Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
On Mar 23 20:01, Lee D. Rothstein wrote: Corinna Vinschen wrote: On Mar 22 20:26, Lee D.Rothstein wrote: snip First of all, the explorer command does not stop input from the terminal. When I invoke the above script, I get an explorer window *and* I can type into the calling shell again because explorer is running detached. Experiments with notepad show that notepad is running synchronously, so in that case the shell is waiting for notepad to exit. I get this behaviour consistently on 1.5 and 1.7. This is my oversight. I used the wrong example, but even for the right example, I believe I misdiagnosed the problem. The correct, verified diagnosis follows (I hope). After some more research I find the actual problem with Cygwin 1.7, is that if you try to open open a file with a Windows app through its softlink, (in the directory of both the file and its softlink) the Windows app opens the softlink, not the file to which it is linked. This only happens with Windows apps, and the problem does not happen with Cygwin 1.5. (I just tested it on both versions.) Hmm. What kind of softlink are you talking about? Is that a Windows shortcut created by Windows? Or is that a Cygwin symlink? If the latter, did you create the symlink way back when, or did you create the symlink under Cygwin 1.7? If the latter, the symlink is probably not a Windows shortcut anymore, rather the other Cygwin style of symlink which is a file with the SYSTEM DOS attribute set. In this case it's no wonder Windows opens the file, rather than to follow the shortcut to its target. I made the change because the SYSTEM type shortcuts are faster. If you want to have the Windows shortcut style symlinks back because you use them to interoperate with native Windows tools, you have to set the CYGWIN=winsymlinks option now. Corinna -- Corinna Vinschen Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to Cygwin Project Co-Leader cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Red Hat -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
RE: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
Corinna Vinschen wrote on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:17 AM: Hmm. What kind of softlink are you talking about? Is that a Windows shortcut created by Windows? Or is that a Cygwin symlink? If the latter, did you create the symlink way back when, or did you create the symlink under Cygwin 1.7? If the latter, the symlink is probably not a Windows shortcut anymore, rather the other Cygwin style of symlink which is a file with the SYSTEM DOS attribute set. In this case it's no wonder Windows opens the file, rather than to follow the shortcut to its target. I made the change because the SYSTEM type shortcuts are faster. If you want to have the Windows shortcut style symlinks back because you use them to interoperate with native Windows tools, you have to set the CYGWIN=winsymlinks option now. This is a change from 1.5, right? The 1.5 user guide says winsimlinks is the default, and the 1.7 user guide says nowinsimlinks is. It seems like this change was missed in http://cygwin.com/1.7/cygwin-ug-net/ov-new1.7.html -- Bryan Thrall FlightSafety International bryan.thr...@flightsafety.com -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
On Mar 24 08:37, Thrall, Bryan wrote: Corinna Vinschen wrote on Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:17 AM: Hmm. What kind of softlink are you talking about? Is that a Windows shortcut created by Windows? Or is that a Cygwin symlink? If the latter, did you create the symlink way back when, or did you create the symlink under Cygwin 1.7? If the latter, the symlink is probably not a Windows shortcut anymore, rather the other Cygwin style of symlink which is a file with the SYSTEM DOS attribute set. In this case it's no wonder Windows opens the file, rather than to follow the shortcut to its target. I made the change because the SYSTEM type shortcuts are faster. If you want to have the Windows shortcut style symlinks back because you use them to interoperate with native Windows tools, you have to set the CYGWIN=winsymlinks option now. This is a change from 1.5, right? The 1.5 user guide says winsimlinks is the default, and the 1.7 user guide says nowinsimlinks is. It seems like this change was missed in http://cygwin.com/1.7/cygwin-ug-net/ov-new1.7.html Right, it was only documented inside the User's Guide, for instance in http://cygwin.com/1.7/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html I'll fix that. Thanks for the reminder, Corinna -- Corinna Vinschen Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to Cygwin Project Co-Leader cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Red Hat -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
