tcsh path conversion messed up? [was: strange shell output using tcsh under Cygwin]

Will Parsons wbp@nodomain.invalid
Mon Nov 6 21:59:00 GMT 2017


Will Parsons wrote:
> I asked about what I thought was a shell scripting problem:
>
> Will Parsons wrote:
>> Under Unix-type platforms, checking on what the PATH variable is set to is
>> pretty easy - I typically use "env" and the displayed value of PATH is easily
>> parsed by eye.  Under Cygwin/Windows, one can do the same, but the value of
>> PATH is more likely to be considerably more complicated and harder for a
>> human to parse.  For example, this is what I see on my local machine under
>> Cygwin:
>>
>>    PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/c/Windows/system32:/c/Windows:/c/Windows/system32/wbem:/c/ProgramData/Oracle/Java/javapath:/c/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live:/c/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live:/c/Program Files/Dell/DW WLAN Card:/c/Program Files (x86)/Intel/iCLS Client:/c/Program Files/Intel/iCLS Client:/c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0:/c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software:/c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software/syswow64:/c/Program Files (x86)/Windows Live/Shared:/c/Program Files (x86)/Bazaar:/c/Program Files (x86)/QuickTime/QTSystem:/c/cygwin/home/william/bin:/c/ezwinports/bin:/c/Program Files (x86)/PuTTY:/usr/lib/lapack:/usr/sbin:/c/msys/1.0/local/bin
>
> This was a cut/paste, so I would be sure of not making a mistake.  The PATH
> looks completely reasonable to me, but...
>
>> I thought it would be nice to write a simple script to make this more
>> comprehensible by breaking the path into separate lines, and so wrote the
>> following trivial script:
>>
>>    #!/bin/sh
>>    echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'
>>
>> Oddly though, it does not give the expected results under Cygwin.  Running
>> this script under Cygwin under my normal interactive script (tcsh) yields the
>> following:
>>
>>    % ./path
>>    /usr/local/bin
>>    /usr/bin
>>    /bin
>>    /usr/sbin
>>    /c/Windows/system32
>>    /c/Windows
>>    /c/Windows/system32/wbem
>>    /c/ProgramData/Oracle/Java/javapath
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files/Common
>>    Files/Microsoft
>>    Shared/Windows
>>    Live
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/Common
>>    Files/Microsoft
>>    Shared/Windows
>>    Live
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files/Dell/DW
>>    WLAN
>>    Card
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/Intel/iCLS
>>    Client
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files/Intel/iCLS
>>    Client
>>    /c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth
>>    Software
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth
>>    Software/syswow64
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/Windows
>>    Live/Shared
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/Bazaar
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/QuickTime/QTSystem
>>    /c/cygwin/home/william/bin
>>    /c/ezwinports/bin
>>    /c/Program
>>    Files
>>    (x86)/PuTTY
>>    /usr/lib/lapack
>>
>> Clearly the path is being broken using spaces as well as colons.
>>
>> Even thoush the shell script itself explicitly specifies "/bin/sh", the
>> result seems to depend on the shell being used to invoke it.  Using Cugwin
>> bash, the same script results in the following:
>>
>>    sothis$ ./path
>>    /usr/local/bin
>>    /usr/bin
>>    /c/Windows/system32
>>    /c/Windows
>>    /c/Windows/system32/wbem
>>    /c/ProgramData/Oracle/Java/javapath
>>    /c/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live
>>    /c/Program Files/Dell/DW WLAN Card
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/Intel/iCLS Client
>>    /c/Program Files/Intel/iCLS Client
>>    /c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0
>>    /c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software
>>    /c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software/syswow64
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/Windows Live/Shared
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/Bazaar
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/QuickTime/QTSystem
>>    /c/cygwin/home/william/bin
>>    /c/ezwinports/bin
>>    /c/Program Files (x86)/PuTTY
>>    /usr/lib/lapack
>>    /usr/sbin
>>    /c/msys/1.0/local/bin
>
> I have just rebooted my Windows machine and see that in constrast to what I
> wrote above, the value of PATH under tcsh shows up as:
>
>    PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/c/Windows/system32:/c/Windows:/c/Windows/system32/wbem:/c/ProgramData/Oracle/Java/javapath:/c/Program:Files/Common:Files/Microsoft:Shared/Windows:Live:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/Common:Files/Microsoft:Shared/Windows:Live:/c/Program:Files/Dell/DW:WLAN:Card:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/Intel/iCLS:Client:/c/Program:Files/Intel/iCLS:Client:/c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0:/c/Program:Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth:Software:/c/Program:Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth:Software/syswow64:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/Windows:Live/Shared:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/Bazaar:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/QuickTime/QTSystem:/c/cygwin/home/william/bin:/c/ezwinports/bin:/c/Program:Files:(x86)/PuTTY:/usr/lib/lapack
>
> This doesn't look right, and would explain the strange shell output I
> reported.  (The value of PATH under bash looks normal.)  Did the installation
> of tcsh somehow get corrupted?  I don't remember a particularly recent update
> to tcsh.

Another bit of info - I just noticed that the value of the (t)csh shell
variable 'path' is:

    (/usr/local/bin /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /c/Windows/system32 /c/Windows /c/Windows/system32/wbem /c/ProgramData/Oracle/Java/javapath /c/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live /c/Program Files (x86)/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/Windows Live /c/Program Files/Dell/DW WLAN Card /c/Program Files (x86)/Intel/iCLS Client /c/Program Files/Intel/iCLS Client /c/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0 /c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software /c/Program Files/WIDCOMM/Bluetooth Software/syswow64 /c/Program Files (x86)/Windows Live/Shared /c/Program Files (x86)/Bazaar /c/Program Files (x86)/QuickTime/QTSystem /c/cygwin/home/william/bin /c/ezwinports/bin /c/Program Files (x86)/PuTTY /usr/lib/lapack)

I can see that if one simply translates spaces to colons to derive $PATH from
$path, there might be problems...

-- 
Will


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