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Message-ID: <03a901c49877$0c148ca0$78d96f83@robinson.cam.ac.uk>
From: "Max Bowsher" <maxb AT ukf DOT net>
To: "linda w" <cygwin AT tlinx DOT org>, <cygwin AT cygwin DOT com>
References: <41438EE8 DOT 7040708 AT tlinx DOT org>
Subject: Re: sundry & using rootfs as cygwin-root
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 04:17:29 +0100
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linda w wrote:
> Since some fair number of people (including myself) do use the cygwin
> fs root set at C:\, and having done so over win98,me,2000 and xp I've,
> personally, never ran into any problems, I was wondering if anyone else
> *had* run into problems having Cygroot=C:\ ?

AFAIK the reasons for this are:

Intermingling cygwin files and directories with Program Files, WINDOWS, and 
all the other bits windows sticks in C:\ is just... *messy*.

It's good to be able to tell people "to uninstall cygwin, just delete 
C:\cygwin"

You never know if some other program is going to decide C:\usr would be a 
good place to install to. I'm fairly sure I came across a Perl installer 
that did this at some stage.

> I did run into a problem on a friend's system when I decided to take the
> more conservative approach and install cygwin in the non-root of his
> system -- since it wasn't my sys and didn't want to go against the
> "suggestion"
> of the cygwin installer...but in using his system after that, not having
> the two roots be synonomous has been nothing but a pain.  find commands,
> locate
> and such that used to work from root now no longer work as expected.  I
> can't
> access the whole system the way I was used to...it's more like cygwin is
> installed into a separate little compartment over to the side, whereas 
> when
> I install it in root, I am more often using it as a OS adjunct/layer, as,
> I _think_, many people are.

I'm using Cygwin as a most important part of my environment, and I don't 
find it odd to have it in C:\cygwin. In fact, I'd *hate* it to have "Program 
Files", WINDOWS, and so on cluttering up my '/' directory.

If you dislike typing /cygdrive/c, then set up a symlink at /c.

> So I was wondering -- is that warning really _necessary_? and if it is,
> maybe
> it is only necessary when creating a new install and not running an update
> on an existing install each time?

That's probably a good idea.

Max.


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