zp_man-db-update-index.dash creates C:\cygwin64\%SystemDrive%

[Brian Inglis]

On 2021-11-24 11:19, Achim Gratz wrote:
> Leonid Vladimirovič Mironov via Cygwin writes:
>> Recently when cygwin setup runs windows 10 started creating
>> "C:\cygwin64\%SystemDrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Caches"
>> folder - exactly like that, with %SystemDrive% not expanded,
>> containing the following files
> […]
>> Turned out that the culprit is the
>> /etc/postinstall/zp_man-db-update-index.dash script which runs at the
>> end of every setup session, although I couldn't figure why: it just
>> runs mandb with some fancy redirection and nothing untoward happens
>> when it is run manually and with admin privileges, but the folder in
>> question was never created until I ran mandb to create man index which
>> for some reason was not created automatically during installation, and
>> when /var/cache/man/index.db is removed which effectively disables
>> this script this folder is not created. I am baffled.
> 
> Me too.  Apparently this is some bug deep in the bowels of Windows that
> triggers when neither SystemDrive nor ProgramData are defined in the
> environment and a new console session gets created.  It seems I can work
> around getting the extra directories created by defining SystemDrive in
> a certain nonsensical way, but it really is an ugly hack; I'll have to
> see if there's a better fix.

Problem mentioned by me some time ago, may be related to this, from 
undocumented mandb handling of Windows localization catalog folders:

https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2018-January/235776.html

which may include moving "stray cats" (also undocumented) to / [Cygwin] 
root so they get noticed and handled?

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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