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

[Mark Abraham]

Christopher Bruns wrote:
> 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?

I'd guess they're erroneous files created when someone tried to list 
and/or commit all assembly source code files in those directories, which 
would all match "*.s"

> File names with star characters (*) are not allowed on Windows.  I

Correct. cygwin has to honour this limitation.

> 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?

Probably they should be deleted forthwith :-)

Mark