Re: v2.52.0-rc0 test failure on cygwin

From: Ramsay Jones <ramsay@ramsayjones.plus.com>
Date: Nov 6, 2025, 21:00 UTC
Message-ID: <5450446b-c1b9-4701-ae21-26da6ae35f52@ramsayjones.plus.com>
In-Reply-To: <bdba6156-e286-492f-a64d-52bdcf074ea1@kdbg.org>

On 06/11/2025 6:27 pm, Johannes Sixt wrote:

Show 17 quoted lines

> Am 06.11.25 um 11:53 schrieb Patrick Steinhardt:
>> On Tue, Nov 04, 2025 at 11:49:46PM +0000, Ramsay Jones wrote:
>>> So, not really an answer, but I have noted several times over the years
>>> that cygwin seems to delay setting some file attributes until after the
>>> process has exited ... [yeah, I don't see how either! ;) ].
>>
>> What? That's horrible if true. How doesn't this cause more issues?
> 
> Unlike POSIX write(), Windows's WriteFile() doesn't update the
> modification time stamp immediately. It's only updated when the last
> file handle is closed.
> 
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/fileapi/nf-fileapi-writefile
> 
>> When writing to a file, the last write time is not fully updated until
>> all handles used for writing have been closed.
>

Yep, I deliberately said 'seems to ...' because I have very little by way of hard facts! ;)

Well, except, in approx 1996 on windows NT3.51 (on the only occasion that I did any commercial windows programming), I had a 'problem' with what appeared to be a 'late' update to a file attribute (I can't remember which one - it could have been time related, rather than permissions). A 'windows expert' (which I have never been) gave me a workaround for the 'windows filesystem bug' (his words).

It was at this time that I first used cygwin (beta 14 I think - I still have the cygnus solutions CD somewhere). I had managed to not use windows of any description before then, so I was absolutely horrified by the awful development environment that greeted me! (even with the visual C++ GUI). So, on every laptop since then, I have immediately installed cygwin, along with dual-booting linux.

In a small way, I have tried to 'pay back' the cygwin developers, who saved me from going crazy during that project! ;)

ATB, Ramsay Jones