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Subject: Re: FAQ 1.5 changes (was: How to check cygwin version?)
To: cygwin@cygwin.com
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From: Brian Inglis <Brian.Inglis@SystematicSw.ab.ca>
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Organization: Systematic Software
Message-ID: <22c8f621-6402-ca69-c7b2-eb17296596ee@SystematicSw.ab.ca>
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2020 22:02:12 -0600
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On 2020-07-02 21:38, Brian Inglis wrote:
> On 2020-07-02 09:34, Norton Allen wrote:
>> On 7/2/2020 1:20 AM, Brian Inglis wrote:
>>> On 2020-07-01 07:36, Jeffrey Walton via Cygwin wrote:
>>>> I think the documentation leaves a lot to be desired... I'm trying to
>>>> tell someone what version of Cygwin I am using.
>>>> There's a FAQ item at
>>>> https://cygwin.com/faq/faq.html#faq.what.version. It gives this
>>>> useless advice:
>>>>     To find the version of the Cygwin DLL installed, you can use uname
>>>>     as on Linux or cygcheck. Refer to each command's --help output and
>>>>     the Cygwin User's Guide for more information.
>>>> OK, let's try it:
>>>> $ cygcheck -v
>>>> Usage: cygcheck [-v] [-h] PROGRAM
>>>>         cygcheck -c [-d] [PACKAGE]
>>>>         cygcheck -s [-r] [-v] [-h]
>>>>         cygcheck -k
>>>>         ...
>>>> OK, -v is what we need:
>>>> $ cygcheck -v cygwin
>>>> cygcheck: could not find 'cygwin'
>>>> OK, another failure.
>>>> RTFM does not work. Why the hell don't you just state how to check the
>>>> god damn version?
> 
>>> Do you think it would help if this FAQ entry were changed to read:
>>>
>>> 1.5. What version of Cygwin is this, anyway?
>>>       To find the version of the Cygwin DLL installed, you can use any of the
>>> Cygwin commands uname -a, uname -srvm, head /proc/version as on Linux, or
>>> cygcheck -V. Refer to each command's --help output or the Cygwin User's Guide
>>> for more information.
>>>
>>> and please make any further comments, feedback, or suggestions you think would
>>> help with this entry.
> 
>> I think what is missing in all these suggestions is a clear statement that for
>> Cygwin's purposes, the cygwin DLL is considered to be the 'kernel', so looking
>> for the 'kernel release' gives you the DLL version. I think that leap is totally
>> non-obvious.
> 
> Okay folks, would this approach make the situation and operations clearer:
> 
> 1.5. What version of Cygwin is this, anyway?
> 
> As the Cygwin DLL takes the place of a Unix kernel, to find the version of the
> Cygwin DLL installed, you can use any of the Unix compatible commands: uname -a;
> uname -srvm; head /proc/version; or the Cygwin command: cygcheck -V. Refer to
> each command's --help output or the Cygwin User's Guide for more information.
> 
> and again please feel free to make any further comments, feedback, or
> suggestions you think would help with this entry.

Added a bit more clarification to 2nd paragraph 2nd sentence, and email markup
for the HTML rendering:

"1.5. What version of Cygwin is this, anyway?
     As the Cygwin DLL takes the place of a Unix kernel, to find the version of
the Cygwin DLL installed, you can use any of the Unix compatible commands:
*uname -a*; *uname -srvm*; *head /proc/version*; or the Cygwin command:
*cygcheck -V*. Refer to each command's `--help` output or the _Cygwin User's
Guide_ for more information.

If you are looking for the version number for the whole Cygwin release, there is
none. Each package in the Cygwin release has its own version, and the `cygwin`
package containing the Cygwin DLL and Cygwin system specific utilities is just
another (but very important!) package. The packages in Cygwin are continually
improving, thanks to the efforts of net volunteers who maintain the Cygwin
binary ports. Each package has its own version numbers and its own release process."

Please feel free to make any further comments, feedback, or suggestions you
think would help with this entry.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

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