On Mar 22 20:26, Lee D.Rothstein wrote: This is in all probability, not a bug. I suspect it falls into CGF's category of works but isn't (wasn't) guaranteed. All of my scripts (developed under Cygwin 1.5 or earlier) that involve a Windows native app use: winapp $(cygpath -w $something) have stopped working properly since I installed Cygwin 1.7. Here's the script I use, FOR EXAMPLE, for invoking Windows Explorer to the current directory or a specified Cygwin directory path, AND that stops further use of the invoked from terminal window, until this Explorer window terminates: #!/usr/bin/bash if [[ -n $1 ]] ; then cd $1 ; fi explorer $(cygpath -w .) I'm somewhat puzzled. First of all, the explorer command does not stop input from the terminal. When I invoke the above script, I get an explorer window *and* I can type into the calling shell again because explorer is running detached. Experiments with notepad show that notepad is running synchronously, so in that case the shell is waiting for notepad to exit. I get this behaviour consistently on 1.5 and 1.7. Second, in my case the explorer window is opened in the correct directory. Again, this works fine in 1.5 and 1.7. Is it possible that this is OS dependent? I've tested on XP SP3. Is there no straight-forward way to invoke a windows app from a script synchronously with Cygwin 1.7? I don't think so, at least not really and I'm not sure that's Cygwin's fault or something. Sometimes when you think you start a Windows application you actually just call a wrapper which then starts another application using COM or other methods. In case of explorer, there's no guarantee that you really start the process which then opens the window. For instance, there's a folder option in Explorer called Launch folder windows in a separate process. So, given that one instance of explorer is running the GUI anyway, which process will run the newly opened window? Corinna P.S.: If that would be my script, I'd use cygpath -wa, to get always an absolute Windows path, btw. This removes the trailing backslash you always get when calling `cygpath -w .'. -- Corinna Vinschen Please, send mails regarding Cygwin to Cygwin Project Co-Leader cygwin AT cygwin DOT com Red Hat -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
Lee D.Rothstein wrote: This is in all probability, not a bug. I suspect it falls into CGF's category of works but isn't (wasn't) guaranteed. All of my scripts (developed under Cygwin 1.5 or earlier) that involve a Windows native app use: winapp $(cygpath -w $something) have stopped working properly since I installed Cygwin 1.7. Here's the script I use, FOR EXAMPLE, for invoking Windows Explorer to the current directory or a specified Cygwin directory path, AND that stops further use of the invoked from terminal window, until this Explorer window terminates: #!/usr/bin/bash if [[ -n $1 ]] ; then cd $1 ; fi explorer $(cygpath -w .) Explorer opens okay, but always to the Computer folder, rather than the current working or specified directory. (Yes, I know that there is a special option for Explorer in 'cygstart'. Please read on.) In the special case of the shell, there's also MS's wisdom to consider. To wit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/152457 I found that I can make the above work by replacing the invocation using 'cygpath' with a 'cygstart' initiated invocation without 'cygpath', at all. The problem with this latter fix, however, is that 'cygstart' invokes the Windows app asynchronously to the script in which it is contained. Sometimes I want the script continuance to be tethered to the Windows app, and the only way to do this (that I can see), is to put an otherwise superfluous 'read' statement right after the Windows app invocation. Ugly, and not as obvious, to the user, as the old method. Is there no straight-forward way to invoke a windows app from a script synchronously with Cygwin 1.7? -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ -- Sylvain RICHARD -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
Corinna Vinschen wrote: On Mar 22 20:26, Lee D.Rothstein wrote: snip First of all, the explorer command does not stop input from the terminal. When I invoke the above script, I get an explorer window *and* I can type into the calling shell again because explorer is running detached. Experiments with notepad show that notepad is running synchronously, so in that case the shell is waiting for notepad to exit. I get this behaviour consistently on 1.5 and 1.7. This is my oversight. I used the wrong example, but even for the right example, I believe I misdiagnosed the problem. The correct, verified diagnosis follows (I hope). After some more research I find the actual problem with Cygwin 1.7, is that if you try to open open a file with a Windows app through its softlink, (in the directory of both the file and its softlink) the Windows app opens the softlink, not the file to which it is linked. This only happens with Windows apps, and the problem does not happen with Cygwin 1.5. (I just tested it on both versions.) This is what confused me about all the other results I reported. However, if I use '$(cygpath -wa SOFTLINK)', the windows app opens the correct file. So, in summary, 'cygpath' works!, but Cygwin 1.7 appears to not dereference the link for Windows apps as it did with Cygwin 1.5, unless 'cygpath' is used. WRT, explorer ever running synchronously, I thought that at one point (perhaps pre 1.5, and pre-XP) that you could get Explorer to run synchronously, but I may be mistaken. That's (at the very least) the age of the mistakenly referenced script. Corinna P.S.: If that would be my script, I'd use cygpath -wa, to get always an absolute Windows path, btw. This removes the trailing backslash you always get when calling `cygpath -w .'. Thanks for the advice and sorry to have bothered you with the prior misinformation. BTB, aside from this obscure difference (that seems to have only impacted my ancient and ill-conceived scripts), I am enjoying Cygwin 1.7. Thank you, very much. Lee -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
