Bazaar smart server via BZR+SSH on Cygwin treats all paths as relative

I have just installed Cygwin on a MS Win 2003 R2 (virtual) server with BZR (2.6+b2-1) and OpenSSH (6.1p1-1). I set up SSH via ssh-host-config with all the defaults and "ntsec xterm" for the "value of CYGWIN for the daemon". The actual repository was on the "D:" drive, so I set up a symbolic link in the root (ln -s /cygdrive/d/path/to/repo /bzr).

I had a profitable day setting up a number of bazaar repositories and moving over my CVS exports. I created a number of bound branches around my environment and earned a beer that night. Next day I did a reboot test, and found that all my bound branches were now giving a "Not a branch" error. Investigations (below) showed that BZR+SSH was treating every path as relative but refusing to use symbolic links.

I then spent an unprofitable day trying to understand this. In summary:
- using BZR directly from the cygwin terminal (bzr check /path/to/repo) worked fine.
- running "bzr check bzr+ssh://server/path/to/repo" from the cygwin terminal failed
- running a smart server (bzr server -d /bzr) worked (but I want authentication)
- initing a branch up to the server (bzr init --create-prefix bzr+ssh://server/bzr/Test) created a branch in /home/me/bzr/Test)
- initing a branch in "bzr+ssh://server/~/Test" created a branch in /home/me/~/Test ?!?!?
- a symbolic link (ln -s /cygdrive/d/path/to/repo /home/me/bzr) did not work, and stuffed the initing
- removing all symbolic links and copying the repositories around only worked if I copied them into /home/me/bzr
- reinstalling openssh, bzr and completely uninstalling and reinstalling cygwin made no difference (including deleting and readding the services and service usernames of cygserver and sshd)
- rebooting the development server that I did my evaluation of BZR on two weeks did not reproduce the problems ?!?!?

My final work around has been to edit the /etc/passwd file to ensure that every user who will be using the repositories has a home folder of /cygdrive/d/path/to/repo/minus/one. That does work, and I will live with it for the meantime, but requires a bit more maintenance long term.

I am hoping someone can explain if this is an issue in SSH, BZR or BZR+SSH. I am a very talented Python developer, so if someone could refer me to the Python file that chooses paths, I would be happy to debug it.

Maurice Maneschi

cygcheck.out

Cygwin Configuration Diagnostics
Current System Time: Thu Jan 03 22:19:01 2013

Windows 2003 Server R2 Ver 5.2 Build 3790 Service Pack 2

Running in Terminal Service session

Path: C:\cygwin\usr\local\bin
 C:\cygwin\bin
 C:\Program Files\CVSNT
 C:\Program Files\Common Files\March Hare Software Ltd
 C:\Program Files\CVSNT
 C:\Program Files\Common Files\March Hare Software Ltd
 C:\Program Files\PHP
 C:\Program Files\ImageMagick-6.7.4-Q16
 C:\WINDOWS\system32
 C:\WINDOWS
 C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wbem
 C:\Program Files\Bazaar
 C:\Program Files\CVSNT

Output from C:\cygwin\bin\id.exe
UID: 12208(mauricem) GID: 10513(Domain Users)
10513(Domain Users) 544(Administrators)
545(Users) 14606(CERTSVC_DCOM_ACCESS)
12163(AAAOakvale(All)) 11645(AG-Quantum Admins)
11152(All Staff) 11631(Application Service Provider)
12121(RMS) 15105(SydHelpdesk)
13612(VPN Access)

SysDir: C:\WINDOWS\system32
WinDir: C:\WINDOWS

USER = 'mauricem'
PWD = '/cygdrive/d/treasury/bazaar'
HOME = '/cygdrive/d/treasury/bazaar'

