Unexpected behavior from cygpath command

[Alfred von Campe <alfred@von-campe.com>]

I have two almost identical build servers, but cygpath is not behaving as expected on one of them.  Here is the output from the “good” build server:

  $ cygpath.exe —version | head -1
  cygpath (cygwin) 2.11.2
  
  $ cygpath -d 'E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems'
  E:\PROGRA~1\IARSYS~1

Cygpath has correctly converted the given path to DOS (8.3) format as expected. Here is the output from the “bad” build server.

  $ cygpath.exe —version | head -1
  cygpath (cygwin) 2.11.1

  $ cygpath -d 'E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems'
  E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems

Why is cygpath returning the same path passed in?  Oh wait, it’s running a slightly older version (2.11.1 vs 2.11.2).  Perhaps there was a bug in the earlier version.  Let me update the Cygwin installation and try again:

  $ cygpath —version | head -1
  cygpath (cygwin) 3.1.0

  $ cygpath -d 'E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems'
  E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems

WTF?  Why is it still doing this?  Can there be a global config setting that affects cygpath’s behavior?  Hmm, let me try a different approach:

  $ cygpath -d "$(cygpath -u 'E:\Program Files (x86)\IAR Systems')"
  E:\PROGRA~1\IARSYS~1

Hey, cygpath can convert to DOS paths on this system after all, just not when it’s given a Windows path.  Can anyone explain this behavior?

Alfred



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