GNU Emacs windows dired mode on binaries from cygwin

GNU Emacs windows dired mode on binaries from cygwin

[Balaji Venkataraman]

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this is the right place for this question. I have
cygwin (which has it's own different installation of Emacs 21.2.x). I also
have Emacs 21.3 (the standalone M$ Windows version) installed *separately*.

These are with the Windows version of Emacs only:

1. When I use dired mode to list /cygwin/usr/{bin|lib} (I've made sure this
   dir exists etc.) - this is on Win2K - emacs does not display *any*
   files. The dired buffer just has ./ and ../ listed. Is this expected
   behavior.

2. Another related question. Can the Windows only version of emacs, execute
   cygwin binaries. I'm guessing it cannot, but I'd like to know if it can
   be made to. In other words when I invoke "M-x shell" I want it to run
   /usr/bin/bash.exe instead of cmd.exe

Please note that the cygwin version of emacs (started within cygwin's X
env.) works perfectly.

3. Yet another question - this sounds far-fetched - is there some package,
   which can open a windows shortcut (to say a text file), correctly.
   e.g. - c:/my_file.txt and I create windoze shortcut in
   c:/tmp/my_file.lnk.  Now within emacs I say "C-x C-f RET
   c:/tmp/my_file.lnk" and it should open c:/my_file.txt. 
   I'm probably asking for too much ;-)

Any help appreciated,
-B.
-- 
Remember 2 + 2 = 5, for large values of 2

Re: GNU Emacs windows dired mode on binaries from cygwin

[Jason Rumney]

Balaji Venkataraman <bvenkata+nospam@sm.intel.com> writes:

> I'm not sure whether this is the right place for this question. I have
> cygwin (which has it's own different installation of Emacs 21.2.x). I also
> have Emacs 21.3 (the standalone M$ Windows version) installed *separately*.
> 
> These are with the Windows version of Emacs only:
> 
> 1. When I use dired mode to list /cygwin/usr/{bin|lib} (I've made sure this
>    dir exists etc.) - this is on Win2K - emacs does not display *any*
>    files. The dired buffer just has ./ and ../ listed. Is this expected
>    behavior.

This is expected behaviour if all you did was made sure the directory
exists. If you made sure that it contained some files, then you would
expect to see more. Be careful how you "make sure". If you use cygwin
to make sure, then you might be fooled by its mount points.

> 2. Another related question. Can the Windows only version of emacs, execute
>    cygwin binaries.

Yes. Despite what the cygwin documentation might lead you to beleive,
most cygwin binaries work perfectly well outside of the cygwin
environment, as long as cygwin.dll is on your path or in the same
directory as the binary you are running.

>    In other words when I invoke "M-x shell" I want it to run
>    /usr/bin/bash.exe instead of cmd.exe

It is usually safer to include the drive letter on Windows. Even if
you only have one hard drive, you might occasionally want to open a
file on a CDROM or floppy in Emacs, in which case the current drive
might become something other than C:, and /usr/bin/bash.exe will
refer to something other than c:/usr/bin/bash.exe

Re: GNU Emacs windows dired mode on binaries from cygwin

[Peter Lee]

>>>> On 02 Jun 2003 23:42:07 +0100, jasonr (Jason Rumney) @  f2s.com said:
    Jason> Yes. Despite what the cygwin documentation might lead you
    Jason> to beleive, most cygwin binaries work perfectly well
    Jason> outside of the cygwin environment, as long as cygwin.dll is
    Jason> on your path or in the same directory as the binary you are
    Jason> running.

The required dll's vary depending on what exe you are using.

find.exe - cygwin1.dll, cygintl-1.dll
ls.exe - cygwin1.dll

It's really a non-issue since all the required (cygwin) dll's are in
the same directory as the executables.

Re: GNU Emacs windows dired mode on binaries from cygwin

[Kai Großjohann]

Balaji Venkataraman <bvenkata+nospam@sm.intel.com> writes:

> 2. Another related question. Can the Windows only version of emacs, execute
>    cygwin binaries. I'm guessing it cannot, but I'd like to know if it can
>    be made to. In other words when I invoke "M-x shell" I want it to run
>    /usr/bin/bash.exe instead of cmd.exe

See variable explicit-shell-file-name and, perhaps, shell-file-name.
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