Re: mingw path/mount handling code (Was: Re: Practical method for automatic Cygwin install?)

[Christopher Faylor <cgf-no-personal-reply-please at cygwin dot com>]

On Fri, Dec 09, 2005 at 07:48:24AM -0800, Brian Dessent wrote:
>Christopher Faylor wrote:
>
>> >FWIW, this idea of creating a mingw "libcygpath" really appeals to me
>> >and it's been an idea I've been meaning to look at for a while.  It
>> >would be a library that knows how to read the mount table, and do basic
>> >path conversions, without depending on cygwin1.dll.  Then cygpath and
>> >setup.exe could both statically link to this library, and it would be
>> >available to other users as well.
>> 
>> FWIW, Robert Collins and I talked about doing this years ago but it just
>> suffered due to SHTDI.  I think that path.cc in the utils directory
>> should be a pretty good start towards a library for reading the mount
>> table.  It is what is used by strace.cc and cygcheck.cc.
>
>I've been thinking about this a little more.
>
>The way I see it, in a perfect world, this library would be BSD/MIT
>licensed, or at the very least LGPL, so that "foreign" programs by 3PPs
>could use it unencumbered, so that they can function better with Cygwin.
>
>However, winsup/utils/path.cc is under the Cygwin license.  I don't
>suppose there is any chance of getting Redhet to relicense parts of the
>utils directory?  It seems small enough that it could be reimplemented
>without a lot of hassle, but it's still extra work.

I think there is very small chance of that.  IIRC, some of that code is
straight out of the cygwin DLL itself.

I think that anyone who had studied the cygwin path handling code would
have a tough time proving that there was no "taintedness" if they tried
to produce a library under a different license.

cgf

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