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Message-ID: <3C21A9B6.30702@ece.gatech.edu>
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 04:04:54 -0500
From: Charles Wilson <cwilson AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
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To: jm DOT poure AT freesurf DOT fr
CC: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: RPM 4 under cygwin
References: <4 DOT 3 DOT 1 DOT 2 DOT 20011219103326 DOT 0166d180 AT pop DOT ma DOT ultranet DOT com> <3C20BBD0 DOT 3030502 AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu> <200112200844 DOT fBK8iQx13965 AT www1 DOT translationforge>
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Jean-Michel POURE wrote:

>>Since Larry didn't touch this, I'll respond.  Cygwin packages can be 
>>
> unpacked/interpreted/understood by a NON cygwin program (setup.exe is a 
> native windows app).  ALL ports of RPM that I have seen require cygwin -- 
> which means they cannot easily be used to install cygwin itself on a virgin 
> system.  This is a serious drawback.
> 
> This clearly is a demonstration that cygwin would benefit from a static 
> compilation option. I know this is not an issue for you all, but ...


No, actually you are wrong -- this is not a demonstration of anything of 
the sort.  Let us suppose that you COULD link cygwin1.dll statically 
(into rpm.exe?).  What mount table would be available for that 
cygwin-inside-rpm.exe to use?

In the scenario you raise, there is really no fundamental difference 
between cygwin-inside-rpm.exe, and a cygwin.dll-based-rpm with a 
cygwin1.dll sitting next to it.  The fact is, you need a NON cygwin 
program to do some initial system configuration before cygwin-based 
progs can operate properly on a virgin system.

This has been discussed so damn many times on the mailing list it's 
really starting to piss me off...


> Coming back to RPM, this would be so nice to issue this command:
> rpm --rebuild --target=cygwin package_name.rpms to compile any existing 
> apckage for Cygwin.
> 
> There are 100 times more Linux developpers than $Windows developpers. Why  
> to reinvent the wheel with another installation format? 


Oh, heaven forbid we actually invent a streaming tape format and then 
repurpose it for disk archives.  Oh, wait, that's tar -- and it's been 
around since 1962 at least.  Then there's that upstart gzip format -- 
it's only been around since the mid 70's, that young whippersnapper.

.tar.gz is not new.

>Do you really think 
> you can create a universal format including DEB and RPM? Then you need to 
> produce more work than the creators of these formats. This is such a 
> difficult project...


No, we just want to teach setup.exe to unpack either pure DEBs or pure 
RPMS.  Prefereably using librpm.a or libdeb.a, which already exist.
However, those are cygwin/unixy ports, so we run into the problems 
described earlier.

Don't like my superior tone?  I don't blame you -- it's very irritating 
to be "talked down to" as if one was a child playing with adult toys. 
Want to know why I took such an abrasive tone?



Because your message was written that way, too.  "This is clearly..." 
and "Do you really think..." indeed.

--Chuck



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