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Date:	Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:39:11 -0400
From:	"Larry Hall (Cygwin)" <reply-to-list-only-lh AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject:	Re: Cygwin 1.7 on a FLASH Drive
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Ralph Hempel wrote:
> Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
>> Ralph Hempel wrote:
>>> Yes, I've read the FAQ on making Cygwin portable :-)
>>>
>>> I'd like to have a complete Cygwin environment on a FLASH
>>> drive, but of course using that drive to compile stuff in
>>> my HOME directory will be awfully slow.
>>
>> Why is that?
> 
> Creating, wand writing files is much slower on a FLASH
> drive than on a hard disk. Not a big problem for a few
> files here and there, but if I'm compiling gcc and binutils for
> cross compiling to an ARM (for example) it might be MUCH
> slower.

How is it hooked up to your system?  Generally speaking, you should
get better performance from flash memory than disks unless something
is getting in the way.

>>> Is there a way to create a symlink of a directory on a local
>>> hard drive to the cygwin /home/username/ directory?
>>
>> No, not across volumes.  You could try 'junction', which does
>> something "similar" in Windows land.
> 
> Just similar enough to be dangerous from what I hear...

Treating junctions as symlinks (for directories) is dangerous, yes.
There's also no visible indication of a junction point, unlike
symlinks.

>>> Are there any features in 1.7 that will make a portable
>>> cygwin easier to maintain?
>>
>> There will be no mount table in the registry.
> 
> This is, of course, very good.
> 
> Now that I think about it, one way that having a common Cygwin install
> will help me is on my development laptop. I'm running XP as the host
> OS and have a lot of virtual Win2K machines set up for testing in
> clean sandboxes.
> 
> By having one canonical "known good" Cygwin install that's visible
> as a shared drive to the virtual machines, I think I can get
> what I want without using a USB drive.
> 
> Sorry for the noise, just musing aloud I guess...

While it is possible to use a shared drive as an installation for
Cygwin, that can be slower due to network latencies on the shared
"drive".


-- 
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
216 Dalton Rd.                          (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
 > Q: Are you sure?
 >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
 >>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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