Re: [PATCH v1/RFC 1/1] 'git clone <url> C:\cygwin\home\USER\repo' is working (again)

From: Steven Penny <svnpenn@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 27, 2018, 02:49 UTC
Message-ID: <CAAXzdLX4jU7+i1W1A_Q1LpPFa1D4FYVPW5rcMnqr_tDHEJn+tw@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <xmqqtvk3tj45.fsf@gitster-ct.c.googlers.com>

On Mon, Nov 26, 2018 at 7:16 PM Junio C Hamano wrote:

> I wonder if it makes the rest of the code simpler if we stripped
> things like /cygdrive/c here exactly the sam way as we strip C:
> For that, has_dos_drive_prefix() needs to know /cygdrive/[a-z],
> which may not be a bad thing, I guess.  Let's read on.

With full paths, Cygwin can traverse drives:

    $ cd 'C:\Users'
    $ pwd
    /cygdrive/c/Users

    $ cd 'D:\Testing'
    $ pwd
    /cygdrive/d/Testing

If you strip the drive, you can still navigate within the same drive:

    $ cd 'C:\Users'
    $ pwd
    /cygdrive/c/Users

    $ cd '\Windows'
    $ pwd
    /cygdrive/c/Windows

but you can no longer traverse drives:

    $ cd '\Testing'
    sh: cd: \Testing: No such file or directory

So a good first question for me would be: why are we stripping "C:" or similar in the first place?

>  - Is there a point in having cygwin specific variant of these, or
>    can we just borrow from mingw version (with some refactoring)?
>    Is there a point in doing so (e.g. if mingw plans to move to
>    reject forward slashes, attempting to share is pointless).

I would say these could be merged into a "win.h" or similar. Cygwin typically leans toward the "/unix/style" while MINGW has been more tolerant of "C:\Windows\Style" and "C:/Mixed/Style" paths, i dont see that changing.