'cygstart' option? was Re: 1.7.0: Getting a Windows app to run synchronously to a script from which it is invoked

["Lee D.Rothstein" <lee at veritech dot com>]

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?
>
>
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