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List: mingw-notify
Subject: MinGW-notify Digest, Vol 52, Issue 2
From: mingw-notify-request () lists ! sourceforge ! net
Date: 2010-09-07 19:31:33
Message-ID: mailman.915410.1283887893.8007.mingw-notify () lists ! sourceforge ! net
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Today's Topics:
1. [ mingw-Bugs-3058994 ] msys installations with spaces in the
path (SF/projects/mingw notification list)
2. [ mingw-Patches-3059439 ] Add missing package descriptions to
gcc manifest (SF/projects/mingw notification list)
3. [ mingw-Patches-3059490 ] Update dependency on libgcc for
gettext manifest (SF/projects/mingw notification list)
4. [ mingw-Bugs-3059626 ] rm -rf coredumps
(SF/projects/mingw notification list)
5. [ mingw-Bugs-3058994 ] msys installations with spaces in the
path (SF/projects/mingw notification list)
6. [ mingw-Patches-3046195 ] Native symlinks
(SF/projects/mingw notification list)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:33:38 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Bugs-3058994 ] msys installations with
spaces in the path
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1Orc14-0006he-Dp@sfs-web-3.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Bugs item #3058994, was opened at 2010-09-03 12:33
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by davidhoyt
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=102435&aid=3058994&group_id=2435
Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
including the initial issue submission, for this request,
not just the latest update.
Category: MSYS
Group: Future MSYS enhancement
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: David Hoyt (davidhoyt)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: msys installations with spaces in the path
Initial Comment:
I've attached a small patch that allows msys to be run from a path that has spaces in \
it by quoting the path in a few places. To reproduce the problem I was seeing, all \
you have to do is create an msys environment in a path that has a space in it. e.g.: \
C:\Documents and Settings\user1\msys
I know the recommendation is to install to C:\msys, but I've run many, many \
msys/mingw programs that work fine without requiring them to be in C:\msys. This \
patch allows my environment to now be xcopy deployable. Which is a benefit for people \
in my project.
I'm on Windows 7, x86_64.
uname -a gives me: MINGW32_NT-6.1 DEV-PC1 1.0.15(0.47/3/2) 2010-07-06 22:04 i686 Msys
My environment should be up-to-date -- it was created this morning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=102435&aid=3058994&group_id=2435
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 18:22:24 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Patches-3059439 ] Add missing package
descriptions to gcc manifest
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1OrxNg-0007kl-S0@sfs-web-6.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Patches item #3059439, was opened at 2010-09-04 15:22
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by cstrauss
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=302435&aid=3059439&group_id=2435
Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread,
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not just the latest update.
Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Add missing package descriptions to gcc manifest
Initial Comment:
I added a description for libgomp and libssp which were missing in the gcc 4 \
manifest. What do you think?
Cesar
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
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------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:38:31 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Patches-3059490 ] Update dependency on
libgcc for gettext manifest
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1OrzVP-00034f-U5@sfs-web-3.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Patches item #3059490, was opened at 2010-09-04 17:38
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by cstrauss
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=302435&aid=3059490&group_id=2435
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not just the latest update.
Category: None
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: Update dependency on libgcc for gettext manifest
Initial Comment:
The gettext manifest references an old version of the shared C Runtime library.
Now that the GCC 4 manifest was published, we can update it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Sun, 05 Sep 2010 03:17:31 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Bugs-3059626 ] rm -rf coredumps
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1Os5jX-0000tm-7i@sfs-web-4.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Bugs item #3059626, was opened at 2010-09-04 23:17
Message generated for change (Tracker Item Submitted) made by cwilso11
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Category: MSYS
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Charles Wilson (cwilso11)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: rm -rf coredumps
Initial Comment:
msys: MINGW32_NT-6.0 KHELDAR 1.0.15(0.47/3/2) 2010-07-06 22:04 i686 Msys
bash: 3.1.17(1)-release (i686-pc-msys)
coreutils: 5.97-3
mkdir /usr/tmp/abc
touch /usr/tmp/def
rm -rf /usr/tmp/abc
0 [main] rm 26596 open_stackdumpfile: Dumping stack trace to rm.exe.stackdump
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
sounds like MSYS is getting confused by the / == /usr and /tmp == %TMP% mounts. What \
IS /usr/tmp? Physically, it is located at C:\msys\1.0\tmp -- but the logic here is a \
little twisted. If *I'm* getting confused, it's possible msys is confused -- maybe \
hits an infloop and runs out of either buffer space (constructing the win32 path) or \
stack space? Just a guess...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
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------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:40:58 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Bugs-3058994 ] msys installations with
spaces in the path
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1OswXq-0007fy-LS@sfs-web-5.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Bugs item #3058994, was opened at 2010-09-03 15:33
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by earnie
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=102435&aid=3058994&group_id=2435
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Category: MSYS
Group: Future MSYS enhancement
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: David Hoyt (davidhoyt)
> Assigned to: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Summary: msys installations with spaces in the path
Initial Comment:
I've attached a small patch that allows msys to be run from a path that has spaces in \
it by quoting the path in a few places. To reproduce the problem I was seeing, all \
you have to do is create an msys environment in a path that has a space in it. e.g.: \
C:\Documents and Settings\user1\msys
I know the recommendation is to install to C:\msys, but I've run many, many \
msys/mingw programs that work fine without requiring them to be in C:\msys. This \
patch allows my environment to now be xcopy deployable. Which is a benefit for people \
in my project.