HOMEPATH = '\Documents and Settings\MauriceM'
MANPATH = '/usr/local/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/man:'
APPDATA = 'C:\Documents and Settings\MauriceM\Application Data'
HOSTNAME = 'sydrms11'
SHELL = '/bin/bash'
TERM = 'xterm'
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER = 'x86 Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5, GenuineIntel'
WINDIR = 'C:\WINDOWS'
OLDPWD = '/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/MauriceM/Desktop'
USERDOMAIN = 'OAK'
PHPRC = 'C:\Program Files\PHP\'
OS = 'Windows_NT'
ALLUSERSPROFILE = 'C:\Documents and Settings\All Users'
temp = 'C:\DOCUME~1\MauriceM\LOCALS~1\Temp\1'
COMMONPROGRAMFILES = 'C:\Program Files\Common Files'
TMP = '/tmp'
USERNAME = 'MauriceM'
ClusterLog = 'C:\WINDOWS\Cluster\cluster.log'
PROCESSOR_LEVEL = '6'
FP_NO_HOST_CHECK = 'NO'
SYSTEMDRIVE = 'C:'
LANG = 'en_US.UTF-8'
USERPROFILE = 'C:\Documents and Settings\MauriceM'
CLIENTNAME = 'S031'
TZ = 'Australia/Sydney'
PS1 = '\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n\$ '
LOGONSERVER = '\\SSU'
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE = 'x86'
SHLVL = '1'
USERDNSDOMAIN = 'OAK.LOCAL'
PATHEXT = '.COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH'
HOMEDRIVE = 'C:'
COMSPEC = 'C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.exe'
SYSTEMROOT = 'C:\WINDOWS'
PRINTER = 'HP Color LaserJet CM6040 MFP PCL 6 on oaksydfps02 (from S031) in session 1'
PROCESSOR_REVISION = '1a05'
INFOPATH = '/usr/local/info:/usr/share/info:/usr/info:'
PROGRAMFILES = 'C:\Program Files'
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS = '1'
SESSIONNAME = 'RDP-Tcp#1'
COMPUTERNAME = 'SYDRMS11'
_ = '/usr/bin/cygcheck'

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cygwin
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cygwin\Program Options
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cygwin\setup
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MenuOrder\Start Menu2\Programs\Cygwin
  (default) = (unsupported type)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygwin
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygwin\Installations
  (default) = '\??\C:\cygwin'
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygwin\Program Options
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygwin\setup
  (default) = 'C:\cygwin'

obcaseinsensitive set to 1

Cygwin installations found in the registry:
  System: Key: c5e39b7a9d22bafb Path: C:\cygwin

a: fd N/A N/A
c: hd NTFS 20473Mb 72% CP CS UN PA FC System
d: hd NTFS 10235Mb 60% CP CS UN PA FC Data
e: cd N/A N/A
f: net NTFS 122876Mb 91% CP CS UN PA FC Data
p: net NTFS 122876Mb 89% CP CS UN PA FC Data
r: net NTFS 20476Mb 62% CP CS UN PA FC iRMS
s: net NTFS 122876Mb 91% CP CS UN PA FC Data

C:\cygwin / system binary,auto
C:\cygwin\bin /usr/bin system binary,auto
C:\cygwin\lib /usr/lib system binary,auto
cygdrive prefix /cygdrive user binary,auto

Found: C:\cygwin\bin\awk
 -> C:\cygwin\bin\gawk.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\bash.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\cat.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\cp.exe
Not Found: cpp (good!)
Not Found: crontab
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\find.exe
Found: C:\WINDOWS\system32\find.exe
Warning: C:\cygwin\bin\find.exe hides C:\WINDOWS\system32\find.exe
Not Found: gcc
Not Found: gdb
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\grep.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\kill.exe
Not Found: ld
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\ls.exe
Not Found: make
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\mv.exe
Not Found: patch
Not Found: perl
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\rm.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\sed.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\ssh.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\sh.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\tar.exe
Found: C:\cygwin\bin\test.exe
Not Found: vi
Not Found: vim

