Re: Requested report

[cyg Simple <cygsimple@gmail.com>]

On 12/1/2017 10:35 AM, Vince Rice wrote:
>> On Dec 1, 2017, at 8:55 AM, cyg Simple wrote:
>>
>> On 11/30/2017 11:41 PM, Richard Mateosian wrote:
>>> Thanks. I wasn't actually using Cygwin, but Ruby apparently does so under
>>> the covers. Or maybe my path leads it astray, because I used to use Cygwin
>>> -- a long time ago.   ...RM
>>>
>>
>> You should not put Cygwin in your Windows PATH environment at the system
>> level or user levels.  If you need it during a command shell session,
>> add it after you start the command shell.  I've never heard that Ruby
>> intentionally uses Cygwin.
> 
> What? I've had cygwin in my path since the B19 days (that's right, even *before* the infamous B20). I regularly (and almost exclusively) use cygwin tools in the command processor; I have a mintty session open, but only use it when I need to do shell-related things.
> 

So?  You've just been lucky to not have had an issue.  Adding Cygwin to
the Windows PATH has been ill advised since the B19 days.  Other tools
are bound to distribute Cygwin and interfere with what you have
installed.  It happens all the time.  Not putting Cygwin's path directly
in the Windows PATH helps resolve some of the issues caused by multiple
installs of Cygwin.  However, it doesn't eliminate all of the issue.

> There's no reason not to have Cygwin in the Windows path, and lots of reasons to do so (grep, cat, tail, head, etc., etc.).
> 

There's lots of reasons to not do so as I've mentioned above.  Yes, it's
nice to have these in a Windows command session.  You could start a
command window via a .bat file whose purpose is to set PATH before
starting cmd.exe.  This keeps other tools from seeing it.

-- 
cyg Simple

--
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