I'm on Windows 7, x86_64.
uname -a gives me: MINGW32_NT-6.1 DEV-PC1 1.0.15(0.47/3/2) 2010-07-06 22:04 i686 Msys
My environment should be up-to-date -- it was created this morning.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2010-09-07 07:40
Message:
I think this is a duplicate. Please check the previous issues.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can respond by visiting:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=102435&aid=3058994&group_id=2435
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:31:28 +0000
From: SF/projects/mingw notification list
<mingw-notify@lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: [MinGW-notify] [ mingw-Patches-3046195 ] Native symlinks
To: noreply@sourceforge.net
Message-ID: <E1Ot3tA-00062P-I2@sfs-web-9.v29.ch3.sourceforge.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
Patches item #3046195, was opened at 2010-08-16 13:29
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by ladis
You can respond by visiting:
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Category: msys
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Assigned to: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Summary: Native symlinks
Initial Comment:
This premiliary patch contains support for native symlinks. See this thread: \
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gnu.mingw.user/32432/
As I do not know which Windows versions are officially supported by MSYS, \
create_symlink function is not implemented as it is available since Vista. Original \
patch had CreateSymbolicLink dynamically loaded based on Windows version, but since \
CreateHardLink is used directly (and IsWow54Process elsewhere as well), lets leave \
actual implementation once this question is resolved.
msys_symlink was called from path.cc with arguments swapped, so fix both caller and \
callee. At least this part of patch would deserve merging.
Also it turned out, that symlinks are actually easy to implement, but learning the \
rest of MSYS about their existence is much harder. There is some code trying to \
resolve .lnk files as well as code which stores symlink info into NTFS extended \
attributes and also code implementing links with BackupWrite. Everything probably \
inherited from Cygwin. How should it be done in MSYS?
Interestingly enough BackupWrite approach uses fallback semantics. If 'symlink' \
cannot be created, file copy is performed. On Linux link syscall returns -EPERM on \
FAT filesystem (and I would expect -ENOTSUPP). I'd rather avoid silent fallback, or \
make that optional.
More comments later, there is already enough questions asked.
Thank you,
ladis
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-09-07 21:31
Message:
Seems whole path_conv code could be simplified considerably by actually
deleting (not just disabling) cygwin symlink stuff. Unfortunately I
haven't
found time for it yet, as it needs extensive testing. Perhaps I'll start
sending easy to review incremental patches.
Meanwhile as a proof of concept I updated msys\rt\src\newlib\libc\string
content from newlib-1.18.0 including relevant header files. This allows
cleaning up msys\rt\src\winsup\cygwin from homebrew functions. I checked
cygwin repository and they are using recent version of newlib. Question is
if we should import whole newer newlib library or just a required part.
Note that recent newlib is huge - 13.5MB. Either way I'm ready to provide
patch.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-08-24 17:43
Message:
Added new version of patch against recent CVS. To test it just set mode to
one of SYMLINK_MODE_NATIVE, SYMLINK_MODE_JUNCTION or SYMLINK_MODE_COPY.
Once set to SYMLINK_MODE_NATIVE, you'll get behaviour described by
keithmarshall at 2010-08-18 15:58:40 CEST.
I'll work on making the rest of MSYS symlink aware and I'm dumping patch
update here just in case someone get more spare time than myself and to
let
people test it out.
