Conflict between Eclipse JGit and Cygwin HOME

[David Karr]

On Mon, Mar 16, 2020 at 11:20 PM Brian Inglis wrote:

> On 2020-03-16 19:03, Andrey Repin wrote:
> > Greetings, David Karr!
> >
> >> I've been running Cygwin on my Windows 10 laptop for quite a while.  I
> use
> >> git in Eclipse and in the shell.
> >
> >> What I'm describing isn't really a bug with Cygwin, but it breaks
> because
> >> of the interaction with Cygwin, and I'm trying to find out a reasonable
> way
> >> to fix this.
> >
> >> Over the weekend, I upgraded Windows 10 from 1709 to 1809.  Somehow
> after
> >> that I have messed up how git is used in Eclipse.
> >
> >> The Eclipse JGit framework figures out where my git config is by
> checking
> >> things in the following order:
> >
> >> - 1. %HOME% if set,
> >> - 2. %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH%, if %HOMEDRIVE% is set,
> >> - 3. %HOMESHARE% if set,
> >> - 4. Java system property "user.home".
> >
> >> The HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH, and HOMESHARE variables are set by my work
> >> infrastructure, and I appear to have no control over them. The resulting
> >> %HOMEDRIVE%\%HOMEPATH% doesn't even exist.
> >
> > It should, that's nonsense. File an issue with your infrastructure team.
> >
> >> The HOME variable is set by Cygwin, apparently.
> >
> > No, it only set HOME if it is not set yet, and even then only for login
> > shells.
> >
> >> It is set to "/home/<myuid>".
> >
> > What "myid" is supposed to mean? HOME is set to /home/$USER by default,
> but
> > can be overridden with proper nsswitch configuration.
> >
> >> I'm guessing that JGit looks at that and can't do
> >> anything with it, so it goes down the list and doesn't find anything
> >> useful. I end up with bad git config values.
> >
> > Just install Git for Windows, but don't add it to %PATH% in any way,
> shape or
> > form. Then configure Eclipse to use that git instead of Cygwin one.
> >
> >> The workaround I've figured out is a batch file that sets HOME to the
> >> expected Windows HOME, and then executes its command-line parameters.  I
> >> changed the target property in the Eclipse shortcut to add the full
> path to
> >> this batch file at the front of the command line, and then I have to
> find
> >> the eclipse.exe file and get the desktop icon from it.  I'll have to do
> >> this every time I install a new Eclipse distribution.
> >
> > Start by solving the issue from its head.
> > Fix your %HOMEDRIVE%/%HOMEPATH%/%HOMESHARE%, configure your nsswitch to
> point
> > to an existing profile path.
>
> You problem seems to be with your Windows network profile and Windows
> programs,
> nothing to do with Cygwin.
> Fixing the former will probably fix the latter.
>

If it wasn't obvious, I'm trying to find a solution, not assign blame.  Of
course it has "something to do with Cygwin", because I'm using it, and
Cygwin and WIndows are using a shared resource, the "HOME" variable.
Cygwin and Windows try to use it for different purposes.  There's nothing I
can do about the "Windows network profile".


> But if your work infrastructure does not yet support W10 1809 (do you
> really
> mean that release, not the current 1909 release?) you should not have
> upgraded,
> and any breakage is down to you.
>

Again, you took this as me trying to assign blame, which is pointless.

Yes, I meant 1809, and although I performed the upgrade manually, it would
have been done automatically in the near future if I hadn't, so there was
no choice there.


> For Cygwin options see:
>
> https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html#ntsec-mapping-nsswitch-desc


Yes, I've seen that, and considered my options there, but I don't think
that will address this situation.  The problem is the contents of the
"HOME" variable. It doesn't matter where my Cygwin HOME directory actually
resides.