Annoying error messages from setup

[Mark Geisert]

Hi Brian,

Brian Inglis wrote:
> On 2019-03-06 17:57, Mark Geisert wrote:
>> Enrique Perez-Terron wrote:
>>> For some time (several months), the setup program always finishes with the
>>> following message:
>>>> Package: _/cygwin-doc
>>>>     cygwin-doc.sh exit code 3
>>>> Package: z/Perpetual
>>>>     zp_texlive_finish.dash exit code 20
>>> Looking into setup.log.full, I find:
>>>> 2019/03/06 22:39:56 running: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe --norc --noprofile
>>>> "/etc/postinstall/cygwin-doc.sh"
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/User Guide (PDF).lnk" failed; does the target
>>>> directory exist?
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/User Guide (HTML).lnk" failed; does the target
>>>> directory exist?
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/API (PDF).lnk" failed; does the target directory exist?
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/API (HTML).lnk" failed; does the target directory exist?
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/Home Page.lnk" failed; does the target directory exist?
>>>> mkshortcut: Saving "/cygdrive/c/ProgramData/Microsoft/Windows/Start
>>>> Menu/Programs/C:/cygwin/FAQ.lnk" failed; does the target directory exist?
>>>> 2019/03/06 22:39:57 abnormal exit: exit code=3
>>> Where do the "/C:" parts in the middle of the link names come from?
>>> Investigating, I find that mkshortcut is being called like this:
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/User Guide (PDF)" -d "Cygwin User Guide
>>>> PDF" -- /usr/share/doc/cygwin-doc/cygwin-ug-net.pdf
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/User Guide (HTML)" -d "Cygwin User Guide
>>>> HTML" -- /usr/share/doc/cygwin-doc/html/cygwin-ug-net/index.html
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/API (PDF)" -d "Cygwin API Reference PDF"
>>>> -- /usr/share/doc/cygwin-doc/cygwin-api.pdf
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/API (HTML)" -d "Cygwin API Reference
>>>> HTML" -- /usr/share/doc/cygwin-doc/html/cygwin-api/index.html
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/Home Page" -d "Cygwin Home Page Link" -a
>>>> https://cygwin.com/index.html -- /usr/bin/cygstart
>>>> /usr/bin/mkshortcut -A -P -n "Cygwin/FAQ" -d "Cygwin Frequently Asked
>>>> Questions Link" -a https://cygwin.com/faq.html -- /usr/bin/cygstart
>>> There appears to be a bug in mkshortcut.
>>> Could this be somehow related to my enabling native symbolic links?
>>> (Not sure if this error began before I did that.)
>>> I don't know where to find the source for mkshortcut, and not sure if
>>> somebody else knows this program and can look into it. Should I report this
>>> somewhere?
>> Consider it reported :-O.  'cygcheck -p mkshortcut' shows mkshortcut is part of
>> the cygutils package.  I'm the maintainer.  You aren't using zsh as your shell,
>> are you?  I ask because zsh apparently has its own mkshortcut.  Let me
>> experiment a little bit and try to reproduce your first issue.
>> Your second issue is something totally separate and I can't help with it.
> The intent of the mkshortcut args -A --allusers from the $CYGWINFORALL setup env
> var switches -P --smprograms from using $APPDATA to using $ALLUSERSPROFILE as
> the prefix for -P .../Microsoft/Windows/Start Menu/Programs/ and -n Cygwin/...
> creates or uses the relative Cygwin subfolder to store the shortcuts.
> Could the existence of a C:/Cygwin/ root be confusing mkshortcut into using an
> absolute Windows path instead of a path relative to .../Start Menu/Programs/?

Thanks for this plausible cause and your reminder re winsymlink.  I played 
around a bit in both normal and elevated shells but could not reproduce the OP's 
issue.  I'm waiting for the OP's cygcheck output to narrow down the Windows 
version, cygutils version, mount table, Cygwin root directory, and probably more 
that I'm not needing yet.

..mark

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