Inconsistence on file operation when the name already exists with exe extension

Earnie Boyd earnie@users.sourceforge.net
Mon Jul 9 12:36:00 GMT 2012


On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 4:37 PM, Aaron Schneider wrote:
>
>
>
> -- This way works to have the two files simultaneously --:
> touch file
> touch file.exe
>
> -- This way doesn't --:
> touch file.exe
> touch file

Add a period character to the file name without extension.  Cygwin
will consider file.exe to be the same as file but file. is not the
same.

>
> -- This works again and is similar to 1st --:
> touch file.exe && bzip2 file.exe
> touch file
> bzip2 -d file.exe.bz2
> ----
> How can this be?

Since file.exe is specific it isn't the same as file as Cygwin sees
them.  However, the file without the extension will mask file.exe so
that file.exe will not be executed by Cygwin unless you specify the
full file name.

So in essence file is a pseudo symbolic link to file.exe; you cannot
overwrite the pseudo symbolic link.

-- 
Earnie
-- https://sites.google.com/site/earnieboyd

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