On 2025-12-22 09:39, Eliot Moss wrote:
On 12/22/2025 11:28 AM, Brian Inglis via Cygwin wrote:
On 2025-12-22 08:35, Eliot Moss via Cygwin wrote:
On 12/22/2025 10:07 AM, Christian Franke via Cygwin wrote:
Eliot Moss via Cygwin wrote:
I'm sure this has been asked before, more than once, but I am again wondering
what, specifically, makes stat (the program, but presumably also the syscall)
substantially slower on Cygwin compared to stat on WSL2.  I am talking about
an external HDD (not solid state) on my D: drive.  It shows under WSL 2 as
/mnt/d like this (output of mount):

D:\ on /mnt/d type 9p (rw,noatime,aname=drvfs;path=D: \;uid=0;gid=0;symlinkroot=/ mnt/,cache=5,access=client,msize=65536,trans=fd,rfd=5,wfd=5)

On Cygwin it shows up like this (yes, mount shows two lines):

D: on /cygdrive/d type ntfs (binary,notexec,posix=0,user)
D: on /cygdrive/d type ntfs (binary,noacl,posix=0,user,noumount,auto)

My /etc/fstab lines are:

none /cygdrive cygdrive binary,noacl,posix=0,user 0 0
d: /cygdrive/d ntfs binary,posix=0,user,auto,notexec 0 0

In the past, Cygwin did not support individual options for some /cygdrive/X. If this is still the case, "noacl" without "notexec" is effective for / cygdrive/d. Then Cygwin reads the header of each file to check for a possible "x" permission.

(Presumably this has something to do with two mounts showing ...)

On D; I have a folder with hundreds of 2Gb files (they are backups, split into
2Gb portions).  On Cygwin

time stat <the files> gives

real    2m12.425s
user    0m0.249s
sys     0m1.312s

This would explain this long duration.

Quick test:

$ echo '#!/bin/sh' > /cygdrive/d/script.tmp
$ ls -l /cygdrive/d/script.tmp
-rwxr-xr-x .... <== notexec unset
-rw-r--r-- .... <== notexec set

Aha!  I changed my /etc/fstab to be like this:

none /cygdrive cygdrive binary,noacl,posix=0,user 0 0
d: /d ntfs binary,posix=0,user 0 0

D: is still available via explicit /cygdrive/d, but that would be without the
noacl option.  Using /d now the previously slow stat completes in a few
seconds, reasonable for going over what is now 2000 files.  My memory of
exactly why is dim, but the noacl seems important for my C: drive.  Using the
ACLs on D: to determine executability seems good.

Mapping drives to /? causes an issue if you ever want to get help from any non-Cygwin Windows console program that uses Windows help conventions /? -> / d: I believe using /\? avoids that.

Interesting; so the suggested /etc/fstab line would be this?

d: /\d ntfs binary,posix=0,user 0 0

How do I type a path, then, e.g., now I might have /d/foo ... ?
Would I have to type /\d/foo ?

No change to fstab - just be wary of typing /? in a Cygwin shell command line.
I once tried mapping my cygdrives under root / so every cmd help /? expanded to /c /d /f /g and I used it and forgot often enough to be annoying so reverted to /mnt.

--
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher  but when there is no more to cut
                                -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

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