Mail Archives: cygwin/2006/01/11/19:24:16
I'm actually pretty good at logic, having written a good deal about it
in a book on axiomatic set theory. (And I have been known on occasion
to apply logic correctly in the real world.)
The issue was whether, to install a snapshot, one runs the commands
within cygwin or, instead, from a Windows command prompt.
The cygwin FAQ says plainly, near its very top, "Before installing a
snapshot, you must first Close all Cygwin applications, including SHELLS
[emphasis added]...."; a reasonable inference is that one would NOT use
cygwin to execute the four commands with the downloaded snapshot. But
the commands looked like the sort of things one would do ONLY in Cygwin
(not in Windows), given that they had a cd to "/" and a two "tar"
commands; so a reasonable inference from that is to use cygwin to
execute the four commands. Hence a contradiction seems to appear: on
the one hand, close cygwin shells (including, presumably, the default
bash shell); on the other hand, to execute some commands that seem to
require a cygwin shell in which to do them.
That is the crux of what confused me. I regret I did not make that part
of the logic explicit.
Anyway, as I have posted in the same thread, Igor Peshansky wrote, "The
FAQ is indeed confusing. Perhaps the following wording would be
better" and then proposed a clearer set of instructions. Those
instructions instantly made the process clear and unambiguous -- and
non-self-contradictory.
Dave Korn wrote:
> Murray Eisenberg wrote:
>
>
>>So once again I ask for clarification. I really do think it's a very
>>simple and perfectly straightforward question: Does one run those 4
>>commands in Step 1 from a Windows command prompt or from within Cygwin?
>
>
> Well, yes, it is a straightforward, but I would have thought the answer was
> already obvious from what I stated. Perhaps you need a hand following through
> the syllogism:
>
> GIVEN THAT:
> A) One runs these 4 commands in step 1.
>
> AND THAT:
> B) It doesn't matter if there are cygwin apps running or not until step 2.
>
> THEREFORE IT MUST BE THE CASE THAT:
> C) You can do it however the hell you like, using whatever shell you want,
> ***BECAUSE* "it doesn't matter if there are cygwin apps running or not until
> step 2". QED!
>
> A) and B) were explicitly stated in my post. I was kinda expecting you
> would derive C) yourself without further prompting.
>
> cheers,
> DaveK
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