I was trying to compile a python plugin (for gimp) using the MSYS shell and the MINGW compiler. I now have put this in 'sitecustomize' $ cat /c/Python24/lib/site-packages/sitecustomize.py import sys import os import re if os.environ.get("MSYSTEM") == "MINGW32": os.sep='/' os.pathsep='/' sys.prefix = re.sub('\\\\','/',sys.prefix) sys.exec_prefix = re.sub('\\\\','/',sys.exec_prefix) It would probably be better to have python detect that it's running from inside the msys shell, and output '/'es instead of '\'es. maybe someone could extend os.path to do this in the standard distribution: implement an msyspath.py, which calls ntpath for each function, and does a replace at the end of the evaluation. Unfortunately, I'm just starting to look into python, so I do not know what the cleanest implementation of this would be...