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Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 17:39:13 EDT
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: "shouted down", "shot down", apologies
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From: Brian Keener <bkeener AT thesoftwaresource DOT com>
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Christopher Faylor wrote:
> Well, just to backslide a little: http://cygwin.com/contrib.html ,
> http://cygwin.com/cvs.html .
> 
> Or, more generically http://cygwin.com/ .
>
Well,

I am probably going to jump into this now without intending to but this really 
does not answer his question - sorry Chris and I am not aiming this at you 
Chris - This is simply an observation. He asked:  

>> So, if I want be able to rebuild all the cygwin packages, can I do that from
>> source downloaded with setup.exe?  Can someone recommend a convenient way of
>> building a "test cygwin" from that source which can be switched to (via a
>> change to cygwin.bat) to try out changes?  Or do I really have to go the cvs
>> route and work with the latest/greatest bleeding-edge packages?  If csv is
>> the only/best way, does someone have a cookbook which will allow me to setup
>> a test environment, refresh the source, build everything, make a change,
>> test it out, submit a patch -- all while keeping a working cygwin
>> environment built off of setup.exe's download?

As someone who is trying to learn C++ and never really worked with it much and 
as a contributor to the Cygwin project by contributing to setup.exe these are 
questions that I and many others have asked before at various times.  I have 
read the above links before and probably missed where the answers to John's 
questions were located but as far as I can tell there isn't a lot to get 
someone going on contributing to Cygwin.  Or let me say there is a not a lot if 
you are inexperienced in cvs, cygwin, C++, gcc, make as they are used in this 
environment. I have essentially pieced together from various sources (you Chris 
and Earnie and Dj and whole lot of others) and reading the man pages and asking 
very pointed questions just enough to be able to make changes, compile and test 
them and then submit them.  

And while I have improved some of my techniques and even have some scripts to 
do some of the updates and such for me - there is no "cookbook" which is what 
he asked about.  I still cringe when I do an update from cvs and then have to 
do a configure and make because I usually run into a load of problems that 
takes me several days to get around.  Of course the fact I am on Win95 as many 
have pointed out and have no clue what I am doing does not help.  I also have 
never used the testsuite and have no idea how to. I have never installed a 
cygwin I built from sources and have no idea how to although I build it 
regularly since it is part of my build script when I make changes to setup.

While the web pages and the FAQ do tell you how to get the source and how to 
send patches it really does not provide a cookbook.  I realize that we all like 
self starters and the major contributors do not like to have to answer these 
simplistic questions --- but those of us who are trying to learn and to help 
some times need a boost and a few pointers down the right path. 

If I step on anyones toes here I am sorry and if I have overlooked things on 
the web pages I am doubly sorry - for me (cause I've been missing out) and for 
everyone else for having to put up with me asking.  Food for thought for all of 
us - for some of us it is just as hard to bring ourselves to ask the questions 
as it is for the rest to have to read them over and over, but sometimes if you 
do not know what it is you're looking for and/or how to ask for it - it's 
mighty tough to find in a web page or faq.

Gonna go hide now :-)

bk






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