Subject: gnuwin32 mini FAQ and resource pointer
From: [email-masked] (Michael Weiser)

2 Dec 1998 10:51:55 -0800
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To: [email-masked]

Hello Folks,

This time I'm posting the FAQ by hand since I tried to update it to
B20 and want to give out a beta version for getting some definitive
answers from the developers on topics I'm uncertain about. So the
following is _not_ neccessarily perfect and correct! Don't rely on it
if you're not certain about what to do! (Saying: This time it's even
more AS IS then normally. :)

Unfortunately I only have mail connectivity at the moment and thus
have to ask some things I could easily prove myself. I'm really sorry
about that and working hard on getting connected again! :-/

So first the questions and then the FAQ:

1. Is Sergey's cygwin32 b19.3 coolview still available somewhere?

2. How does binmode affect //<drive>/<path>-like paths in B20? Does it
switch them to binary mode like B19 didn't? At least on my vanilla
full.exe (Nov 2) such paths seem to default to binary mode regardless
of the binmode setting.

3. Were //<drive>/<path>-like paths really in text mode on B19? I'm
not quite sure about that but think to remember a discussion on the
list stating just that.

4. Could someone with more knowledge than me read sections 1.1.1. and
1.1.4. really carefully? There are some statements that are very
definitve although I'm not quite sure that they're really true. The
most critical ones seem to be:

b) If the file appears to reside on a file system that is not mounted
   (as can happen when the path contains a drive letter), the default
   mode is TEXT. Beginning with B20 it can be set to BINARY by adding
   "binmode" to the CYGWIN environment variable.
c) On B19 pipes get opened in text mode. Beginning with B20 pipes are
   always opened in binary mode.

and

[no]binmode     - use 'binmode' as the default open mode when the mode
                  is not otherwise specified in the open or by mount.
                  On B19 this does not affect pipes and path specs
                  like //c/foo. On B20 it seems to at least change the
                  mode for //c/foo-like paths to binary.
                  (default: disabled)

5. Does binmode switch pipes to binary mode or are they binary by
default now? Where does it take effect, at bash- or cygwin.dll-level?

6. Are the CYGWIN parameters ntea and mixed still patches by Sergey or
in the official source tree? At least ntea seems to be official now
but what about mixed?

7. Would there be interest from the public and, Goeffrey, your side to
take some of the answers over into the official FAQ? I would greatly
appreciate that since I don't want to start cluttering knowledge into
little bitty pieces all over the net when there's a central point
where it can and should be collected. Also it would shrink down my
mini FAQ to a resource pointer again which it originally was intended
to be. :)

8. Are there any new resources that should be added? There are some on
my working list I can't visit now but want to include as soon as I've
seen them:

http://www.vtt.fi/tte/staff/tml/gimp/win32/
http://www-public.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de/~tolj
http://www.io.com/~bub/rxvt.html
http://www.feld.cvut.cz/~xtomasej/SemTel_en.html
http://www.feld.cvut.cz/~xtomasej/semtel_en.html
http://mujweb.cz/web/tomasek/semtel_cz.html
http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/cygwin-ug-net/setup-net147.html

9. And of course: Is everything else stated in the FAQ correct,
especially the defaults for all the CYGWIN options? :)

And now to something completely different:

gnuwin32 mini FAQ and resource pointer

$Id: gnuwin32-mini-faq.txt,v 1.14 1998/12/01 02:15:20 michael Exp $

Contents:

0. Introduction
1. Cygwin
 1.1. Cygwin most frequently asked questions
  1.1.1. Binary mounts
  1.1.2. Long pauses occuring randomly in bash
  1.1.3. Windows 95 freezing up
  1.1.4. Options for the CYGWIN environment variable
 1.2. Cygwin resources
  1.2.1. Web sites
  1.2.2. FTP archives
2. Mingw32
 2.1. Mingw32 resources
  2.1.1. Web sites
  2.1.2. FTP archives
3. FTP Upload
4. Acknowledgements
5. Legal stuff

0. Introduction

  This document tries to answer the gnuwin32 mailing list's most
frequently asked questions. It is not intended to replace any other
document you should have read before mailing a question to the list
but tries to give a comprehensive list of such resources. It also
tries to collect all related, interesting and up-to-date download
locations.

1. Cygwin

  Before doing anything else you should make sure that you have
updated your Cygwin package with the latest patches and enhancements,
even and especially if you just downloaded and installed it:

- Sergey Okhapkin's coolview package contains an updated Cygwin DLL
  that reflects the latest developments and fixes a lot of known
  problems.

- Mumit Khan's compilation of egcs for Cygwin32 B19 fixes lots of
  problems with the tools that come with the environment, especially
  if you're using the C++ compiler. This is a drop-in replacement for
  the gcc toolset (which of course only makes sense on Cygwin32 B19).

