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X-Authentication-Warning: slinky.cs.nyu.edu: pechtcha owned process doing -bs
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 17:29:11 -0400 (EDT)
From: Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu>
Reply-To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
To: Qwer Zxcv <partner4progress AT yahoo DOT com>
cc: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: [newbie] how to install cygwin by version? and fix breakage?
In-Reply-To: <20030425210933.75007.qmail@web14807.mail.yahoo.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.4.44.0304251721010.10996-100000@slinky.cs.nyu.edu>
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On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Qwer Zxcv wrote:

> Qwer Zxcv wrote:
> >> How can I install a new version of cygwin, such that
>
> >> * my old version remains undisturbed, and can be used if needed
>
> >> * the new version knows my old customizations (e.g. downloaded/
> >>   installed packages, mounts, profile, bash settings)
>
> <big snip>
>
> >> 1 What's the general procedure to do version-preserving cygwin
> >>   installs?
>
> Max Bowsher <maxb AT ukf DOT net> wrote:
> > There is no recommended procedure to install multiple versions of
> > Cygwin. The recommended procedure is to keep old package versions on
> > your hard disc and roll back to them if you need to.
>
> Umm, I thought that's what I meant by "my old version remains
> undisturbed, and can be used if needed." But apparently not, so allow
> me to revise the question:
>
> 1 How can one install a new version of cygwin so as to preserve old
>   package versions in such a manner that one can roll back if needed?

The Cygwin installation tool, setup.exe, caches the package tarballs that
it downloads in a subdirectory of the local installation directory (the
name is actually an RFC1738-encoded URL of the mirror).  It never deletes
any of the downloaded packages, so they are always available (unless you
delete them yourself).  The currently installed version and the previous
version are almost always available.

If you need to go back more than two versions, you can, but the versions
will not show up on the package list (since they are not in the setup.ini
file).  There are a few solutions for this.  The easiest for you would
probably be to find a "stale" mirror (a mirror that doesn't get updated
very often -- I believe one was mentioned recently on this list) and use
it as one of your mirrors (yes, you can select more than one).  That way,
older versions mentioned in setup.ini from that mirror will be readily
available for install.

Alternatively, you could make a copy of setup.ini into another directory
and edit it to put the older version in (as "prev", probably).  You can
then point setup.exe to that directory as your local directory, and voila.
For details on the format of setup.ini see
<http://sources.redhat.com/cygwin-apps/setup.html>.
	Igor

> >> Also please note: I'd appreciate it if you could reply directly to
> >> me, as well as to the list. I'm on the digest, to avoid flooding my
> >> inbox, but I'd like to get this problem fixed ASAP, without waiting
> >> for the digest. I have some scripts I need to run, in order to get
> >> "real work" done, but for now I'm "dead in the water" :-(

-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha AT cs DOT nyu DOT edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor AT watson DOT ibm DOT com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
  -- Leto II


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