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From: "Soren Andersen" <soren_andersen AT speedymail DOT org>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Date: Sat, 19 Jan 2002 23:51:31 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
Subject: CygwinPerl Q - interact with symlinked dir?
Reply-To: soren_andersen AT speedymail DOT org
Message-ID: <3C4A0683.13902.6CCDA31@localhost>
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Hello,

I recently had move some files around due to space constraints on my local 
disks. What got moved was my $HOME directory subtree (where ~/* points to 
in Cygwin). LONG time ago, when setting up Cygwin Perl, I choose to place 
the .cpan directory under my user home directory "~/".

Now my "~/" is on a different Windows volume ("E:") and everything is fine, 
except I am worrying about getting zapped next time i need to run CPAN, 
because: I needed to leave the large .cpan directory in the old location 
("E:" is short on space).

So I did this:
------------------------------------------------------------
$  ln -svdnf '/home/sorenboss/.cpan/' ~/.cpan
create symbolic link `/cdv/e/home/sorenboss/.cpan' to 
`/home/sorenboss/.cpan/'
------------------------------------------------------------
Well and dandy! That *seems* to mean that there is a symlink named 
".cpan[.lnk]" in E:\home\sorenboss (posix mounted ~/) which points to a dir 
"D:\cygwin\home\sorenboss\.cpan" (posix /home/sorenboss/.cpan), which in 
turn contains two dirs: "build" and "sources" -- like it is supposed to.

My question is: what is Perl going to do when I run an invocation of CPAN? 
Is it going to look in "~/.cpan" and if so, will it play nicely with a 
symlink and transparently find the existing dirs over on the other logical 
volume? Or will it still think that the configuration files are in 
"D:\cygwin\home\sorenboss\.cpan" (/home/sorenboss/.cpan)?

TIA for any observations, tips and clues.

BTW, I think this minor remodelling project went so well because I set 
$HOME in my overall Windows environment (as a global environmental variable 
%HOME% -- for newbies) before starting Cygwin. I've got a system for doing 
this that is somewhat flexible and automagical (in a teeny tiny minor way) 
and I am going to post about it in another message.

   Best regards,
     Soren Andersen
-- 
Religion is a tool, like a hammer. You can use a hammer to build a house or 
to kill your 
neighbor; nobody can really design a hammer that can't kill, if the hammer 
is to perform its 
more positive function.
     - localroger AT hotmail DOT com


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