URL's are listed below.

1.1. Cygwin most frequently asked questions

  If your problem doesn't go away after the above mentioned updates,
perhaps the following helps solving it:

1.1.1. Binary mounts

  Under Unix when an application reads from a file it gets exactly
what's in the file on disk and the converse holds on writing.  The
situation is different in the DOS/Windows world where a file can be
opened in one of two modes, BINARY and TEXT. In the BINARY mode the
system behaves exactly as in Unix. However in TEXT mode there are
major differences:
a) On writing in TEXT mode, a NL (\n,^J) is transformed into the
   sequence CR (\r,^M) NL..
b) On reading in TEXT mode, a CR followed by an NL is deleted and a ^Z
   character signals the end of file.

  This can break havoc with seek/fseek since the number of bytes
actually in the file may differ from that seen by the application.

In the open() function call, BINARY mode can be specified with
O_BINARY and TEXT mode with O_TEXT.  BINARY mode can be specified in
an fopen() call by adding a "b" to the mode string. TEXT mode is the
default on normal DOS/Windows systems, but not necessarily in Cygwin.
The mode of a file can be changed by the call setmode(fd,mode) where
fd is a file descriptor (an integer) and mode is O_BINARY or O_TEXT.
The function returns O_BINARY or O_TEXT depending on the mode before
the call, and EOF on error.

Most ascii files produced on a Unix system contain no CR and ^Z and
they are read in TEXT mode as they are in BINARY mode. However most
DOS/Windows ascii files contain CR. Many programs written for Unix do
not specify the mode when opening a file. If the default mode is
BINARY, they may have trouble dealing with the CR NL at the end of a
line. If the default mode is TEXT, troubles occur with files
containing binary data.

The Cygwin system gives us some flexibility in deciding how files are
to be opened when the mode is not specified explicitly:
a) If the file appears to reside on a file system that is mounted
   (i.e. if its path name starts with a directory displayed by
   "mount") then the default is specified by the mount flags.
b) If the file appears to reside on a file system that is not mounted
   (as can happen when the path contains a drive letter), the default
   mode is TEXT. Beginning with B20 it can be set to BINARY by adding
   "binmode" to the CYGWIN environment variable.
c) On B19 pipes get opened in text mode. Beginning with B20 pipes are
   always opened in binary mode.
d) When a program is launched by a Cygwin or DOS shell, its standard
   input, output and error are in TEXT mode, except if they are piped
   or redirected. When redirecting, the Cygwin shells uses rules
   (a-c). For rule b), the relevant value of CYGWIN is that at the
   time the shell was launched and not that at the time redirection
   occurs. The DOS shell always redirects with BINARY mode.

  Cygwin utilities dealing with binary files (such as "od", (object
dump), which is useful to understand what is going on with CR NL) open
files in BINARY mode. Others, such as "cat" and "cmp" use the default,
which can cause problems if the default is TEXT but the file contains
binary data. On the other hand using BINARY as the default also causes
difficulties, for example when shells or "make" read files containing
CR NL.

  The following script deletes CRs from files:

#!/bin/sh
# Remove \r from the files given as arguments
for file in "$@"
do
    CYGWIN=binmode sh -c "tr -d \\\"\\\r\\\" < '$file' >
c:tmpfile.tmp"
    if [ "$?" = "0" ]
    then
        rm "$file"
        mv c:tmpfile.tmp "$file"
    fi
done

  This works irrespective of the mount because rule b) applies for the
path c:tmpfile.tmp. According to rule d) CYGWIN must be set before
invoking the shell. Those precautions are necessary because "tr" does
not setmode its standard output to BINARY. It would thus reintroduce
\r when writing to a file on a TEXT mounted file system. The desired
behavior can also be obtained by using "tr" in a .bat file.

  Of course you can also simply use the recode package compiled by
Michael Hirmke if it's not a problem that they require binary mounts.

1.1.2. Long pauses occuring randomly in bash

[ text goes here. any volunteers? ]

1.1.3. Windows 95 Freezing Up (and related problems)

  (It's unknown if and how this applies to Cygwin B20, too. Feedback
is very welcome.)

Symptoms to be treated

     Trying to stop a program (e.g. by ctrl-C) hangs up W95

     Errors in typing in a command often hang up W95

     bash.exe won't work in the role of /bin/sh.exe

     can't lstat or find files involving a specified drive

Steps to take 

     Install USB support

     Use better version of cygwinb19.dll

     Use disk data/directory/registry maintenance software

     replace /bin/sh.exe with a copy of bash.exe

USB

     The "Universal Serial Bus" scheme not only supports a scheme of
installation which is preferred for many devices, often including
video and sound cards.  It also includes a more workable scheme for
trapping program faults.  While USB support is integral to W98, it is
an optional patch for W95 which is to be added to the standard
installation.  After installation, USB appears in the list of
removable software under the Settings/Control Panel/Add/Remove
Programs.  It must be removed while performing OS repairs.

