Re: Cygwin app not receiving modified PATH env var

[Mike Mueller <mike at subfocal dot net>]

On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 09:05:36PM -0400, Mike Mueller wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 11:41:52PM -0400, Mike Mueller wrote:
> > I have a program (native win32) that is capable of launching
> > sub-processes, using apr (apache portable runtime), which is essentially
> > a wrapper around CreateProcess in the Windows API.  My program creates a
> > modified environment (changes the PATH env var), and passes this new
> > environment to CreateProcess.
> > 
> > When I run a native Windows program, for example, a .bat script that
> > says "echo %PATH%", I see the correctly modified PATH env var.
> > 
> > When I run a Cygwin program, the PATH is the original unmodified path
> > (rephrased in cygwin format), maybe inherited from the parent process?
> > The modified PATH being passed to CreateProcess is not discovered by the
> > Cygwin app.
> > 
> > I would've expected the two to behave the same in this situation.  Has
> > anyone done anything like this before?  Is there a known issue here, or
> > is this a new bug?  Workarounds?
> 
> No thoughts on this?  How & when does Cygwin take a snapshot of the
> Windows environment?  I'm still trying to figure out how my modified
> environment is not being picked up...

A little further info.  It looks like apr detects a unicode environment,
so ultimately is calling CreateProcessW (not CreateProcessA).

Also, if I pass environment variables other than PATH, they are set
properly when the child executes.  I'm even able to override other
variables that are set already in the environment, and the new value is
seen by the child.  PATH is the only variable I can't get to work.

I also tried the 'noenvcache' option, with no effect.

Mike

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