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Date:	Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:03:07 -0600
From:	Jeremy Bopp <jeremy AT bopp DOT net>
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Subject:	Re: Suggestion: Have setup.exe warn before upgrading 'cgywin' package itself
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aputerguy wrote:
> Currently when upgrading the base 'cygwin' package, the installer only warns
> you midway through the installation after some files have been
> removed/replaced.
> 
> If you have other cygwin processes running, you may be left in an incomplete
> state where you can't or don't want to kill the other cygwin processes
> leaving you stuck in the middle of install while you wait to be able to
> finish or kill the existing cygwin processes. Even worse, several core
> cygwin utilities are now broken (such as 'ps') due to the partial install.
> 
> I have done this inadvertently a couple of times when 'cygwin' gets thrown
> in as a part of another intentioned download.
> 
> Today I was left in an even odder state since I ran 'setup.exe' from a bash
> prompt -- leaving me in a catch-22 since if I kill the bash processes then I
> kill setup but I can't continue until I kill the bash processes...

I think the problem is that the setup process cannot know for certain
until it actually starts replacing files that some of them are in use.
Scanning the system prior to replacing files could leave you exposed
since some files could become in use between the scan and replace
operations.  The best you could hope for is a possible warning regarding
things in use at the time of the scan, but it doesn't really help you in
all cases.

BTW, this is not only a problem for the cygwin package.  Literally any
package could have files which are in use at the time of replacement.
So any solution would need to take that into account.

-Jeremy

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