     OSR2 versions of Windows 95 include an optional usb patch on the
CD, in \other\updates\usb. Instructions are in a README file there.
This is a 2-step process involving yet another reboot.  For earlier
versions of W95, there are hot fix patches which may be found by
checking the leads in the gnuwin32/Cygwin FAQ.

cygwinb19.dll

The B19.1 version of cygwinb19.dll is better than the original, and
the Okhapkin version from http://www.lexa.ru is better yet.  lexa.ru
is quite difficult to connect properly here on the other side of the
world; the best time probably is around 7 am Sunday morning in Russia.

You can't install cygwinb19 while the older copy is running; just use
a plain DOS window or My Computer to copy the new one over the old,
after which you can open a bash window again.

Disk data maintenance

     gnu-win32 increases the importance of standard measures to keep
registry and directory structures clean, and disk data well organized.

bash

     Many users of NT have recommended dispensing with the ash shell
which is installed in the Cygwin /bin/sh.exe.  This is not
recommended under W95 until you have installed USB.

     Undo whatever you have done with /bin (blow it away).  The
following works after USB is installed:
cd /
mkdir bin
cd bin
cp $CYGFS/H-i386-cygwin32/bin/bash.exe sh.exe

If you like, you can build bash-2.02 from source, or install
Okhapkin's souped up version of it.

1.1.4. Options for the CYGWIN environment variable

  the following parameters to Cygwin's CYGWIN environment variable
may be used to affect its behaviour.

  CAUTION! On B19 and before the CYGWIN variable was named CYGWIN32.
With B20 the name changed to CYGWIN while working still the same.

  There has also been a bug in B20 on handling the CYGWIN parameters
which made it neccessary to add two spaces before the first parameter
like 'CYGWIN=  tty binmode'. This has been fixed with Sergey
Okhapkin's latest coolview.

[no]title	- display command line of currently running process in
                  console title. (default: disabled)
[no]strip_title - works in conjunction with 'title'.  Strips the path
		  spec from what is displayed in the console title bar
		  when the program is run. (default: disabled)
[no]tty		- makes consoles more UN*X-like which improves
                  compatibility with UN*X apps but may cause problems
                  with non-Cygwin apps. (default: disabled)
[no]binmode     - use 'binmode' as the default open mode when the mode
		  is not otherwise specified in the open or by mount.
                  On B19 this does not affect pipes and path specs
                  like //c/foo. On B20 it seems to at least change the
                  mode for //c/foo-like paths to binary.
                  (default: disabled)
[no]glob        - do perform globbing operations on the command line
		  when a Cygwin process is being invoked from a
		  non-Cygwin shell. (default: enabled)
strace          - a cygwinb19.dll debugging aid.  Setting mask to '1'
		  will cause reams of information about the operation
		  of Cygwin to be written to 'file' as Cygwin
		  operates. The rest of the bits control the display
		  various Cygwin subsystems. For a complete list check
		  out /usr/include/sys/strace.h. The cache setting
		  controls how much strace output will be held in
		  memory before being output to disk. (default:
		  disabled)

The following option is available with B20 or Sergey Okhapkin's
coolview for B19 or B20 only:

[no]ntea	- use extended file attributes on Windows NT.
                  (default: disabled)

This option is provied by Sergey's coolviews only:

[no]mixed	- create case-sensitive filenames on ntfs partitions.
                  (default: disabled)

1.2. Cygwin resources

  If the above doesn't answer your question you should read the
Cygwin FAQ at http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/faq.html
before posting any question to the list.

  Please also research your question via the Searchable Mail Archives
at http://www.cygnus.com/ml/gnu-win32. Most problems have already been
discussed and solved on the list.

  If you are searching for a port of a specific program or further
information on a certain topic, you should check out the following
Cygwin related sites:

1.2.1. Web sites

http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/                    (project page)
http://www.cygnus.com/pubs/gnupro/                    (comercial page)
http://www.cygnus.com/misc/gnu-win32/faq.html             (Cygwin faq)
http://www.cygnus.com/ml/gnu-win32   (searchable mailing list archive)
http://www.eGroups.com/list/gnu-win32/   (mailing list archive mirror)

