command-line usage (--export-pdf) fails with absolute paths in cygwin notation

Quoting from <http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.user/7728>:
«Now that I got everything sorted out (thanks to all who replied!), I
figure I might as well post to the list how I automated Inkscape SVG
exporting under Windows+cygwin, perhaps it will save someone else some
time in the future. (…)

The first stumbling block was that inkscape requires full paths to the
original file and the destination file. The second stumbling block
was how to translate them for inkscape, which does not like cygwin's
/cygdrive/c/... notation.»

AFAIU full paths are no longer required with Inkscape 0.48 (at least when using formats supported by internal extensions; for script-based extensions possibly the regression reported in bug #695120 also applies to Windows builds).

Inkscape 0.48 has seen several changes with regard to the command line usage on Windows:
<http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.48#Command_line_interface>

> OSX version produces another error when I attempt the
> same test -- not sure if it's supposed to have a console mode.

With some limitations the bundled application can be used from the command line (always use absolute paths, for details see bug #181639), but the bundled osxapp version is indeed not intended to be used as command line app: install inkscape with MacPorts if it is primarily employed from within scripts or for command-line based export tasks.

> (…) which does not like cygwin's /cygdrive/c/... notation.»

According to <http://www.google.com/search?q=inkscape+cygpath> many scripts use 'cygpath' to generate filenames/paths for Inkscape in shell scripts launched in cygwin environments.

(Note: I'm not using Windows myself, my comments are just the result of spending a few minutes googling the issue).

Setting bug status to 'Confirmed' because according to Google it seems to be a known issue when calling inkscape.exe from cygwin shell scripts. Bug importance set to 'Low' because workaround exists (use 'cygpath' [1] to convert from Cygwin POSIX-style paths to Windows native paths).

[1] <http://www.cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-utils.html#cygpath>

Thanks, but tho I'e tried I'm not able to wrap inkscape in a script. It's being called from a python script (see below) and I don't see how to rewrite it or wrap inkscape into a sh script, etc. I've tried a few things but to no avail.

.py script:
cmd = "inkscape -z -D \"--export-%s=%s\" %s" % (format, input, output)

Note, although I offered an example using /cygdrive/c/..., dblatex is passing the path "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/myself/My Documents/..." , so in my test I tried to simplify the path as /cygdrive/c/temp/testfile.svg -- no spaces, backslashes, quotes, etc. Certainly inkscape should be able to handle this.

Unfortunately I don't think the workaround offered will not for me because inkscape is being called in a python script, and I don't see how to rewrite the script to wrap inkscape into cygpath. Also the path variable is set in a class somewhere outside the script, so modifying it will break other things.

Here's the tail of output from dblatext:
...
Stripping NS from DocBook 5/NG document.
Processing stripped document.
inkscape -z -D --export-pdf=fig0.pdf "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/myself/My Documents/Manual/images/approval.svg"

** (inkscape.exe:4132): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:4132): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:4132): WARNING **: Specified document /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/myself/My Documents/Manual/images/approval.svg cannot be opened (does not exist or not a valid SVG file)
inkscape -z -D --export-pdf=fig1.pdf "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/myself/My Documents/Manual/images/authentication.svg"

** (inkscape.exe:6956): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:6956): CRITICAL **: Inkscape::XML::Document* sp_repr_read_file(const gchar*, const gchar*): assertion `Inkscape::IO::file_test( filename, G_FILE_TEST_EXISTS )' failed

** (inkscape.exe:6956): WARNING **: Specified document /cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/myself/My Documents/Manual/images/authentication.svg cannot be opened (does not exist or not a valid SVG file)
...
'manual.pdf' successfully built (of course, sans all svg images)

So, any idea why inkscape doesn't like the path?
Is there any chance this will be fixed in the near term or will this be a long time coming?
Is there a precompiled inkscape for Fedora?

Thanks.

> to wrap inkscape into cygpath

Don't try to wrap inkscape.exe, AFAIU you need to convert the absolute paths for the _files_ using cygpath. There are numerous examples if you search google.

> So, any idea why inkscape doesn't like the path? Is there
> any chance this will be fixed in the near term or will this
> be a long time coming?

The Windows port of Inkscape apparently does not support the cywin path notation for files (but it handles the Windows native paths well). The bug report has been set to confirmed based on finding the workaround mentioned in various scripts, forum messages and web sites. Any further activity depends on whether a developer volunteers to further investigate, and whether it is doable within Inkscape's code or needs to be implemented upstream in one of the libraries used by Inkscape (Glib, GTK+, gtkmm, etc.).

> Is there a precompiled inkscape for Fedora?

AFAIK Inkscape is available in the official Fedora repositories. The Inkscape project itself currently does not provided binary packages for linux.

Just in case anyone else runs into this situation, here's a hack to dbtexmf/core/imagedata.py that lets cygpath convert the path from unix to windows-style, the way inkscape likes it :)

        import commands
        ...
        (ret, inkinput) = commands.getstatusoutput("cygpath -w \"%s\"" % str(input))
        (ret, inkoutput) = commands.getstatusoutput("cygpath -w \"%s\"" % str(output))
        cmd = "inkscape -z -D --export-%s=\"%s\" \"%s\"" % (format, inkoutput, inkinput)

Thank you for the tips!