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Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 15:16:47 -0500
To: "Mack, Daemian" <DMack AT Tickets DOT com>, cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
From: "Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)" <lhall AT rfk DOT com>
Subject: Re: Cygwin Registry Entries and Scriptability?
In-Reply-To: <AA200D15A29A574DA33D98B75E6E5D990452EF85@syrs-mail.back.ti
 ckets.com>
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At 02:51 PM 2/14/2002, Mack, Daemian wrote:
>Hi all.  I'm using Wise Installer to package and script an upgrade utility
>for Windows machines.  As part of this package, I'm using Cygwin's bash.exe,
>rsync.exe, and the latest cygwin1.dll.  At the moment, I'm just copying
>these three files to the hard disk on the target machine, then launching a
>bash.exe process with various arguments to rsync.exe to perform an rsync
>over the net.
>
>I've heard that the way I'm doing it might not be correct, mostly because
>the full setup of Cygwin provides registry entries concerning mount points,
>so that, for instance, the directive /cygdrive/c/windows/desktop means
>something to Cygwin utilities.
>
>But what I'm finding with my testing is that every time I run bash.exe on a
>machine with no other Cygwin install, these registry entries are created
>dynamically.  I suspect cygwin1.dll is doing this when it's called by
>bash.exe.  
>
>To all appearances, then, a full install of Cygwin seems redundant, since I
>can reference /cygdrive/c and get my work finished just fine without it.
>
>I'd like confirmation or denial of this, because I'd like to move forward
>without scripting a full Cygwin installation, using only these three files.


I'm not sure what you mean by a "full Cygwin installation, using only these
three files".  To people on this list, a full Cygwin installation is more
than just the three files you indicate.

/cygdrive is meant to represent implicit mounts to local hard drives.  The
Cygwin DLL takes care of generating these.  Other mount points (/usr/bin,
/usr/lib, and /) are created by setup.exe and are not dynamically created 
as needed.  Your biggest concerns, though, should be:

   1. Detecting an existing Cygwin installation so that your installation 
      doesn't clash with Cygwin's.

   2. Robustly handling a subsequent installation of Cygwin.

It's worth noting that the installation you're describing would be 
considered a custom one by this list and should come with its own 
support channel.  This list can't be it.  I suspect that you're aware of
this but in case you're not, it's an important point to consider.

Hope that helps,



Larry Hall                              lhall AT rfk DOT com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX


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