Re: cygpath (reprised)

[cyg Simple <cygsimple@gmail.com>]

On 2/27/2017 9:03 AM, Nellis, Kenneth (Conduent) wrote:
> From: cyg Simple 
>> On 2/21/2017 1:22 PM, Nellis, Kenneth (Conduent) wrote:
>>> I suppose one could argue that, by using -w, that cygpath might assume that it
>>> is converting *from* a POSIX path, and therefore the colon would not indicate
>>> a drive letter--wouldn't that make sense?--but I’ll let someone else take up
>>> that battle. ☺
>>
>> I would almost agree except for the help description of the -w option.
>> ...
> 
> Hmm. Not sure that I see that. From the man page:
> 
> The cygpath program is a utility that converts Windows native filenames to Cygwin 
> POSIX-style pathnames and vice versa.
> 

A general description of the application.  What does the man page say
about the -w option itself?  If nothing then you need to see the cygpath
--help itself.

> I read this as converting one format to the other.

The -w, --windows help text simply says "print windows form of NAMEs
(C:\WINNT)".  This says nothing about what to expect of the conversion
other than it should be a valid windows path.  It doesn't state what
happens with garbage input so you should assume an undefined behavior.

Back to the examples 'a:b' is always valid input while './a:b' isn't
always valid for Windows; although it could be.  So what should happen
for the latter is if possible the `:' character be converted to its
UNICODE representation as NTFS can use that character as part of the
file name. But if not possible you get back what you entered.  This does
leave you with the need to filter the result since garbage begets a
stinking mess.

Always stay away from the corner cases if you wish to never have issues.
 Otherwise be ready to deal with them in continuous rigor.

-- 
cyg Simple

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