  449k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygasn1-8.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygasn1-8.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:18
   14k 2012/05/04 C:\cygwin\bin\cygattr-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygattr-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/4 12:35
   62k 2011/05/21 C:\cygwin\bin\cygbz2-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygbz2-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/5/21 20:16
   10k 2012/11/04 C:\cygwin\bin\cygcom_err-2.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygcom_err-2.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/11/4 21:41
    7k 2012/05/07 C:\cygwin\bin\cygcrypt-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygcrypt-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/7 12:18
 1246k 2012/05/11 C:\cygwin\bin\cygcrypto-0.9.8.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygcrypto-0.9.8.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/11 12:25
 1516k 2012/09/01 C:\cygwin\bin\cygcrypto-1.0.0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygcrypto-1.0.0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/9/1 11:06
  929k 2011/11/10 C:\cygwin\bin\cygdb-4.5.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygdb-4.5.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/11/10 19:52
   93k 2011/11/10 C:\cygwin\bin\cygdb_cxx-4.5.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygdb_cxx-4.5.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/11/10 19:53
  140k 2012/05/03 C:\cygwin\bin\cygedit-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygedit-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/3 18:12
  148k 2012/06/08 C:\cygwin\bin\cygexpat-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygexpat-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/6/8 23:13
   21k 2011/10/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cygffi-4.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygffi-4.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/23 14:33
   43k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygform-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygform-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 14:49
   47k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygformw-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygformw-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 17:31
   79k 2011/10/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cyggcc_s-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyggcc_s-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/23 14:15
   19k 2009/02/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cyggdbm-4.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyggdbm-4.dll" v0.0 ts=2009/2/26 7:58
    8k 2009/02/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cyggdbm_compat-4.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyggdbm_compat-4.dll" v0.0 ts=2009/2/26 7:58
  317k 2011/07/31 C:\cygwin\bin\cyggmp-3.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyggmp-3.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/7/31 6:14
  180k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cyggssapi-3.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyggssapi-3.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:27
   11k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygheimbase-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygheimbase-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:15
   20k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygheimntlm-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygheimntlm-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:24
   25k 2012/05/04 C:\cygwin\bin\cyghistory7.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyghistory7.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/4 22:07
  211k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cyghx509-5.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyghx509-5.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:20
  358k 2012/04/14 C:\cygwin\bin\cygicons-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.4 sys=4.0
                  "cygicons-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/4/14 2:48
  985k 2011/10/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygiconv-2.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygiconv-2.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/16 18:01
   35k 2011/10/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygintl-8.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygintl-8.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/16 6:38
   21k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygkafs-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygkafs-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:24
  373k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygkrb5-26.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygkrb5-26.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:22
    6k 2012/10/19 C:\cygwin\bin\cyglsa.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyglsa.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/10/19 13:40
    9k 2012/10/19 C:\cygwin\bin\cyglsa64.dll - os=5.2 img=0.0 sys=5.2
  123k 2011/05/19 C:\cygwin\bin\cyglzma-5.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cyglzma-5.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/5/19 3:41
   94k 2012/04/22 C:\cygwin\bin\cygmagic-1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygmagic-1.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/4/22 19:09
   25k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygmenu-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygmenu-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 14:48
   25k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygmenuw-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygmenuw-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 17:30
  213k 2011/07/31 C:\cygwin\bin\cygmp-3.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygmp-3.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/7/31 6:12
   63k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygncurses++-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygncurses++-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 15:00
   63k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygncurses++w-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygncurses++w-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 17:41
  195k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygncurses-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygncurses-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 14:45
  244k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygncursesw-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygncursesw-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 17:28
   13k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygpanel-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygpanel-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 14:47
   13k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygpanelw-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygpanelw-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 16:30
  255k 2012/02/10 C:\cygwin\bin\cygpcre-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygpcre-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/2/10 10:24
   22k 2002/06/09 C:\cygwin\bin\cygpopt-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygpopt-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2002/6/9 6:45
  162k 2012/05/04 C:\cygwin\bin\cygreadline7.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygreadline7.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/4 22:07
   51k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygroken-18.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygroken-18.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:16
    8k 2011/05/05 C:\cygwin\bin\cygsigsegv-2.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygsigsegv-2.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/5/5 8:33
  566k 2012/08/08 C:\cygwin\bin\cygsqlite3-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygsqlite3-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/8/8 20:25
  282k 2012/05/11 C:\cygwin\bin\cygssl-0.9.8.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygssl-0.9.8.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/11 12:25
  359k 2012/09/01 C:\cygwin\bin\cygssl-1.0.0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygssl-1.0.0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/9/1 11:06
    8k 2011/10/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cygssp-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygssp-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/23 14:33
  780k 2011/10/26 C:\cygwin\bin\cygstdc++-6.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygstdc++-6.dll" v0.0 ts=2011/10/23 14:58
   48k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygtic-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygtic-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 14:45
   48k 2010/01/02 C:\cygwin\bin\cygticw-10.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygticw-10.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/1/2 17:28
  157k 2012/07/16 C:\cygwin\bin\cygwind-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygwind-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/7/16 3:17
   28k 2010/03/28 C:\cygwin\bin\cygwrap-0.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygwrap-0.dll" v0.0 ts=2010/3/28 9:02
   71k 2012/05/13 C:\cygwin\bin\cygz.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygz.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/5/13 5:11
 2791k 2012/10/19 C:\cygwin\bin\cygwin1.dll - os=4.0 img=1.0 sys=4.0
                  "cygwin1.dll" v0.0 ts=2012/10/19 13:39
    Cygwin DLL version info:
        DLL version: 1.7.17
        DLL epoch: 19
        DLL old termios: 5
        DLL malloc env: 28
        Cygwin conv: 181
        API major: 0
        API minor: 262
        Shared data: 5
        DLL identifier: cygwin1
        Mount registry: 3
        Cygwin registry name: Cygwin
        Program options name: Program Options
        Installations name: Installations
        Cygdrive default prefix:
        Build date:
        Shared id: cygwin1S5