http://aquarius.franken.de/docs/develop/gnuwin32/GNUWin32.txt
                              (Michael Hirmke - package porting notes)
http://dao.gsfc.nasa.gov/software/grads/win32/X11R6.3/
                                 (Arlindo da Silva - X11R6.3 binaries)
http://gnu-win32.paranoia.ru  (Chuck Bogorad - ports - sometimes down)
http://www.alank.net/                   (GNU-Win32 Bash Configuration)
http://www.dol.ru/users/valtul               (Valery Tulnikov - ports)
http://www.freeyellow.com/members5/gw32/
                                      (Earnie Boyd - resource pointer)
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Garage/8516/gimp/gimpw32.html
                                                 (Craig Setera - gimp)
http://www.itribe.net/virtunix/             (more tools and man pages)
http://www.kedemel.demon.co.uk/                       (Darren - ports)
http://www.lexa.ru/sos           (Sergey Okhapkin - updates and ports)
http://www.multione.capgemini.fr/tools/pack_ipc/
                                         (Ludovic Lange - ipc package)
http://www.parallax.co.uk/~andyp/index_text.html  (Andy Piper - ports)
http://www.tiac.net/users/cgf             (Christopher Faylor - ports)
http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/
                                      (Mumit Khan - updates and ports)

1.2.2. FTP archives

ftp://go.cygnus.com/pub/sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin (Cygwin FTP site)
ftp://dao.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/uwm_coads/X11R6.3
                                 (Arlindo da Silva - X11R6.3 binaries)
ftp://ftp.cs.nyu.edu/pub/local/fox/cygwin32
ftp://pipeline.ucsd.edu/pub/dsf/cygwin32
                                   (David Fox - RPM port and packages)
ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/cygwin32/
                 (Michael Hirmke - German mirror and ports collection)
ftp://www.lexa.ru/pub/domestic/sos/
                                   (Sergey Okhapkin - fixes and ports)
ftp://ftp.parallax.co.uk/pub/andyp      (Andy Piper - fixes and ports)
ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/cygwin32/
                                          (Mumit Khan - egcs binaries)

2. Mingw32

2.1. Mingw32 resources

2.1.1. Web sites

http://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/~janjaap/mingw32/
                             (Jan Jaap van der Heijden - gcc binaries)
http://www.freeyellow.com/members5/gw32/
                                      (Earnie Boyd - resource pointer)
http://www.fu.is.saga-u.ac.jp/~colin/gcc.html
                                         (Colin Peters - project page)
http://www.xraylith.wisc.edu/~khan/software/gnu-win32/
                                      (Mumit Khan - updates and ports)

2.1.2. FTP archives

ftp://agnes.dida.physik.uni-essen.de/home/janjaap/mingw32
                             (Jan Jaap van der Heijden - gcc binaries)
ftp://ftp.franken.de/pub/win32/develop/gnuwin32/mingw32/
                 (Michael Hirmke - German mirror and ports collection)
ftp://ftp.xraylith.wisc.edu/pub/khan/gnu-win32/mingw32/
                                          (Mumit Khan - egcs binaries)

3. FTP Upload

  Thanks to Michael Hirmke it is possible to host your port at the
German gnuwin32 mirror ftp.franken.de. If you upload a port, Michael
will create a seperate directory for your package and also include
it in his package report.

  The report gives the following instructions on uploading:

   *How to upload to German GNUWIN32 site*
   -------------------------------------

   - how to upload to our German GNUWIN32 site:

         site: ftp.franken.de
         user: ftp/anonymous
     password: <email address>

     To get directly to the GNUWIN32 upload/incoming directory type
     "cd gnuwin32:" (note the colon following "gnuwin32") and then
     "cd incoming"

     Please always add a short readme on what you've uploaded.
     I'd like best, if the description would follow this format:

     ----------------------< snip snip snip >-------------------------
     *<package name>*
     --------------

     - what is it?
       - <short package description>

     - system
       - <system type, i.e. Windows NT4, Windows 95, ...>

     - preliminaries
       - <which arrangements to make>

     - configure
       - <which changes and parameters are necessary for configure>

     - make
       - <which changes and parameters are necessary for make>

     - make install
       - <which changes and parameters are necessary for make install>

     - notes
       - <what else might be interesting to know>

     - package availability
       - on <site name>
       - in <path>
       - as <package name>

     - contributed by
       - <email address> (<your name>)
     ----------------------< snip snip snip >-------------------------

     There is no need to tell me, that you have uploaded something,
     because I'll get informed automatically.

     Please note:
     *I will delete anything, which does not look like a useful*
     *GNUWIN32 package !*
     *So please don't upload any warez, spam or similar garbage !*

4. Acknowledgements

  Special thanks go to Earnie Boyd who kindly gave me his signature to
create an FAQ out of it and contributed many great ideas. Also I want
to thank Christopher Faylor, Michael Hirmke, Pierre Humblet, Goeffrey
Noer, Timothy Prince and Sergey Okhapkin, who allowed me to include
their huge knowledge on Cygwin in this document. And of course I want
to thank all the developers at Cygnus and all over the net for
developing such a great environment.

5. Legal stuff

I disclaim everything. :)
Copyright (c) 1998 by Michael Weiser, all rights reserved.

# end of file

Thanks for reading this far! :-)

-- 
bye, Michael
-
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