Re: [Mingw-users] bug: MSYS path transformation heuristics are broken; (was: unknown type "mbstate_t" in iconv.h)

[Keith M. <kei...@us...>]

On 30/07/12 23:01, LRN wrote:
> What exactly is the problem? Can't you use msys-libxml for such things?

Huh?  How, exactly, would that address a *generic* problem, which is
in no way specific to XML, and which pervades all potential MSYS use
cases?  How do you use msys-libxml, (a library which is specifically
designated for use in MSYS applications *only*), when the goal is to
support MinGW application building?  Please don't add to the confusion,
by advocating a taboo use case -- there's enough confusion around
already, concerning when it is, and when it isn't legitimate to use MSYS
application building components!

The problem lies in the core of MSYS itself -- in the heuristically
cavalier manner in which it assumes that anything which remotely
resembles a POSIX path name must be a POSIX style path name, and so,
*must* be transformed to some meaningless Windows style equivalent;
there is no escape mechanism to prevent that transformation, even when
the user knows better than MSYS, and his/her intent was to pass a
particular string verbatim.

The XML example, as cited in this thread, is just one case in which it
proves impossible to bypass the MSYS heuristics, to get the correct
expression of the argument passed through to the native secondary
process; it is by no means the only one.  As is usually the case, the
heuristic algorithm inevitably fails; that there is no escape mechanism
to circumvent this particular failure case is, unequivocally, a bug in
MSYS core; it (badly) needs to be fixed [*], at source, instead of
persistently futzing around with suggestions for ineffective (and often
untested) work-arounds.

[*] But please, *not* a blanket environment variable solution, which
either enables or disables path name transformation entirely.  That's a
sledgehammer to crack a nut approach; we need a more fine grained solution.

-- 
Regards,
Keith.