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Date:	Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:27:29 -0500
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On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 09:36:50AM -0800, Steven Monai wrote:
>On 2010/01/09 2:09 AM, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
>>On Jan 8 17:28, Steven Monai wrote:
>>>Not to beat a dead hippo here, but if Cygwin allows in-use files to be
>>>replaced, then what is 'setup.exe' needed for?  (Aside from the initial
>>>bootstrap of Cygwin, of course.) Shouldn't it be possible to have
>>>proper package management---like dpkg, apt, rpm, yum, etc---from within
>>>Cygwin now?
>>
>>The most pressing problem is the replacement of the cygwin DLL itself.
>>It's like installing a new kernel in Linux.  However, in Linux you have
>>to reboot to use the new kernel, while Cygwin is just a DLL.  After the
>>rename and replace operation, existing processes will use the old DLL
>>while new processes will use the new DLL.  This is bound to break and
>>there's no clean way to do it, except to replace the Cygwin DLL while
>>no other Cygwin process is running.
>
>Could a Cygwin-specific package manager treat the cygwin DLL as a
>special case?  Instead of immediately replacing the cygwin DLL file (as
>it would normally do for any other DLL), the package manager could use
>the Windows "schedule-a-delete/rename-on-reboot" facility to arrange
>for the DLL's replacement at the next reboot.  Thus there would never
>be more than one version of the cygwin DLL loaded at any given time.

It's software.  Anything is possible.  If you're wondering if someone is
going to do this for you then the answer is: It's not likely.

Maybe you're not getting this but that lightbulb of inspiration that
went on over your head was first turned on back in the late-nineties.
This idea has been put forth many times since that time.  The fact that
it isn't implemented means that either 1) It's more difficult than you
anticipate or 2) No one thinks its a good idea.

cgf

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