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Message-ID: <3B5DA52D.2020304@ece.gatech.edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2001 12:41:17 -0400
From: Charles Wilson <cwilson AT ece DOT gatech DOT edu>
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To: cygwin-apps AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: SETUP WIZARD FOR CYGWIN?XFREE86
References: <Pine DOT GSO DOT 3 DOT 95-heb-2 DOT 07 DOT 1010724150418 DOT 6324K-100000 AT csd> <001201c11440$f5acf5a0$806410ac AT local> <20010724112652 DOT G9776 AT redhat DOT com>
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Christopher Faylor wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 24, 2001 at 11:02:56PM +1000, Robert Collins wrote:
> 
>>Installing the logic behind an existing mature packaging system into
>>setup.exe however, will prevent us from reinventing the wheel - and that is
>>the _general_ direction I'm interesting in coding towards. I don't know
>>exactly what Chris thinks - but he has mentioned avoiding new wheels as well
>>:}.
>>
> 
> I'm a big proponent of newfangled wheel avoidance except where the
> avoidance means massive amounts of work.  Incorporating rpm (and it
> would have to be rpm, sorry) into setup.exe is a huge task.
> 
> It's interesting that everyone who bitterly objects to us reinventing
> the wheel is "too busy" to do it the "right way".  Welcome to the Cygwin
> version of an open source project.


Okay, here's a project for someone -- hopefully a relatively talented 
newbie who's not already hacking on something else or supporting 
existing cygwin packages:

Port rpm to win32.  Not cygwin.

   a) requires porting sleepycat db to win32 (not cygwin)
actually, db-3.x may already build under windows, but probably only when 
built using MSVC.  For religious reasons, we'd have to be able to build 
it using mingw or cygwin-gcc/-mno-cygwin.

   b) PROBABLY requires porting (or finding) an 'sh' for win32.
Again, source code must be available, and it should be buildable using 
mingw or cygwin/-mno-cygwin, not MSVC.

   c) location of rpm database should be stored in the system registry
Think about the windows file system; you'll understand why.

This is a HUGE job.  Especially since only halfhearted attemps(mine, 
among others) have been made even to just port rpm to cygwin, much less 
win32.

Once somebody with the 'itch' completes this task, it'll be much easier 
to cause setup.exe to use that rpm system.  Until then, setup.exe will 
do the job, and work will continue on newfangled wheel-building. And I 
don't have that 'itch' -- sorry.

--Chuck