Btw, MSYS' newlib has almost no unicode support and symlink code needs
wcscpy, wcscat and wcslen. These are currently replaced with lstrcpyW,
lstrcatW and lstrlenW, but as they are available since Windows 2000, it
would be nice to provide their proper implementation. Also note that
syscalls.cc already contains implementations of getw, putw, wcscmp, wcslen
and wprintf - some of them are not properly implemented.
Should unicode support come from recent version of newlib or from mingwrt?
Am I missing anything?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-08-18 21:35
Message:
cstrauss wrote:
> > I would very much appreciate if this could be done by
> > someone more familiar with MSYS, but in the worst case
> > I can do it myself (it will take me quite some time).
> I can't say I am an expert on this part of the code, but I'll try to
help.
> Unfortunately, I currently have access only to Windows XP and 95
> installations, so I really have no way to test the symlink part.
There is no need to have access to any windows box. What I need
to know are requirements to path.cc implementation. It is quite
hard job to write it down already, so I'll prepare msys-1.0.dll
and test case and let users test it on various boxes.
I'll probably start with cleaning path.cc to make further
modifications easier, but it would be really helpfull to know
which functionality is actually required by msys and
implement it from scratch - this part is easy comparing
to analysis...
> As for your previous question on the mailing list:
> > where to hook code supposed to run only once at dll startup?
> A place would be in dcrt0.cc (dll_crt0_1).
Things made some progress meanwhile, so it does not seem
to be a need for any sort of startup code. But thanks anyway,
I'll possibly use that knowledge in future contributions.
keithmarshall wrote:
> On further reflection, POSIX semantics require creation of a symbolic
> link to fail if the 'frompath' entity already exists (unless we forcibly
> remove it first, as with ln -sf ...)
This functionality is already provided by current implementation. After
Cesar decides what to do with symlink argument order patch, I'll
sent an update based on cvs head...
Now is probably a good time to unveil my secret plan for world
domination, aka why do I want to ln -s optionally fail on filesystems
not supporting it. As you probably noted, many projects provide
mingw.org as a base for crosscompiler environments and most
of them use some homebrew scrips to compile gcc and friends.
(As a side note, this afternoon I read (hopefully) all relevant threads
about mingw-w64 fork and I'm pretty dissapointed). These projects
are pretty hard to maintain in long term, simply because there is
not enough manpower. With PTXdist and OSELAS.Toolchain,
building your own crosscompiler, boottable linux root filesystem
image or just any other software package consisting of opensource
projects is as simple as typing 'ptxdist go' - in case somebody
provide relevant configuration. It already works pretty well on Linux
and the only (well, the 'only' is an obvious euphemism here) thing
which is preventing this tool to work efficiently on windows is
symlink support. Therefore I want to know if ln -s works or 'DTRT'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Keith Marshall (keithmarshall)
Date: 2010-08-18 16:36
Message:
> Okay, agreed. Let's rewrite (3):
>
> 3) If the entity to be linked represents a directory, attempt to create
> a reparse point to represent the link; return immediately on success.
> In all other cases, proceed to (4).
On further reflection, POSIX semantics require creation of a symbolic link
to fail if the 'frompath' entity already exists[*]. In this case, Windows
should fail to create a reparse point, but we don't then want to proceed to
(4) -- we just want to immediately *return* failure. However, just
encapsulating that into (3) isn't sufficient; we actually want to insert an
initial check *before* (1):
0) If the path from which the link is to be created represents an existing
entity, immediately return failure, otherwise proceed to (1).
[*] unless we forcibly remove it first, as with ln -sf ...
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Keith Marshall (keithmarshall)
Date: 2010-08-18 15:58
Message:
> > 3) If the OS/FS supports reparse points for the type of entity to
> > be linked, attempt to create one; return immediately on success,
> > otherwise proceed to (4).
>
> Be careful here. I have been able to create reparse points for files
> and MSYS programs use the file but native programs cannot.
> We do not want to make use of an undocumented feature.
Okay, agreed. Let's rewrite (3):
3) If the entity to be linked represents a directory, attempt to create a
reparse point to represent the link; return immediately on success. In all
other cases, proceed to (4).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2010-08-18 15:30
Message:
> 3) If the OS/FS supports reparse points for the type of entity to be
> linked, attempt to create one; return immediately on success, otherwise
> proceed to (4).
