cat: os error 3 on MSYS2 package

[ognevny]

after installing MSYS2 provided package (cat's path is C:\msys64\clang64\bin\cat.exe) I recieve os error 3 after every start for path '/proc/registry/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/Device'

[tertsdiepraam]

So os error 3 is path not found right? Could that have something to do with using a unix-style path? Could you give us the full error that you see?

[ognevny]

So os error 3 is path not found right?

yes

Could that have something to do with using a unix-style path?

as it appears after start, it's set in startup script. actually I don't know what it does

Could you give us the full error that you see?

C:\msys64\clang64\bin\cat.exe: '/proc/registry/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/Device': Системе не удается найти указанный путь. (os error 3) (I use ru-RU locale)

[tertsdiepraam]

Is /proc valid on Windows? Windows does not really have a concept of a root directory right? I don't think I fully understand your setup here. You seem to be using the Windows version of cat on a Unix path, is that correct?

[ognevny]

You seem to be using the Windows version of cat on a Unix path, is that correct?

it's built with this script: it just runs make PROFILE=release for build. most MSYS2 packages compiled for mingw targets support both unix- and windows-style path.

Is /proc valid on Windows? Windows does not really have a concept of a root directory right?

can you help, @MehdiChinoune, please? I think you can provide a bit more information about it

[tertsdiepraam]

I see, so you want uutils on Windows to support both types of paths? Based on https://www.msys2.org/wiki/MSYS2-introduction/, I think that the path you are trying to access is a virtual filesystem from MSYS2. If I understand that correctly, it would be something very specific to only MSYS2.

So, I don't think uutils should support it by default. One possibility is for MSYS2 to patch uutils and normalize all paths to Windows style before passing to uutils, but that's not easy to do for all utils. If you (or someone from MSYS2) can tell us how they usually do it, we can of course discuss that further.

[ognevny]

I see, so you want uutils on Windows to support both types of paths? Based on https://www.msys2.org/wiki/MSYS2-introduction/, I think that the path you are trying to access is a virtual filesystem from MSYS2. If I understand that correctly, it would be something very specific to only MSYS2.

So, I don't think uutils should support it by default. One possibility is for MSYS2 to patch uutils and normalize all paths to Windows style before passing to uutils, but that's not easy to do for all utils. If you (or someone from MSYS2) can tell us how they usually do it, we can of course discuss that further.

there is a base util cygpath that convert path to needed style. but I personally have no experience with it

[oech3]

I know C:\ is /c/. But I think uutils/coreutils cannot support device file even patch was accepted at here.

[ognevny]

'/proc/registry/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/Device'

cygwin path conversion should turn this into ${msys2_installation_dir}/proc/registry/HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/CurrentVersion/Windows/Device. e.g. MSYS2 is under C:\msys64 so the full path is C:\msys64\proc\registry\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\Device. in gnu coreutils for cygwin it's handled inside of cygwin runtime IIRC

[ChrisDenton]

I think this will be helped by the cygwin target. It's currently very new and not fully implemented yet so if anyone reading this wants to help out then I'm sure the maintainers would appreciate it.

[ognevny]

I think this will be helped by the cygwin target.

absolutely! that's my point of discussion we had downstream... better have cygwin package with no prefix in binaries name then trying to adapt MINGW alternatives which are not used for msys2's internal scripts

[oech3]

nix-rust/nix@975111f