Mail Archives: cygwin/2005/11/22/23:22:07
> From: William J. Leslie
> Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2005 9:52 PM
> Subject: Practical method for automatic Cygwin install?
>
> = = = = = = =
> = =
> Note: I am rephrasing the question I asked last time (for
> which the conversation drifted into GPL and licensing issues).
>
> My program depends on cygwin DLLs, my installer must make
> sure these dependencies are satisfied. I've heard that
> installing private copies of cygwin DLLs can lead to version
> mismatches. Instead of installing private copies of the
> cygwin DLLs, my installer will install a complete (but
> minimal) cygwin installation to c:\cygwin.
>
> There are a few issues that I am not sure how to deal with:
>
> 1) How to determine whether or not cygwin is already
> installed? If so, what is the prefix path (e.g. c:\cygwin)?
>
There's currently not a great way to do that. Somebody just asked the same
question(s), see that thread.
> 2) If cygwin is already installed, what optional packages are
> present? What versions?
>
If I read another thread right, there may or may not be a way to do this in
the near future, assuming you've got #1.
> 3) If cygwin is NOT installed, how do we install it, without
> setup.exe prompts? (I have a gut feeling that it's a bit
> more complicated than just untarring packages.)
>
I believe this can now be done with sufficiently-doctored setup.ini files.
I've never tried it myself.
> 4) If cygwin is installed, but some optional packages need
> version upgrades, how do we accomplish that?
>
Via the normal means, i.e. the Cygwin setup utility.
> Probably any developer who has tried to release software for
> the cygwin environment has thought about this. Users demand
> absolute automation of the installer; I can't tell them to do
> stuff like:
>
> "This package requires cygwin. Please go install Cygwin from
> www.cygwin.com, and click Retry when you're finished."
>
When all is said and done, I rather suspect you're going to have to.
> Nope, that would not be acceptable; it MUST be automatic! But
> apparently Cygwin's setup utility cannot be automated, only
> GUI-based. Surely there are ways for installers like mine to
> install cygwin without having to worry about the messy
> details. Or maybe not. Does anyone know?
>
I do. There's no software that's ever been written that didn't have to
worry about "the messy details," and installing Cygwin and a bunch of
utilities in a manner which is not officially supported is probably at the
top of that list. It sounds to me that what you really should do is release
your software as a Cygwin package, and then work on adding the functionality
you need to Cygwin's setup.exe.
> Thank You
> Will
--
Gary R. Van Sickle
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