RE: path separator

["Gary R. Van Sickle" <g dot r dot vansickle at worldnet dot att dot net>]

> From: samitj
> Subject: Re: path separator
> 
> 
> hmm... i thought cygwin emulates a unix shell in windows.
> $ echo $PATH
> /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/cygdrive/c/WINDOW
> S/system32:/cygdri.....
> 
> anyway, if i use a windows separator (;), it doesnt work and 
> it considers it the end of the command as per unix shell behavior.
> 
> dont know if u r trying to say something different, do u have 
> a solution to make that work ?
> 

PATH under Cygwin uses ':' as the separator.  Cygwin reads Windows' PATH env
var and replaces the ';'s with ':'s for its own use and any child Cygwin
processes.  There's more magic happening but that's most of what you care
about here.

No such special treatment is given CLASSPATH, since as others have already
pointed out, this is not anything that's any sort of standard.  It's an
environment variable that the native Windows executable java.exe uses for
its own purposes.  As such Cygwin leaves it untouched.

If you're trying to set CLASSPATH in a (Cygwin) shell script, you'll have to
quote it so the ';'s don't get misinterpreted like you've discovered.  Hit
the Googles for "shell quoting" and settle in for a long night of reading.

-- 
Gary R. Van Sickle


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