archiver: warn about MSYS2 path translation, fixes #9339

This adds a runtime warning when running under MSYS2/Git Bash without the necessary environment variables to disable automatic path translation. The documentation is also updated to explain this behavior and how to mitigate it.

Author: trxvorr

.github/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -626,6 +626,8 @@ jobs:
 
     env:
       PY_COLORS: 1
+      MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL: "*"
+      MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL: "*"
 
     defaults:
       run:

docs/installation.rst

@@ -326,6 +326,29 @@ Install the dependencies with the provided script::
 
     ./scripts/msys2-install-deps
 
+.. _msys2_path_translation:
+
+MSYS2 Path Translation
+++++++++++++++++++++++
+
+When running Borg within an MSYS2 environment, the shell
+automatically translates POSIX-style paths (like ``/tmp`` or ``/C/Users``) to
+Windows paths (like ``C:\msys64\tmp`` or ``C:\Users``) before they reach the
+Borg process.
+
+This behavior can result in absolute Windows paths being stored in your backups,
+which may not be what you intended if you use POSIX paths for portability.
+
+To disable this automatic translation for Borg, you can use environment variables
+to exclude everything from conversion. Similarly, MSYS2 also translates
+environment variables that look like paths. To disable this generally for Borg,
+set both variables::
+
+    export MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL="*"
+    export MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL="*"
+
+For more details, see the `MSYS2 documentation on filesystem paths <https://www.msys2.org/docs/filesystem-paths/>`__.
+
 Windows 10's Linux Subsystem
 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 

src/borg/archiver/__init__.py

@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@
     from ..helpers import msgpack
     from ..helpers import sig_int
     from ..helpers import get_config_dir
+    from ..platformflags import is_msystem
     from ..remote import RemoteRepository
     from ..selftest import selftest
 except BaseException:
@@ -397,7 +398,16 @@ def get_func(self, args, parser):
         return functools.partial(self.do_maincommand_help, parser)
 
     def prerun_checks(self, logger, is_serve):
-
+        if (
+            not is_serve
+            and is_msystem
+            and ("MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL" not in os.environ or "MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL" not in os.environ)
+        ):
+            logger.warning(
+                "MSYS2 path translation is active. This can cause POSIX paths to be mangled into "
+                "Windows paths in archives. Consider setting MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL='*' and "
+                "MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL='*'. See https://www.msys2.org/docs/filesystem-paths/ for details."
+            )
         selftest(logger)
 
     def _setup_implied_logging(self, args):

src/borg/platformflags.py

@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 Use these flags instead of sys.platform.startswith('<os>') or try/except.
 """
 
+import os
 import sys
 
 is_win32 = sys.platform.startswith("win32")
@@ -15,3 +16,6 @@
 is_openbsd = sys.platform.startswith("openbsd")
 is_darwin = sys.platform.startswith("darwin")
 is_haiku = sys.platform.startswith("haiku")
+
+# MSYS2 (on Windows)
+is_msystem = is_win32 and "MSYSTEM" in os.environ

src/borg/testsuite/archiver/create_cmd_test.py

@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 from ...constants import zeros
 from ...manifest import Manifest
 from ...platform import is_win32
+from ...platformflags import is_msystem
 from ...repository import Repository
 from ...helpers import CommandError, BackupPermissionError
 from .. import has_lchflags, has_mknod
@@ -150,6 +151,45 @@ def test_archived_paths(archivers, request):
     assert expected_paths == sorted([json.loads(line)["path"] for line in archive_list.splitlines() if line])
 
 
+@pytest.mark.skipif(not is_msystem, reason="only for msystem")
+def test_create_msys2_path_translation_warning(archivers, request, monkeypatch):
+    archiver = request.getfixturevalue(archivers)
+    cmd(archiver, "repo-create", RK_ENCRYPTION)
+    create_regular_file(archiver.input_path, "test")
+
+    # When MSYS2 path translation is active (variables NOT set), a warning should be emitted.
+    monkeypatch.delenv("MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL", raising=False)
+    monkeypatch.delenv("MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL", raising=False)
+    output = cmd(archiver, "create", "test1", "input", fork=True)
+    assert "MSYS2 path translation is active." in output
+
+    # When the variables ARE set, the warning should not be emitted,
+    # and /tmp should be archived properly without being translated to msys64/tmp.
+    monkeypatch.setenv("MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL", "*")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("MSYS2_ENV_CONV_EXCL", "*")
+
+    # We must create a real /tmp directory to avoid file not found errors,
+    # since we will pass '/tmp' directly to Borg
+    tmp_path = os.path.abspath("/tmp")
+    os.makedirs(tmp_path, exist_ok=True)
+    test_filepath = os.path.join(tmp_path, "borg_msys2_test_file")
+    with open(test_filepath, "w") as f:
+        f.write("test")
+
+    try:
+        output2 = cmd(archiver, "create", "test2", "/tmp", fork=True)
+        assert "MSYS2 path translation is active." not in output2
+
+        archive_list = cmd(archiver, "list", "test2", "--json-lines")
+        paths = [json.loads(line)["path"] for line in archive_list.splitlines() if line]
+
+        # Verify that msys64 is not present and paths start with tmp/
+        assert not any("msys64" in p for p in paths)
+        assert any(p.startswith("tmp/borg_msys2_test_file") for p in paths)
+    finally:
+        os.unlink(test_filepath)
+
+
 @requires_hardlinks
 def test_create_duplicate_root(archivers, request):
     archiver = request.getfixturevalue(archivers)