Strange quoting behaviour using cygwin utilities outside shell

Strange quoting behaviour using cygwin utilities outside shell

[Anthony Sottile]

I'm using cygwin utilities from outside cygwin (essentially
piggybacking on msysgit).  I'm writing a python application that aims
to target both POSIX systems and windows -- using cygwin utilities
seems like a perfect fit.

I'm using subprocess in python (under the hood it is essentially
CreateProcess calls).  I can't seem to get the quoting to work out in
a posix-compatible way:

```python
>>> ret = subprocess.call(('D:/tools/cygwin64/bin/echo.exe', '"hi"'))
\hi"
>>> ret = subprocess.call(('D:/tools/cygwin64/bin/echo.exe', '"hi"'), env={'CYGWIN': 'noglob'})
\hi\
```

The expected behaviour (demonstrated from ubuntu):

```python
>>> ret = subprocess.call(('lsb_release', '-a'))
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 15.04
Release:    15.04
Codename:    vivid
>>> ret = subprocess.call(('echo', '"hi"'))
"hi"
```

That is, to have echo.exe not mangle my quotes

Perhaps related:
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/issues/561#issuecomment-162621304

If it's helpful, here's the strace output:
http://paste.pound-python.org/show/3pRuq1lAToCYKr8lKq7x/

Here's the version info, however I'm able to reproduce this in others
(including msys's versions):

```
Anthony@AnthonysDesktop ~
$ /bin/echo.exe --version
echo (GNU coreutils) 8.25
Packaged by Cygwin (8.25-1)
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Written by Brian Fox and Chet Ramey.

```

I believe to have traced the problem down to this line:

https://cygwin.com/git/gitweb.cgi?p=newlib-cygwin.git;a=blob;f=winsup/cygwin/dcrt0.cc;h=cbe7f25918;hb=HEAD#l187

I'm not sure what the correct fix is here, but I'm willing to assist
if possible :)

The examples above are using echo but it seems to happen with any
executable compiled for cygwin/msys -- the particular one I'm having
issue with is actually grep.

Thanks in advance!

Anthony

--
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

Re: Strange quoting behaviour using cygwin utilities outside shell

[Eliot Moss]

On 4/8/2016 12:42 AM, Anthony Sottile wrote:
> I'm using cygwin utilities from outside cygwin (essentially
> piggybacking on msysgit).  I'm writing a python application that aims
> to target both POSIX systems and windows -- using cygwin utilities
> seems like a perfect fit.

Why not use cygwin's python?

Regards -- EM

--
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