Be careful here. I have been able to create reparse points for files and
MSYS programs use the file but native programs cannot. We do not want to
make use of an undocumented feature.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Date: 2010-08-18 12:39
Message:
> Well, my understanding is quite opposite and as implemented in
> patch - content of the symbolic link (topath) is the first argument.
> As symlink name points to symlink content.
You are right, sorry by the confusion. I was still thinking in terms of
symlink-as-copy, where you copy *from* the original path *to* its new
destination.
> > We need MSYS to DTRT, when a developer blindly uses ln -s,
> > without checking that it does, in fact, work.
OK.
> I would very much appreciate if this could be done by
> someone more familiar with MSYS, but in the worst case
> I can do it myself (it will take me quite some time).
I can't say I am an expert on this part of the code, but I'll try to help.
Unfortunately, I currently have access only to Windows XP and 95
installations, so I really have no way to test the symlink part.
As for your previous question on the mailing list:
> where to hook code supposed to run only once at dll startup?
A place would be in dcrt0.cc (dll_crt0_1).
Regards,
Cesar
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Keith Marshall (keithmarshall)
Date: 2010-08-18 11:11
Message:
Ladis,
> > It's hardly the epitome of clarity!
>
> As I have problem understanding the meaning
> of above sentence (irony?)
No irony intended on my part, but perhaps ironic that you had difficulty
understanding. I'm guessing that your problem may be with "epitome":
http://oxforddictionaries.com/search?q=epitome
Hence, even as a native English speaker I found the wording of the POSIX
spec to be confusing, so little wonder that you and Cesar, (for both of
whom English is, presumably, a second language), may have interpreted it
differently. Just to confirm: having read it several times, and having
sought additional clarification from the manpage on my Ubuntu box, I concur
with your interpretation, rather than Cesar's.
> > We need MSYS to DTRT, when a developer blindly uses
> > ln -s, without checking that it does, in fact, work.
>
> Agree. My only concern is that fallback should be configurable.
> 1) Symlink using (recursive) copy
> 2) Use symlinks, fail with -EPERM if impossible (*)
> 3) Use symlinks, fallback to 1) if impossible.
To me, making it (somehow) configurable seems like overkill. Rather,
perform just one consistent sequence of operations, in *all* cases:
1) Attempt to create a (true) symbolic link; if the OS/FS cannot support
that, the attempt will report failure, in which case we proceed to (2); if
it succeeds, we are done, so immediately return, reporting success.
2) If the entity to be linked to is a *file*, attempt to create a *hard*
link; if that succeeds, then we are done and can return immediately;
otherwise we proceed to (3).
3) If the OS/FS supports reparse points for the type of entity to be
linked, attempt to create one; return immediately on success, otherwise
proceed to (4).
4) If the entity to be linked is a file, substitute a simple file copy for
the link; otherwise recursively replicate the directory structure, and
attempt to hard link individual files into the appropriate duplicate
location; substitute file copies, if hard linking fails.
> Yet no one wants to write path.cc functional analysis?
Personally, I am not sufficiently familiar with it to do that. Cesar is
probably best equipped to do so, but he may not wish to devote the time it
would take.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-08-18 10:50
Message:
Created 3047566 and removed CreateSymbolicLink patch from here.
Fix for msys_symlink argument order added as 3047571.
I'll update this patch once merged.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2010-08-17 21:13
Message:
> As I do not like mixing bugfix, cosmetic changes and actual new
> features is anyone interested in separate patch? Should I open
> new ticket? Should I do the same for w32api?
Yes, these should be separated.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-08-17 18:44
Message:
> It's hardly the epitome of clarity!
As I have problem understanding the meaning of above sentence (irony?)
I'd rather clarify: POSIX specification is accurate and I understand it
the
opposite way Cesar wrote.
As I do not like mixing bugfix, cosmetic changes and actual new
features is anyone interested in separate patch? Should I open
new ticket? Should I do the same for w32api?
> However, there is still an extensive corpus of projects which *don't*
> use autoconf, and thus may *not* DTRT when they use ln -s. Indeed,
> there are still many developers who continue to believe that they
> can write better configure scripts by hand, than autoconf can
> generate; (they can't, but convincing them of this fundamental
> reality is very difficult).
Here I assume DTRT means "Do The Right Thing". And, well, reality
is that most people can't write proper configure script either way.
I'm mostly cross-compiling and there are vast minority of packages
which 'just work'. However, this does not mean MSYS should make
things any worse.
