shell expansion produces e.g. "ls: cannot access '*.pdf': No such file or directory" in Windows CMD shell, but works okay in bash

[Marco Atzeri]

Am 22.03.2020 um 18:50 schrieb Jay Libove via Cygwin:
> I've never seen this before.
> In a Windows CMD shell, Cygwin shell expansion, for example:
> ls *.pdf
> 
> returns:
> ls: cannot access '*.PDF': No such file or directory
> (Indeed, any Cygwin shell expansion, when executed from within Windows CMD, produces this error. See below)
> 
> ls *someotherwildcard* (that matches the same .pdf files) DOES return the expected file list.
> 
> Example:
> 
> C:> DIR *.pdf
> Volume in drive C is C
> Volume Serial Number is 8674-712A
> 
> Directory of C:\Temp
> 
> 22/03/2020  18:30         1.675.954 test.pdf
> XX/XX/XXXX  XX:XX         {Any many other .pdf files}
> 
> Yet:
> 
> C:> ls *.pdf
> ls: cannot access '*.pdf': No such file or directory
> 
> And:
> C:> bash
> user@hostname /cygdrive/C/Temp/test
> $ ls *.pdf
> A.pdf
> B.pdf
> {etc}
> 
> And, not ALL of the *.pdf files in the particular directory where I've encountered this trigger the problem...
> 
> C:> ls N*.pdf
> N.pdf
> 
> C:> ls A*.pdf
> ls: cannot access 'A*.pdf': No such file or directory
> 
> Nor do all directories containing .pdf files produce this. Of the many thousands of files and directories that I have, only some produce this problem.
> In others, ls *.pdf works perfectly in Windows CMD.
> 
> I've looked at the Windows ATTRIB and CACLS of the files in directories where this problem occurs.
> They're all the same. That is, uniform across all files and directories. Nothing interesting.
> 
> It's not just 'ls':
> 
> C:> cat *.pdf
> cat: '*.pdf': No such file or directory
> 
> So, it appears to be Cygwin shell expansion, when executed under Windows CMD, which is provoking this strange behavior.
> Any ideas what could be causing this, and how to solve it?
> 
> many thanks,
> Jay
> 

any reason for NOT using a cygwin shell ?

for discrepancy check the ACLs of the files with "cacls"