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X-Authentication-Warning: abomination.cygnus.com: mdejong owned process doing -bs
Date: Thu, 30 Mar 2000 17:45:00 -0800 (PST)
From: Mo DeJong <mdejong AT cygnus DOT com>
To: John Fortin <fortinj AT attglobal DOT net>
cc: "cygwin-developers AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com" <cygwin-developers AT sourceware DOT cygnus DOT com>
Subject: Re: Mo Dejong's install problems
In-Reply-To: <38E3E670.51F2DCBA@attglobal.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.10003301714360.11514-100000@abomination.cygnus.com>
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On Thu, 30 Mar 2000, John Fortin wrote:

> Mo DeJong wrote:
> 
> > 
> > So the obvious question is, where is the "right" place to set env vars
> > like PATH. Is it /etc/profile? I do not think a .bat file that invokes
> > bash is the right place to do that. For one thing, it only works with
> > bash. There is also the fact that it does not work on Win95 or Win98.

The cygwin.bat file fails to set the PATH variable because the dos
shell runs out of env memory space. This is a windows limitation,
it might have been fixed in Win 98 but the script does not work on
my Win 95 box. I do not know of any way to work around it. The
following is displayed when I try to run cygwin.bat.

Out of environment space
Out of environment space
Bad command or file name

The first two errors are caused by set commands, the last one is because
the .bat file tries to run bash but it can not be found on the PATH.

I realize that there are ways to work around the problem, like adding
the entries to the PATH in the autoexec.bat file, but Cygwin needs to
install and work "out of the box". Changing the PATH in the autoexec.bat
file or the system settings on NT should be avoided if at all possible.

> What doesn't work?  I use this method all the time on win98 and WinNT.
> If I always need things set, I can put them in autoexec.bat (on 98).  If

Do we care about other shells? It seems like any approach that only works
for bash or when run as a child of bash run from cygwin.bat is a little
questionable.

> I need only
> them for bash I put them in either .bashrc or cygwin.bat file which
> executes bash.
> 
> John

Mo DeJong
Red Hat Inc.