Subject: Re: Portable Cygwin on a CD
From: <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Cc: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 12 May 2003 14:42:26 +0100

<< ... the directory /bin contains choice exe's and dll's. >>

I've gone one better than this, but don't much like the finished result.

A Cygwin installation lacking only TeX and XFree takes about 500 MB. Even
users with a "lot of stuff" under /home/ and /usr/local/ should find their
whole resource fits on a CD. Since a CD can make sense of +R files (but
not -R or, as far as I can tell, +S) I performed a "find / -type l" to
identify the links, removed those in /usr/bin/ and /usr/lib/ (being merely
copies of those in /bin/ and /lib/) and changed all the rest, about 3,400 of
them, to Windows *.lnk +R files. Then xcopy'd the lot to a CD. A few files
in /home/ and /usr/local/ have been altered to address logfiles like
.bash_history and the problem of the un-write-ability of the CD. Also a few
files in /etc/ so that passwd and group are "known" after mounting the CD on
a stranger's machine. Other minor amends.

But, I don't know that it was worth it. There is a whole mass of extra
useability, but I had already made a CD carrying most of what was wanted
(see << >> above) - by me, anyway. It would have been great even if man had
worked, but it doesn't, presumably through some requirement to write a file.
I don't know how to instruct it appropriately to do otherwise.

All in all, I found it not really worth the effort, and lack both the energy
and the skill to delve to the depths necessary to make it a truly working
entity. The much smaller "home-made" CD, bearing just a few useful tools, is
quite adequate. But, I'm letting you know this in case anybody else is
interested.

Fergus

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