How does cygwin map / to c:/cygwin?

[Max Bowsher]

Jeff Perry wrote:
> I am very confused about how cygwin maps its root to the c:/cygwin
> directory.  I'm also not sure what /cygdrive is.
>
> When I type gvim /etc/passwd from bash, gvim comes up with an empty file
> called passwd in c:/etc (which doesn't exist).  If I try to write this file,
> gvim fails, which, of course, it should. (The gvim I'm using is the one
> compiled for NT).
>
> Can someone tell me why this happens?

The Cygwin POSIX paths come from the cygwin1.dll. So if your program hasn't been
compiled for Cygwin, it won't understand Cygwin paths.

> Also, when I try to tab-expand /cygdrive/c/..., bash can never expand the
> files.  For example, if I type
> $ cd /cygdrive/c/winn<tab>, bash cannot complete the 't' and instead beeps.
> But if I complete it for bash by adding the t and the pressing <return>,
> bash will cd me to the c:/winnt directory.
>
> Can someone tell me why this is true?

Sounds like case clashes. See the readline info pages and add "set
completion-ignore-case On" to your global inputrc file or ~/.inputrc.

Max.


--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Bug reporting:         http://cygwin.com/bugs.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/