> We need MSYS to DTRT, when a developer blindly uses ln -s,
> without checking that it does, in fact, work.
Agree. My only concern is that fallback should be configurable.
1) Symlink using (recursive) copy
2) Use symlinks, fail with -EPERM if impossible (*)
3) Use symlinks, fallback to 1) if impossible.
(*) It would be more accurate to return -ENOTSUPP here, but
Linux manpage states: "EPERM The file system containing
newpath does not support the creation of symbolic links."
and POSIX does not specify this situation at all.
environ.cc already contains definition of winsymlinks variable,
but its type is bool. Is it acceptable to change that?
Yet noone wants to write path.cc functional analysis? I'll wait
a bit longer... ;-)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Keith Marshall (keithmarshall)
Date: 2010-08-17 16:32
Message:
> > Please swap the order of the arguments of the symlink function
> > itself as well. According to the POSIX standard, the contents of
> > the symbolic link (frompath) is the first argument. To see it,
> > type "symlink" on the search box in the following page:
> > http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/
>
> http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/symlink.html
>
> int symlink(const char *path1, const char *path2);
>
> The symlink() function shall create a symbolic link called path2
> that contains the string pointed to by path1 ( path2 is the name
> of the symbolic link created, path1 is the string contained in the
> symbolic link).
>
> Well, my understanding is quite opposite and as implemented in
> patch - content of the symbolic link (topath) is the first argument.
> As symlink name points to symlink content.
It's hardly the epitome of clarity! The order of the arguments to the
POSIX symlink() function is the same as used in the ln -s command; i.e. the
first argument is the existing path name of the entity to which the link
will refer, and the second specifies the link entity to be created.
Logically, I would interpret a symlink as pointing from the created link
entity to the original entity, and thus I would expect the terminology to
refer to the first argument as 'topath' and the second as 'frompath'; i.e.
my understanding matches Ladis' interpretation.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Keith Marshall (keithmarshall)
Date: 2010-08-17 16:06
Message:
> > Autoconf currently has an AC_PROG_LN_S macro
> > which will set the $(LN_S) variable to either "ln -s",
> > "ln" or "cp -p", depending on the host capabilities.
> > Given this, is there any longer a need for the
> > symlink-as-copy fallback to be on by default
> > on MSYS?
>
> Testing is the only way to know but I would guess
> it would still be needed.
IMO, it is still very much needed. Certainly, there are many projects
using autoconf, and provided they've used AC_PROG_LN_S, and substituted
LN_S appropriately in their makefiles, then they will most likely DTRT.
However, there is still an extensive corpus of projects which *don't* use
autoconf, and thus may *not* DTRT when they use ln -s. Indeed, there are
still many developers who continue to believe that they can write better
configure scripts by hand, than autoconf can generate; (they can't, but
convincing them of this fundamental reality is very difficult). We need
MSYS to DTRT, when a developer blindly uses ln -s, without checking that it
does, in fact, work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2010-08-17 14:33
Message:
> Given this, is there any longer a need for the symlink-as-copy fallback to
be on by default on MSYS?
Testing is the only way to know but I would guess it would still be
needed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Ladislav Michl (ladis)
Date: 2010-08-17 13:29
Message:
> Please see the source in autoload.cc. If you add a CreateSymbolicLink
> declaration in there, you can call it in the code directly. You are
> actually calling a stub code that will load the appropriate library by
> demand, and either forward your call to the real function, or return
FALSE
> if it doesn't exists in your version of Windows.
Very interesting, usefull and explains my questions. I added
CreateSymbolicLink to the w32api (patch attached) and modified
autoload.cc accordingly.
> Please swap the order of the arguments of the symlink function itself as
> well. According to the POSIX standard, the contents of the symbolic link
> (frompath) is the first argument. To see it, type "symlink" on the
search
> box in the following page:
> http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/symlink.html
int symlink(const char *path1, const char *path2);
The symlink() function shall create a symbolic link called path2 that
contains the string pointed to by path1 ( path2 is the name of the
symbolic link created, path1 is the string contained in the symbolic
link).
Well, my understanding is quite opposite and as implemented in
patch - content of the symbolic link (topath) is the first argument.
As symlink name points to symlink content.
