Re: Fix for HAVE_DOS_PATHS build on cygwin

[Christopher Faylor]

On Mon, Aug 21, 2006 at 05:11:14AM -0400, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
>> Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 16:15:41 -0400
>> From: Earnie Boyd
>> 
>> For the Cygwin variant which isn't currently using HAVE_DOS_PATHS users 
>> may indeed want the option to build their version configured 
>> --without-dos-paths.  Why release a version of software where users 
>> might complain so that you can then fix it?
>
>I believe you are wrong in assuming that Cygwin users are not familiar
>with this mode of operation.  This whole thread is a result of
>_dropping_ support for drive letters from the Cygwin version of Make
>3.81, which caused complaints on the Cygwin list.  So, up and
>including v3.80, Cygwin users were using such a support as part of
>Make, even though HAVE_DOS_PATHS was not compiled (instead, a
>Cygwin-specific patch was maintained to provide that support).
>
>Chris, am I missing something?

I don't think so.  I believe that Cygwin's make v3.79 did not understand
posix paths unless the --win32 option was specified.  So there may be a
class of users who are conditioned to that behavior but they would be a
small minority, I think.  In 3.80 (which has been out for a long time
now), I inadvertently allowed MS-DOS paths to be recognized by default,
and this is what is causing all of the furor in the cygwin list.

So, it seems like recent users of make expect to be able to use DOS
paths whereever they want.  It also seems like building make from
scratch is probably beyond the vast majority of the users.  I don't
think that an option is necessary right now.  If someone is brave enough
to build make without MS-DOS support, then the change is simple enough.

So, for now, I think we can get by without an option.  If it really does
present an issue, I be happy to provide a patch, since this is actually
something that I care about, unlike MS-DOS paths in make.

cgf