GNU bug report logs - #4867
23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows

Previous Next

To add a comment to this bug, you must first unarchive it, by sending
a message to control AT debbugs.gnu.org, with unarchive 4867 in the body.
You can then email your comments to 4867 AT debbugs.gnu.org in the normal way.

Toggle the display of automated, internal messages from the tracker.

Message #5 received at submit <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
To: <bug-gnu-emacs <at> gnu.org>
Subject: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:56:09 -0800

when using emacs on Windows, when in dired, when i press Z on a file that's 
gzip compressed, emacs tells me:
'gunzip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,

the problem is apparently that emacs won't recognize the gunzip shell script 
without the exe suffix. (the gunzip is in the same dir as gzip.exe) But if i 
rename gunzip to gunzip.exe, but Windows complain that the file is not a exe 
format.

extra detail:

when i do
(executable-find "gzip")
emacs says
"c:/cygwin/bin/gzip.exe"

and
(executable-find "gunzip")
says
nil.

the gunzip exists at
c:/cygwin/bin/gunzip
which is a shell script that calls gzip -d.

Same problem when starting emacs with -Q.

GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (i386-mingw-nt6.0.6002) of 2009-07-29 on SOFT-MJASON

---------

I'm reporting this as a bug, but tips on solving this on my machine also 
would be appreciated. Thank you.

I'm thinking, shouldn't emacs's dired simply look for gzip and call it with 
gzip -d, instead of looking for the gunzip program? That seems to me simpler 
and more reliable.

 Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄ 

Message #10 received at 4867-done <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Xah Lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>, 4867-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:55:37 +0200

> From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
> Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:56:09 -0800
> Cc: 
> 
> when using emacs on Windows, when in dired, when i press Z on a file that's 
> gzip compressed, emacs tells me:
> 'gunzip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
> 
> the problem is apparently that emacs won't recognize the gunzip shell script 
> without the exe suffix.

No, this error message comes from the OS, not from Emacs.  Windows
does not support invocation of Unixy shell scripts, and thus Emacs,
being a native Windows program that uses Windows APIs, cannot run
them.

To make this work, create a Windows batch file unzip.bat which invokes
gzip.exe with the -d switch.  Then Emacs will find it and do what you
want.

I'm closing this bug.

Message #11 received at 4867-done <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
To: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz <at> gnu.org>, <4867-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:25:14 -0800

Found a solution. Create a file name gunzip.bat, with this content:

@echo off
gzip -d %1

thanks to Eli and others.

I think this should still considered a bug though. Considering it as a 
Windows OS problem isn't very helpful in solving this. I'm sure if similar 
problems happen in linux that's OS issue, people probably will not look at 
it as “Oh, it's OS issue, emacs doesn't need to deal with it”.

 Xah
∑ http://xahlee.org/

☄


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>; <4867-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows


>> From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
>> Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 08:56:09 -0800
>> Cc:
>>
>> when using emacs on Windows, when in dired, when i press Z on a file 
>> that's
>> gzip compressed, emacs tells me:
>> 'gunzip' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
>>
>> the problem is apparently that emacs won't recognize the gunzip shell 
>> script
>> without the exe suffix.
>
> No, this error message comes from the OS, not from Emacs.  Windows
> does not support invocation of Unixy shell scripts, and thus Emacs,
> being a native Windows program that uses Windows APIs, cannot run
> them.
>
> To make this work, create a Windows batch file unzip.bat which invokes
> gzip.exe with the -d switch.  Then Emacs will find it and do what you
> want.
>
> I'm closing this bug. 

Message #16 received at 4867 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Xah Lee <xah <at> xahlee.org>
Cc: 4867 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows
Date: Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:38:33 +0200

> From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:25:14 -0800
> 
> Found a solution. Create a file name gunzip.bat, with this content:
> 
> @echo off
> gzip -d %1

It's better to change the last line to

  gzip -d %*

because then you will be able to give more than one argument to this
batch file.  E.g., if you want to pass additional switches or unpack
several files.

> I think this should still considered a bug though. Considering it as a 
> Windows OS problem isn't very helpful in solving this. I'm sure if similar 
> problems happen in linux that's OS issue, people probably will not look at 
> it as “Oh, it's OS issue, emacs doesn't need to deal with it”.

If you try the same with a Windows batch file on GNU/Linux, Emacs will
barf there as well.  Emacs behave according to the rules of the host
OS, so you cannot expect it to be able to run alien executables from
some other OS that the host does not recognize as executables and
doesn't know how to run.

Anyway, why do you have gunzip as a shell script?  I looked at a
native Windows port and on a GNU/Linux box, and they both have gunzip
as a first-class binary executable program.

Message #21 received at 4867 <at> emacsbugs.donarmstrong.com (full text, mbox):

From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
To: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: <4867 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 13:12:30 -0800

> It's better to change the last line to
>
>  gzip -d %*
>
> because then you will be able to give more than one argument to this
> batch file.  E.g., if you want to pass additional switches or unpack
> several files.

Thanks for the tip. I followed your advice on my machine.

> Anyway, why do you have gunzip as a shell script?  I looked at a
> native Windows port and on a GNU/Linux box, and they both have gunzip
> as a first-class binary executable program.

Cygwin and msys both use a shell script for some reason.

Xah

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
Cc: <4867 <at> debbugs.gnu.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: bug#4867: 23.1; dired cannot find gunzip with Z; Windows


>> From: "Xah Lee" <xah <at> xahlee.org>
>> Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 12:25:14 -0800
>>
>> Found a solution. Create a file name gunzip.bat, with this content:
>>
>> @echo off
>> gzip -d %1
>
> It's better to change the last line to
>
>  gzip -d %*
>
> because then you will be able to give more than one argument to this
> batch file.  E.g., if you want to pass additional switches or unpack
> several files.
>
>> I think this should still considered a bug though. Considering it as a
>> Windows OS problem isn't very helpful in solving this. I'm sure if 
>> similar
>> problems happen in linux that's OS issue, people probably will not look 
>> at
>> it as “Oh, it's OS issue, emacs doesn't need to deal with it”.
>
> If you try the same with a Windows batch file on GNU/Linux, Emacs will
> barf there as well.  Emacs behave according to the rules of the host
> OS, so you cannot expect it to be able to run alien executables from
> some other OS that the host does not recognize as executables and
> doesn't know how to run.
>
> Anyway, why do you have gunzip as a shell script?  I looked at a
> native Windows port and on a GNU/Linux box, and they both have gunzip
> as a first-class binary executable program. 

Previous Next

GNU bug tracking system
Copyright (C) 1999 Darren O. Benham, 1997,2003 nCipher Corporation Ltd, 1994-97 Ian Jackson.