Subject: Re: Setup, update thyself
From: Rance Hall <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2010 14:13:05 -0500
List-Id: <cygwin.cygwin.com>

On Sun, Apr 11, 2010 at 7:16 AM, Paul Bibbings <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Given how the process of updating packages using setup.exe can be
> handled quite automatically - updates are announced, mirrors catch-up,
> and the recent updates can be picked up with a run through setup that
> requires no interaction at all except to cycle through the `next's - I'm
> wondering how it might be that updating of setup.exe is not itself
> managed by this same process.  I am certainly notified if setup.exe is
> out of date, which then triggers the manual process of shutting it down,
> going to the website, grabbing the latest version and starting again.
> Could not this process be integrated into setup itself as "just another
> package install" in effect? Notification that setup.exe is out of date -
> general package selection is disabled - `Next' etc. downloads setup.exe
> as a `package' - automatic restart - continue from here...?
>

Excellent idea, but difficult to manage since windows has difficulty
replacing files that are in use.

Windows command shell scripting is well, lacking.

The standard way to do this would be to write a script that wgets (or
other windows alternative) the setup.exe on the web into a staging
area.  Run setup -v or some other appropriate switch to get a version
number on both the cygwin setup and the new one.  If needed replace
them.  and then run your standard update using the new setup.  It
works well, but I may be changing it to a fatal error when setup.exe
changes.  The switch between 1.5 and 1.7 could not have been handled
automatically without some study as to pitfalls, etc.

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