Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 10:41:01 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please AT cygwin DOT com>
To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: registry's role, or "must I install on client madhines"
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On Wed, May 23, 2007 at 10:00:49AM -0400, Joseph Michaud wrote:
>I have cygwin installed on a Windows share.  I'm trying to use it
>from another Windows client machine (on which it was never installed)
>by simply running the bash executable using the UNC path
>(//share/cygwin/bin/bash.exe -l -i).  This isn't working.
>
>I've tried a number of variations like: where my current working
>directory is (local or remote); starting bash in a local directory
>and then starting in the remote directory; trying various CYGWIN
>variables.  In all cases the resulting environment for bash has
>a variety of problems, likely stemming from the fact that HOME
>and PATH do not get set up.  No /etc/profile or .bashrc are processed.
>'cd' works but only by using relative paths (../foo) but not
>absolute paths (/foo).  I *can* see the filesystem (with "echo *" or
>something like "../bin/ls").
>
>I've also tried setting up the Windows client machine to map a
>network drive so that the client machine has the same drive letter
>and directory structure as the master machine (ie, G:/cygwin).  No joy.
>
>I had wanted to avoid installing cygwin on all the client machines
>but this is beginning to seem less possible.
>
>The only other thing I can think of is that the registry is
>being set up when you do an install and that these registry entries
>are required when bash is invoked.
>
>Are registry entries referenced when running bash?

Cygwin, (somewhat) like linux, sets up a mount table which creates a
root directory, bin directory and other directories.  You can see what's
created by typing "mount".

The fact that this information is stored in the registry is irrelevant
(and WILL change eventually).  You should use the mount command to
see how things are set up.

>Is it possible to setup cygwin so that it may be used from a share
>without having been installed on the client machine?

Possibly.  You don't absolutely need the mount table (with the possible
exception of /tmp) but, if you want to have bash set things up
automatically, you will need to investigate how bash works, set the
appropriate environment variables, and use the appropriate command line
switches.

info bash

may help.  Also check out "man mount" paying particular attention to
"mount -m".

cgf

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