msys path conversion (or cygpath for msys?)

Question

I need to pass /DEF:c:\filepath\myLib.def" command line option from a bash script to MS compiler/linker. The path is generated as part of build process by a bash script. Basically, the argument that my script passes is:

-DEF:/c/filepath/myLib.def

MSYS path conversion can't handle it properly because it doesn't understand /DEF: part. It works if I do

-DEF=/c/filepath/myLib.def

but then ms tools don't understand this parameter. In short, what's the proper way to write that parameter in MSYS bash so that it converts it to proper argument?

On cygwin I could use cygpath, but there is no equivalent, because somebody from msys thinks that it's not needed (even if there are scripts for cygwin that uses cygpath).

Answer 1

MSYS cygpath

Program

This program convert a DOS path to a UNIX path and vice versa

#!/bin/env perl
# DOS to UNIX path conversion
# © John S. Peterson. License GNU GPL 3.
use strict;
use Getopt::Std;

# usage
if ($#ARGV == -1) {
    print 'Usage: cygpath (-w) NAME...

Convert Unix and Windows format paths

Output type options:

  -w, --windows         print Windows form of NAMEs (C:\WINNT)
';
    exit 0;
}

# option
my %opt;
getopts('w', \%opt);

# convert path
my @r;
foreach my $e (@ARGV) {
    if ($opt{w}) {
        # add drive letter suffix
        $e =~ s,^\/([A-Za-z])\/,\1:\/,;
        $e =~ s,\/,\\,g;

    } else {
        $e =~ s,\\,\/,g;
        # add leading slash
        $e = "/$e";
        # remove drive letter suffix
        $e =~ s,:,,;
    }

    push @r, $e;
}

print join("\n", @r);

Compared to Cygwin cygpath

The output from this program is better than the output from Cygwin cygpath in MSYS because

• Cygwin cygpath remove the Cygwin home from a converted path, f.e.

cygpath "$CYGWIN/usr/local/bin"
/usr/local/bin

which is a problem because

• it's sometimes useful to convert a DOS Cygwin path to a UNIX path for the purpose of copying files from Cygwin to MSYS

This program doesn't remove the Cygwin home

cygpath "$CYGWIN/usr/local/bin"
/c/file/program/cygwin/usr/local/bin

Compared to automatic MSYS path conversion

Manual path conversion has a use in MSYS because

• the automatic path conversion is inadequate

for f.e.

• devkitPro make