Date: Tue, 1 May 2007 09:39:51 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please AT cygwin DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: [Ping Python maintainer]: enhancement request
Message-ID: <20070501133951.GB17841@trixie.casa.cgf.cx>
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References: <f137va$5ar$1 AT sea DOT gmane DOT org> <20070501120623 DOT GA3824 AT tishler DOT net>
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On Tue, May 01, 2007 at 08:06:23AM -0400, Jason Tishler wrote:
>On Sun, Apr 29, 2007 at 11:58:57PM +0100, Thorsten Kampe wrote:
>> I just found out that in the standard Cygwin Python setup it is not 
>> possible to run the Python interpreter from a Win32 command shell. 
>> (You get an error about the NTVDM (NT Virtual DOS machine even when C:
>> \cygwin\bin is in the path).
>
>The following works:
>
>    C:\>bash -c python
>    Python 2.5 (r25:51908, Mar 13 2007, 08:13:14)
>    ...
>
>> The reason is that python.exe is a symbolic link to python2.5.exe. As 
>> the Python interpreter itself is only about 43 Kb in size I suggest 
>> copying the interpreter instead of symlinking (Zsh for instance does 
>> the same).
>
>OK.  Should I copy or make a hard link?

Before you do this, I have a question.  Why is this important now when you've
apparently been doing this for many years?  This isn't the only package which
makes symlinks to executables.  And, since, AFAIK, setup.exe doesn't understand
hard links it means that you really do have to make a copy.  If you make a copy
you stand the chance of having python.exe out of sync with the thing that it is
supposed to be pointing to.

If it was a general Cygwin policy to always make copies, I could see changing
Python.  But, again, since it isn't, I don't see why python should be unique.

cgf

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