Service : sshd
Display name : CYGWIN sshd
Current State : Running
Controls Accepted : Stop
Command : /usr/sbin/sshd -D
stdin path : /dev/null
stdout path : /var/log/sshd.log
stderr path : /var/log/sshd.log
Environment : CYGWIN="ntsec xterm"
Process Type : Own Process
Startup : Automatic
Dependencies : tcpip
Account : .\cyg_server

Cygwin Package Information
Last downloaded files to: C:\Documents and Settings\MauriceM\Desktop
Last downloaded files from: http://mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/sourceware/cygwin/

Package Version Status
_autorebase 000182-1 OK
_update-info-dir 01094-1 OK
alternatives 1.3.30c-10 OK
base-cygwin 3.1-1 OK
base-files 4.1-1 OK
bash 4.1.10-4 OK
bzip2 1.0.6-2 OK
bzr 2.6+b2-1 OK
coreutils 8.15-1 OK
crypt 1.2-1 OK
csih 0.9.6-1 OK
cygrunsrv 1.40-2 OK
cygutils 1.4.10-2 OK
cygwin 1.7.17-1 OK
cygwin-doc 1.7-1 OK
dash 0.5.7-1 OK
diffutils 3.2-1 OK
dos2unix 6.0.2-1 OK
editrights 1.01-2 OK
file 5.11-1 OK
findutils 4.5.9-2 OK
gawk 4.0.1-1 OK
gettext 0.18.1.1-2 OK
grep 2.6.3-1 OK
groff 1.21-2 OK
gzip 1.4-1 OK
ipc-utils 1.0-1 OK
less 444-1 OK
libasn1_8 1.5.2-3 OK
libattr1 2.4.46-1 OK
libbz2_1 1.0.6-2 OK
libcom_err2 1.42.6-1 OK
libdb4.5 4.5.20.2-3 OK
libedit0 20120311-1 OK
libexpat1 2.1.0-1 OK
libffi4 4.5.3-3 OK
libgcc1 4.5.3-3 OK
libgdbm4 1.8.3-20 OK
libgmp3 4.3.2-1 OK
libgssapi3 1.5.2-3 OK
libheimbase1 1.5.2-3 OK
libheimntlm0 1.5.2-3 OK
libhx509_5 1.5.2-3 OK
libiconv2 1.14-2 OK
libintl8 0.18.1.1-2 OK
libkafs0 1.5.2-3 OK
libkrb5_26 1.5.2-3 OK
liblzma5 5.0.2_20110517-1 OK
libncurses10 5.7-18 OK
libncursesw10 5.7-18 OK
libopenssl098 0.9.8x-1 OK
libopenssl100 1.0.1c-2 OK
libpcre0 8.21-2 OK
libpopt0 1.6.4-4 OK
libreadline7 6.1.2-3 OK
libroken18 1.5.2-3 OK
libsigsegv2 2.10-1 OK
libsqlite3_0 3.7.13-1 OK
libssp0 4.5.3-3 OK
libstdc++6 4.5.3-3 OK
libwind0 1.5.2-3 OK
libwrap0 7.6-21 OK
login 1.10-10 OK
man 1.6g-1 OK
mintty 1.1.2-1 OK
nano 2.2.5-1 OK
openssh 6.1p1-1 OK
python 2.6.8-2 OK
rebase 4.3.0-1 OK
run 1.1.13-1 OK
sed 4.2.1-2 OK
tar 1.26-1 OK
terminfo 5.7_20091114-14 OK
texinfo 4.13-4 OK
tzcode 2012j-1 OK
which 2.20-2 OK
xz 5.0.2_20110517-1 OK
zlib0 1.2.7-1 OK
Use -h to see help about each section