y33eSKCj3Ec8Ns5TEr+3YFvhXu7DyecM
	ay3D7JgPmei2+mBuHDg2bsrRM1CR4/2ParBGRogolahTkwDKJMJJyWwK6fi5I+Xt
	ulw+Itk+dz7qJrcc87WwONGEWhmAKwTjbxCTgc4urpm8oJyyXBg3xuaSS37DyZME
	=
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=o56RHZEUUCXFKlwr6zxR8kMhy5g=; b=jr5rv6wvL1oz6HERR
	zK+Fc0Y3L642NromXYKPNgIEShGEgsjKftO0iC9u31vOjbZV53NOYTdVNF9KLJ3b
	o73JGysdAmOm1GyYAw0eBnkr5Deo3arES9v6QOI86DonNpxCgUOvprp+oy3wm9eY
	x7mSIPmromwLHRb2cLRq10NUP8=
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=BAYES_50,RP_MATCHES_RCVD autolearn=ham version=3.3.2 spammy=well!, works!, H*r:192.168.3, Absolutely
X-HELO: Ishtar.sc.tlinx.org
Message-ID: <57C34240.7080100@tlinx.org>
Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 12:57:52 -0700
From: Linda Walsh <cygwin AT tlinx DOT org>
User-Agent: Thunderbird
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: The Cygwin User Guide on path names
References: <6a728c0c-81e8-b92b-8344-476d736e2306 AT cornell DOT edu>   <803530117 DOT 20160824125116 AT yandex DOT ru> <57BF15C7 DOT 40104 AT tlinx DOT org>  <1438370398 DOT 20160826055312 AT yandex DOT ru>  <41bbca20-2b04-abba-4329-aefa7600cd13 AT mehconsulting DOT com> <1647564591 DOT 20160826153222 AT yandex DOT ru>
In-Reply-To: <1647564591.20160826153222@yandex.ru>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-IsSubscribed: yes

Andrey Repin wrote:
> Also, @ Linda, the string escaping is done by the shell before passing
> arguments to the command, as I understand.
> If I'm starting an application not from shell, the app, being a good citizen,
> should not second-guess the arguments it is given.
---
	Absolutely.  Don't get me wrong.  I am NOT for removing 
functionality or compatibility.  If the Winpaths work for you
in your situation, I am all for keeping them working!  No reason
to break previous compatibility needlessly.  Way too often, developers 
are throwing away previous compat. because its convenient, to make
it harder for the user to maintain & control their machine.

	I usually find the forward slashes easier to use because
of the quoting issue -- as I used ls for an example.  Same would
apply to diff though.  I.e. -- in bash, if you type

  > diff C:\tmp\file1 C:\tmp\file2

It won't do what many might think it 'should', -- it will
try to compare "C:tmpfile1" & C:tmpfile2, with the backquotes
removed before diff or patch ever see the filenames.  

You have to be careful to add extra quoting if you use Winpaths,
like:

  > diff 'C:\tmp\file1' 'C:\tmp\file2'

If you used the unix path format, and have your cygdrive prefix =
'/', then you can type the above like:

  > diff /c/file{1,2}

Which involves alot less typing (if 'c' is your root drive and you are
on the same drive, you could leave off the '/c' above to get:

  > diff /file{1,2}

Which is even less typing... Personally, I like the shortest
format that works! But that doesn't mean longer forms shouldn't work
as well!

-l



--
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