Re: CYGWIN_NOWINPATH (was Re: /etc/profile: avoid multiple /usr/bin in PATH)

[Francis Litterio <flitterio at gmail dot com>]

On 9/8/2016 8:07 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Sep  5 10:36, Doug Henderson wrote:

> > I set CYGWIN_NOWINPATH=1 in my user environment variables, i.e. in
> > registry, not in a cmd shell. I expect it needs to be seen when the
> > first cygwin1.dll instance starts, so you would need to stop all
> > cygwin processes and servers, just like you do when you run the cygwin
> > setup, for this to be effective.
>
> Ouch, no!  Environment variables are handed down from parent to child
> process.  On all systems, be it Windows, Cygwin, Linux or whatever.
> There's *no* other magic involved.  It's just a bunch of strings
> inherited from the parent process.

Yes, but Explorer induces confusion as follows (seen on Windows 7):

1. Open a Command Prompt from the Start Menu (so cmd.exe is a child of 
explorer.exe), and enter "echo %foobar%".  See output "%foobar%". 
Environment variable foobar is not set.

2. Enter "setx foobar 99" to add foobar to the persistent environment 
variables in the Registry.

3. Enter "echo %foobar%" again in the same Command Prompt.  Still see 
"%foobar%".  No change in that process's environment, as expected.

4. Launch a new Command Prompt from the Start Menu.  Enter "echo 
%foobar%".  See "99".  Clearly, Explorer updated it's environment from 
the Registry and passed the change to the new child process.

This leads people to think that environment variables stored in the 
Registry are special, when in fact it's Explorer's doing.
--
Fran



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