windowsstringbashpathmsys

Windows PATH to posix path conversion in bash

How can I convert a Windows dir path (say c:/libs/Qt-static) to the correct POSIX dir path (/c/libs/Qt-static) by means of standard msys features? And vice versa?

Solution

  • I don't know msys, but a quick google search showed me that it includes the sed utility. So, assuming it works similar in msys than it does on native Linux, here's one way how to do it:

    From Windows to POSIX

    You'll have to replace all backslashes with slashes, remove the first colon after the drive letter, and add a slash at the beginning: 

    echo "/$pth" | sed 's/\\/\//g' | sed 's/://'

    or, as noted by xaizek, 

    echo "/$pth" | sed -e 's/\\/\//g' -e 's/://'

    From POSIX to Windows

    You'll have to add a semi-colon, remove the first slash and replace all slashes with backslashes:

    echo "$pth" | sed 's/^\///' | sed 's/\//\\/g' | sed 's/^./\0:/'

    or more efficiently, 

    echo "$pth" | sed -e 's/^\///' -e 's/\//\\/g' -e 's/^./\0:/'

    where $pth is a variable storing the Windows or POSIX path, respectively.