MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows

Bugs item #3438189, was opened at 2011-11-15 01:15
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by earnie
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Category: MSYS
Group: None
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Private: No
Submitted By: ozhiker (ozhiker)
Assigned to: Charles Wilson (cwilso11)
>Summary: Perl *** couldn't commit memory for cygwin heap, Win32 error

Initial Comment:
Hi

MinGW Perl seems to have a dependence on "sh" rather than "sh.exe" when executing external programs. This means that if the path contains both a windows "sh.exe" and a linux "sh", perl will attempt to execute the wrong one.  This is a problem if, as I am you are attempting to make a toolchain that works both in windows and linux.

To recreate the problem:
* obtain http://ozhiker.com/mingw/test.zip
* unzip
* cd <unzip-dir>\test\bin\
* perl test.pl
-> Error message:  <unzip-dir>\test\bin\perl.exe: *** couldn't commit memory for cygwin heap, Win32 error 0
* delete "test\bin\sh"
* perl test.pl
-> works as expected

Test system : Windows 7 - files from latest MinGW release

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>Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2011-11-18 07:10

Message:
<blockquote>Yes - Using the older version of perl.exe, the "sh" file was
ignored and
the perl program executed normally using "sh.exe".</blockquote>

Maybe it did, but the issue is still a user issue.  The user could just as
easily have another sh.exe in the PATH before /bin.  We cannot guard
against stupidity on the users part.

I'm leaving this open because of the "cygwin heap" issue.  I've modified
the Summary to match the open issue.

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Comment By: ozhiker (ozhiker)
Date: 2011-11-16 17:57

Message:
Yes - Using the older version of perl.exe, the "sh" file was ignored and
the perl program executed normally using "sh.exe".
Using the latest perl.exe,  the "sh" file is not ignored and causes the
error message.

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Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2011-11-16 04:58

Message:
I am going to assume you mean that the "new behavior" is the "couldn't
commit memory for cygwin heap, Win32 error 0" message.  Certainly not the
fact that an executable script coming first in the PATH will be executed,
that is not "new behavior".  If what I say is true then you need to correct
your bug report Summary.

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Comment By: ozhiker (ozhiker)
Date: 2011-11-15 20:29

Message:
This is a new behaviour - I had a previous version of MinGW perl.exe from
about a year ago which did not have this problem.


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Comment By: Earnie Boyd (earnie)
Date: 2011-11-15 04:36

Message:
I'm leaning toward won't fix but I'll give Chuck a chance to weigh in on
the issue.  It is expected that PATH is set such that it doesn't contain
such a trap and the users environment is under the users control which
isn't an issue for MinGW developers.  We deliver MSYS such that the paths
are set by the MSYS environment and if a user modifies his environment then
it is the users responsibility to ensure that the added paths do not
interfere with the working environment.  We have no control over the PATH
beyond what is delivered by default.

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You can respond by visiting: 
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