File: MSYS_VS_CYGWIN Copyright (C): 2001: Earnie Boyd Distribution Rights: See MSYS_LICENSE File Revision: 1.0.4 File Revision Date: 2002.01.25 mount: The mount command is only used to display all mount points. The mount points for the very important are automounted. Nothing is stored in the Win32 registry database. If you wish to add other mount points, ones that aren't auto mounted, then you may do so in the /etc/fstab file. i ROOTPATH "/": The "/" auto mount point is currently a reference to the parent directory of the directory containing the msys-1.0.dll file. In later releases the / will be a reference to a pseudo device that points to the mount points. I.E. in a later release it is planned that `ls /' will list the mount points. I plan to do something but it won't be as previously stated. /bin: The /bin auto mount point is a reference to the directory containing the msys-1.0.dll file. I.E. if the path to msys-1.0.dll is C:\msys\1.0\bin\msys-1.0.dll then /bin resolves to C:\msys\1.0\bin. /tmp: The /tmp auto mount point is a reference to the directory that is referenced by the Win32 TMP environment variable. I.E. if the win32 TMP environment variable value is C:\TEMP then the /tmp mount point resolves to C:\TEMP. /usr: The /usr auto mount point is a reference to the parent directory of the directory containing the msys-1.0.dll file. I.E. if the path to msys-1.0.dll is C:\msys\1.0\bin\msys-1.0.dll then the /usr mount point resolves to C:\msys\1.0. /cygdrive: There is no such item. All devices and mapped shares are auto mounted with the device letter as the mount point. E.G.: the C:\ drive is referenced as /c. /etc/fstab: If this file exists then it is read for user specified mount points. The form of the record is [PHYSICAL PATH][WHITE SPACE][MOUNT POINT] where [WHITE SPACE] is one or more spaces and/or tabs. binary vs text: File processing mode is set to binary. This is not changeable. I had originally planned to set this to text mode processing but ran into various problems of which volumes have been written in the Cygwin archives. For release 1.0 of MSYS this means that you cannot have \r\n line endings on text files. In a future release it is planned to "Do The Right Thing" and predetermine the type of file being opened and set text or binary processing as appropriate for reading files. Or, predetermine the type of file and as the file is being read remove the \r from the end of the line. uname -s: The default system name is returned as MSYS_NT-4.0, if you're on NT 4.0. However you could export MSYSTEM=MINGW32 as change the returned value for `uname -s' to MINGW32_NT-4.0. This is done to aid the use of MSYS with MinGW and configuration scripts will determine that it is a MINGW32 build system. --added in version 1.0.2-- /bin and /usr/bin: These are currently reserved for MSYS programs only (MSYS programs are progrms that depend on the msys-1.0.dll file). It will be unlikely that non-MSYS programs will execute properly if they exist in /bin and /usr/bin. POSIX paths in arguments: POSIX paths passed as arguments on the command line are now converted to WIN32 paths. This is only true for programs that don't exist in the /bin and /usr/bin paths. POSIX paths are determined by i) a '/' character in the argument and ii) the argument must not be two characters long. The two character filter is done so that WIN32 parameters of the type /x can be passed to the WIN32 program. This allows you to do `write /p /mydocuments/abc' and the write.exe program found in the c:\WINNT\System32 directory on my system can print to the printer on lpt1 the c:\msys\1.0\mydocments\abc file. --added in version 1.0.3-- More robust checking for filesystem paths on arguments. --added in version 1.0.4-- Symlink resolution. diff, diff3 and head to the distribution. --removed in version 1.0.4-- Requirement that the path must begin with /. bash from the distribution. --removed in version 1.0.11-- Requirement that /bin and /usr/bin are reserved for MSYS programs only.