Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com; run by ezmlm List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner AT sources DOT redhat DOT com Delivered-To: mailing list cygwin AT sources DOT redhat DOT com Message-ID: <39AD1950.FDE260C6@home.com> Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 10:25:20 -0400 From: "David A. Cobb" Organization: @home user X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.74 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en,ru,pdf MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Cygwin List Subject: Re: Why not mount / at C: ? References: <20000824115435 DOT 26205 DOT qmail AT web108 DOT yahoomail DOT com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit [Earnie, sorry, I meant to post to the list] Earnie Boyd wrote: > > --- Jean-Paul Le Fevre wrote: >> >> It's likely a FAQ, but since I still don't understand : >> Why is it discouraged to mount '/' at 'C:' ? >> The installer gives advice not to mount / at this natural location, >> while the FAQ *URGE* not to do so but without explanations. >> >> I've been using cygwin for years on NT, 98, 2K with '/' being 'C:' without >> any problem. My Windows configuration is very similar to my Linux, >> Solaris, Unix config and I feel very confortable : I've almost nothing >> to change in my environment (variables, emacs, cvs, ssh, makefiles, ...) >> when I have to move from Unix to Windows. >> >> At the beginning of August, I've installed a new release of Cygwin >> accepting the default mount : '/' on 'c:/cygwin'. As a result my environment >> is completely messed up ! I've to edit a lot of files to fix up the >> settings, being not sure when to change '/' in '\\', '/' in 'C:/cywin' or >> '//C/cywin', or 'C:\\cywin' or .... >> >> So, why is it considered as a bad choice to have '/' at 'C:' ? >> > > Using C:/cygwin is recommended because it gives identity to the package on your > disk drive. If you install to C:/ just means that you will have things > installed to C:/ that you might not realize was a part of the Cygwin package. > > As for / vs \\ vs //, the unmounted drive notation has been changes and the > //C/ is being deprecated and should not be used. Instead use /cygdrive/c/ to > indicate an unmounted drive or better yet mount it like so: > mkdir /c > mount [-b] C:/ /c > Then you can reference /c/somefile instead of /cygdrive/c/somefile or > //C/somefile. > > I'm beginning to think that it would be best to not support unmounted drives in > the Cygwin environment. It gets far to confusing and there are solutions > around not having the support. Saying this, IMO, we should deprecate the > unmounted drives support. What do you think? +2 [Respondent expresses strong agreement, puts it on things-to-research list] Based on my experience DO NOT install Cygwin at root!! This should not just be "discouraged" because in some situations [MINE!] it just don't work. I'll describe more below after I've finished the thread. -- David A. Cobb, Software Engineer, Public Access Advocate "Don't buy or use crappy software" "By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner" -- The Way of a Pilgrim [R. M. French, tr.] -- Want to unsubscribe from this list? Send a message to cygwin-unsubscribe AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com