$ touch file
$ ln -s file link
$ ls -l
-rw-r--r-- 1 ladis ladis 0 2010-08-17 14:52 file
lrwxrwxrwx 1 ladis ladis 4 2010-08-17 14:52 link -> file
in patched MSYS with debug enabled, you get:
$ ln -s file link
msys_symlink (file, link)
create_copy_file (C:\MSYS\test\file, C:\MSYS\test\link)
as you can see, symlink points from 'link' (second argument) to 'file'
(first argument).
> It would be nice to display symlink info in "ls -l".
> Maybe a start would be updating the symlink_info::check method.
I read symlink_info::check method yesterday as well as the rest of that
file
and now after more than 12 hours I'm able to comment it without showing
too much emotions. Ummm... So, the only sane way how to update path.cc
is to downwrite its desired function and then implement it as it keeps all
cygwin logic which has no use for us and make code very hard to
understand and modify (someone already tried to do so). I would
very much appreciate if this could be done by someone more familiar with
MSYS, but in the worst case I can do it myself (it will take me quite some
time).
> I guess you should ensure the following system calls are aware of
> symlinks: stat, lstat and readlink (you can read about them in the POSIX
> standard link I gave above).
Actually the most important is unlink and remove as they are not junctions
aware.
> Autoconf currently has an AC_PROG_LN_S macro which will set the
> $(LN_S) variable to either "ln -s", "ln" or "cp -p", depending on the
> host capabilities. Given this, is there any longer a need for the
> symlink-as-copy fallback to be on by default on MSYS?
I modified the patch to provide some fallback logic, which is currently
disabled and copy method used. Easy to fix once we came to a
conclusion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Cesar Strauss (cstrauss)
Date: 2010-08-17 05:12
Message:
> As I do not know which Windows versions are officially supported by
> MSYS, create_symlink function is not implemented as it is available
> since Vista. Original patch had CreateSymbolicLink dynamically loaded
> based on Windows version, but since CreateHardLink is used directly
> (and IsWow54Process elsewhere as well), lets leave actual
> implementation once this question is resolved.
Please see the source in autoload.cc. If you add a CreateSymbolicLink
declaration in there, you can call it in the code directly. You are
actually calling a stub code that will load the appropriate library by
demand, and either forward your call to the real function, or return FALSE
if it doesn't exists in your version of Windows.
> msys_symlink was called from path.cc with arguments swapped, so fix
both
> caller and callee. At least this part of patch would deserve merging.
Please swap the order of the arguments of the symlink function itself as
well. According to the POSIX standard, the contents of the symbolic link
(frompath) is the first argument. To see it, type "symlink" on the search
box in the following page:
http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/
> Also it turned out, that symlinks are actually easy to implement, but
> learning the rest of MSYS about their existence is much harder. There
> is some code trying to resolve .lnk files as well as code which stores
> symlink info into NTFS extended attributes and also code implementing
> links with BackupWrite. Everything probably inherited from Cygwin. How
> should it be done in MSYS?
It would be nice to display symlink info in "ls -l".
Maybe a start would be updating the symlink_info::check method.
I guess you should ensure the following system calls are aware of
symlinks: stat, lstat and readlink (you can read about them in the POSIX
standard link I gave above).
Earnie writes:
> If the OS and/or file system does not support CreateSymbolicLink then a
> copy of the file is correct for what we need. Too many configure
scripts
> use ln -s to not have the fallback of copy by default.
Autoconf currently has an AC_PROG_LN_S macro which will set the $(LN_S)
variable to either "ln -s", "ln" or "cp -p", depending on the host
capabilities. Given this, is there any longer a need for the
symlink-as-copy fallback to be on by default on MSYS?
Regards,
Cesar
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2010-08-16 14:09
Message:
> Also it turned out, that symlinks are actually easy to implement, but
> learning the rest of MSYS about their existence is much harder. There
> is some code trying to resolve .lnk files as well as code which
> stores symlink info into NTFS extended attributes and also code
> implementing links with BackupWrite. Everything probably inherited
> from Cygwin. How should it be done in MSYS?
Yes, the .lnk code was inherited from Cygwin. I disabled it because
Windows native programs do not understand .lnk files. For directories I
would suggest using Reparse (Junction) Points. For files I would suggest
that if the OS and file system supports it we use the CreateSymbolicLink.
If the OS and/or file system does not support CreateSymbolicLink then a
copy of the file is correct for what we need. Too many configure scripts
use ln -s to not have the fallback of copy by default.
Cesar Strauss is the current maintainer. He may have more to say.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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