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Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 07:15:28 -0800 (PST)
From: Earnie Boyd <earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com>
Reply-To: earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com
Subject: RE: Mo Dejong's install problems
To: Mo DeJong <mdejong AT cygnus DOT com>, "Parker, Ron" <rdparker AT butlermfg DOT com>
Cc: "'cygwin-developers AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com'" <cygwin-developers AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com>
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--- Mo DeJong <mdejong AT cygnus DOT com> wrote:
-8<-
> Well, I found that C:/Cygwin/.bashrc was working for me, but this

Based on this I can make an assumption that you have C:/Cygwin mounted as the
root /, correct?  I can also make the assumption that you don't have the HOME
environment variable set, correct?  If HOME isn't set then bash assumes / to be
HOME.  Also, BASH is the only package using .bashrc and then only if it is not
doing the "login" process; which for Cygwin is the usual case.  BASH will use
the /etc/profile and/or others which I forget exactly OTTOMH when bash thinks
the login process is happening and will not execute the .bashrc file.  The
bash.info file suggests that the /etc/profile file sources the ~/.bashrc file.

> was only by trial and error (I need to apply for a patent on that).
> Could someone who knows more about cygwin internals comment on why
> cygwin can not use something like a .bashrc file for global settings
> instead of a .bat file? 

I can't say that I know anything about the "cygwin internals"; but, I'm
intuitive and a forward thinker so I can answer your question.  Setting global
variables in the .bat file is the Windows way of doing it.  If you want to set
globals for a particular process that other processes don't need then the .bat
file is the place to do that.  Sure, cygwin could use /etc/profile or something
else that emulates the UNIX startup processes except for the CYGWIN variable
itself.

> Is there some reason the PATH would need to
> be set while still in windows? 

No, I set PATH in the .bashrc file.  However, if I do `sh -c 'foo'' from the
dos command window then .bashrc isn't read (because sh isn't bash) and the PATH
doesn't get set properly.  I haven't looked at ash code/documentation to know
what files it uses to set the environment.

>Does cygwin fail to correctly
> "export" the PATH env var or something?
> 

Absolutely not.

> These may sound like stupid questions, but I think this is in fact
> the most important issue cygwin will face in the next release.

I don't.  The most important issue in the next release will be the pathing
changes, the switch to i686-pc-cygwin, and the linker resolution of _ctype_.

> Previous version of cygwin were just too hard to install. Users
> need to be able to click a button and have the basics work
> "out of the box".
> 

Not at all.  I've installed b18, b19, b20, CD v1.0 and snapshots.  I've never
had the difficulties that most have; but, as I said earlier I'm an intuitive
forward thinker.

> Mo Dejong
> Red Hat Inc.
> 

BTW, this is off topic for _this_ list; but, because you're an employee of the
company that owns it I was lenient.

Regards,

=====
---
   Earnie Boyd: <mailto:earnie_boyd AT yahoo DOT com>
            __Cygwin: POSIX on Windows__
Cygwin Newbies: <http://www.freeyellow.com/members5/gw32/index.html>
           __Minimalist GNU for Windows__
  Mingw32 List: <http://www.egroups.com/group/mingw32/>
    Mingw Home: <http://www.mingw.org/>

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