This is in all probability, not a bug. I suspect it falls into CGF's category of works but isn't (wasn't) guaranteed. All of my scripts (developed under Cygwin 1.5 or earlier) that involve a Windows native app use: winapp $(cygpath -w $something) have stopped working properly since I installed Cygwin 1.7. Here's the script I use, FOR EXAMPLE, for invoking Windows Explorer to the current directory or a specified Cygwin directory path, AND that stops further use of the invoked from terminal window, until this Explorer window terminates: #!/usr/bin/bash if [[ -n $1 ]] ; then cd $1 ; fi explorer $(cygpath -w .) Explorer opens okay, but always to the Computer folder, rather than the current working or specified directory. (Yes, I know that there is a special option for Explorer in 'cygstart'. Please read on.) I found that I can make the above work by replacing the invocation using 'cygpath' with a 'cygstart' initiated invocation without 'cygpath', at all. The problem with this latter fix, however, is that 'cygstart' invokes the Windows app asynchronously to the script in which it is contained. Sometimes I want the script continuance to be tethered to the Windows app, and the only way to do this (that I can see), is to put an otherwise superfluous 'read' statement right after the Windows app invocation. Ugly, and not as obvious, to the user, as the old method. Is there no straight-forward way to invoke a windows app from a script synchronously with Cygwin 1.7? -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
'cygstart' option? was Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked
I figured out a solution, but it still has limitations. The solution: It just requires doing a cd into the path (complete directory path) of the argument, and cd'ing into that path. If the command operates on a directory as Explorer does, then you submit '.' as the argument. If the command requires a file name, you just submit the 'basename' as the argument. I used to do this years ago (starting with the MKS toolkit, and then the Thompson toolkit), but stopped once I became conversant with 'cygpath'. Brain damage is my excuse for forgetting. However, this will only work with Windows programs that themselves are synchronous, OTB (out of the box). This won't work, for example, with OpenOffice (OO) after about version 1.5, or WinWord after version 10, or thereabouts. OO really bummed me out, when they made the change, invalidating all my blogging scripts. That's when I started using the 'read' nonsense. Actually, more recently, they both require 'cygstart' or they flat out blow up. However, you don't have to specifiy the command name at all, just the file name argument. But you still end up with the asynch start. In brief, it would be very nice if there was a cygstart option that did not exit until the command which it starts exits. Is this possible? Lee Lee D.Rothstein wrote: This is in all probability, not a bug. I suspect it falls into CGF's category of works but isn't (wasn't) guaranteed. All of my scripts (developed under Cygwin 1.5 or earlier) that involve a Windows native app use: winapp $(cygpath -w $something) have stopped working properly since I installed Cygwin 1.7. Here's the script I use, FOR EXAMPLE, for invoking Windows Explorer to the current directory or a specified Cygwin directory path, AND that stops further use of the invoked from terminal window, until this Explorer window terminates: #!/usr/bin/bash if [[ -n $1 ]] ; then cd $1 ; fi explorer $(cygpath -w .) Explorer opens okay, but always to the Computer folder, rather than the current working or specified directory. (Yes, I know that there is a special option for Explorer in 'cygstart'. Please read on.) I found that I can make the above work by replacing the invocation using 'cygpath' with a 'cygstart' initiated invocation without 'cygpath', at all. The problem with this latter fix, however, is that 'cygstart' invokes the Windows app asynchronously to the script in which it is contained. Sometimes I want the script continuance to be tethered to the Windows app, and the only way to do this (that I can see), is to put an otherwise superfluous 'read' statement right after the Windows app invocation. Ugly, and not as obvious, to the user, as the old method. Is there no straight-forward way to invoke a windows app from a script synchronously with Cygwin 1.7? -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
