[gmx-developers] File name "*s" trouble with cygwin/git/windows

[Christopher Bruns]

I successfully checked out the latest gromacs source using git (Yay!).
Except for five files, all with the name "*s" (star-ess) :(

==================================
$ git clone git://git.gromacs.org/gromacs.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /cygdrive/c/Documents and
Settings/Christopher Bruns/My Documents/git/gromacs/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 74435, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (14247/14247), done.
remote: Total 74435 (delta 62363), reused 71835 (delta 60099)
Receiving objects: 100% (74435/74435), 31.86 MiB | 303 KiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (62363/62363), done.
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file
src/gmxlib/nonbonded/mknb_generator/*s (No such file or directory)
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file
src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_bluegene/*s (No such file or directory)
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file
src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ia64_double/*s (No such file or
directory)
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file
src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ia64_single/*s (No such file or
directory)
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file
src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ppc_altivec/*s (No such file or
directory)
Checking out files: 100% (3422/3422), done.
==================================

Now git thinks I have deleted those five files:

==================================
$ git status
# On branch master
# Changed but not updated:
#   (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
#   (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)
#
#       deleted:    src/gmxlib/nonbonded/mknb_generator/*s
#       deleted:    src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_bluegene/*s
#       deleted:    src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ia64_double/*s
#       deleted:    src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ia64_single/*s
#       deleted:    src/gmxlib/nonbonded/nb_kernel_ppc_altivec/*s
#
no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")
===================================

Note however that I *was* able to check out the files on a linux
machine.  These five files seem to have zero size.  What are they?

File names with star characters (*) are not allowed on Windows.  I
understand that Windows support may not be the highest priority for
gromacs.  But I must frequently build gromacs for Windows.  Plus I
predict that the emerging cmake build system will make gromacs Windows
builds more mainstream.

Are these files needed?  Can they be renamed to something without a
star character?

--Chris Bruns