On 26 Nov, Igor Pechtchanski wrote: > On Fri, 26 Nov 2004, Luke Kendall wrote: > > > I see that by default PATH includes some entries like > > %SystemRoot%/System32 > > > > I also note that $SystemRoot is undefined, yet $SYSTEMROOT contains the > > expected C:\WINDOWS value. > > > > This of course causes problems. Would a backslash-style path work > > correctly if it were properly interpolated into the PATH? Is the % > > notation special magic for Cygwin to handle DOS-isms? > > > > The case variance may be of interest, in that case. > > The case variance is a red herring.
Could you explain some more? I was thinking that if SystemRoot but SYSTEMROOT was, it might be relevant. > Also, Cygwin doesn't understand the > %...% notation. Sure, of course. > OTOH, you're not supposed to be seeing these entries in > the actual value of your PATH, either in Windows or in Cygwin. Such > entries are usually caused by the wrong type assigned to the PATH value in > the registry (REG_SZ instead of REG_EXPAND_SZ). Some buggy installers > change the type of the PATH registry entry. Ah! So at some point in the machine's history, some buggy installer altered this, and it has knock-on effects like this. > You need to change it back, > so that strings like %SystemRoot% will be automatically expanded by > Windows before Cygwin ever sees them. > HTH, > Igor I couldn't find an entry for PATH that seemed to be the normal environment variable - only things buried inside other items like CLSID that seemed to be used for other things. In the Control Panel I found that the system environment variable for PATH was defined to use %SystemRoot%, so I suspect that's where it's coming from. And you're right, it's set badly for Windows and Cygwin, and interfering with all shells: C:\>echo %PATH% %SystemRoot%\system32;%SystemRoot%;%SystemRoot%\System32\Wbem C:>net use 'net' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file. Thanks, Igor luke -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
