DePriest, Jason R. wrote: > On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 10:03 AM, Andy Koppe <> wrote: >> 2009/12/1 Reinier Post: >>>> If you want to see the Windows PATH setting unmolested by Cygwin, you >>>> will either need to strip out the additions set by /etc/profile or avoid >>>> running under an environment modified by /etc/profile. >>> It doesn't add, actually - it replaces it. >> You're wrong. The Cygwin DLL at startup translates the Windows PATH >> variable. And this line in /etc/profile adds to it: >> >> PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:$PATH >> >> > > This is completely and totally true.
I'm sorry, but it is not true. Maybe there is a misunderstanding though. > To verify it, all you have to do is open a bash prompt (Cygwin.bat, > mintty, rxvt, whatever) and then launch a cmd.exe or powershell. > > Check the path in the bash prompt and you will see the cygwin stuff at > the beginning of it. Yes, indeed you will see the Cygwin paths prepended to PATH as you say. Andy said this as well and even included the line from /etc/profile which does this work when you run a login shell (i.e. bash --login under rxvt or what-have-you). However, since the remainder of PATH derives from the Windows-native value of PATH (converted automatically by Cygwin to POSIX-style), we're saying that the value of PATH was *modified* rather than *replaced* entirely. To say that PATH was entirely replaced is to imply that the new value of PATH has no basis whatsoever in the original value of PATH. > Check the path in the cmd.exe or powershell prompt which was run > *after* the bash script updated the path and you will see that it does > *not* include the cygwin paths. > > It doesn't override what you have set anywhere but in cygwin's magic space. No one is arguing that Cygwin ever modifies PATH system-wide or for anything aside from Cygwin programs. In the base case, a Cygwin program will see the value of PATH converted to POSIX-style. If that same Cygwin program is run from a login shell, it will see the PATH as further modified by /etc/profile as Andy indicated. Windows programs will only ever see a Windows-style PATH no matter what; however, they WILL see the Cygwin paths converted to Windows-style and prepended IF they were run from a login shell under Cygwin. -Jeremy -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
