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Date: Mon, 5 Apr 2010 12:46:13 -0400
From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-use-the-mailinglist-please AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject: Re: [ANNOUNCEMENT] Updated: cygwin-1.7.3-1
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On Mon, Apr 05, 2010 at 10:32:53AM -0500, Tim McDaniel wrote:
>On Mon, 5 Apr 2010, Christopher Faylor wrote:
>> On Mon, Apr 05, 2010 at 05:42:05PM +1000, Rurik Christiansen wrote:
>>> * How do I know what the current release is ? (e.g. is there
>>> something like /etc/redhat-release or whatever ? The docs mention
>>> /var/log/setup ... but is not clear at all)
>>
>> ... Otherwise, as Dave Korn suggests, you can *read the website*.
>
>I suppose that "/etc/redhat-release" is not as well-known a concept as
>he or I had thought.

You're assuming too much.  Certainly I know of it (and not just because
I used to work at Red Hat) and I'm sure that others do too.  The fact
that there is no file like this reflects the fact that we actually do
know what the file contains and, so, haven't included it.

The Cygwin distribution doesn't come from Red Hat so calling something
/etc/redhat-release wouldn't make much sense.  So, the next question is
why not call it "cygwin-release"?  The reason is because there is no
"release" to put in that file.  The Red Hat file contains release
strings like "Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 3 (Taroon Update 4)".
The Cygwin distribution doesn't have anything like that.  The Cygwin DLL
version does not reflect the "release number" of the entire
distribution.  We release packages as package maintainers see fit.
There is no one version number that pertains to the whole release.

Maybe the confusion here is that "Cygwin" refers to both the whole
distro and to the Cygwin DLL.  With Red Hat, the kernel is called
"linux" and the distribution is called "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" or
"Fedora".  With Cygwin the kernel is called "Cygwin" and the
distribution is called "Cygwin".  It is unfortunate, in retrospect, that
we didn't name the two something different but it isn't really worth the
effort to change that now.

So, anyway, since there is no "cygwin release number" you would find out
the version of the Cygwin "kernel" the same way you would find out the
version of the Red Hat kernel: you'd type "uname -a".  If you want to
find what version of a package is installed you use "cygcheck".
cygcheck can be used like a very lightweight rpm to figure out package
versions.

cgf

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