Re: Installing in root (was Re: Linux Journal Cygwin article)

[Brian Dessent <brian at dessent dot net>]

linda w wrote:

> Perhaps he has read that many developers and users on this list
> use "C:\" as the root diretory and have no problems.  I had the
> impression that the advice to install into a subdirectory was more
> of a Covering One's Behind (COB?) when presenting cygwin as a commercial
> solution to vendors.  I find it more useful to have it in the root
> directory, as I use my cygwin tools and shell to manage my XP machine
> instead of the Windows tools.  I have yet to run into a problem
> with conflicting software ...

Sorry but that's a horrible idea.  I would never want to do that
personally.  If you install Cygwin as a subdirectory for itself it's
much easier to delete, backup, modify, etc.  For example if you need
multiple installations around for testing you just "umount -A", rename
the dir to something else, and reinstall a new one.

If you want /home on Cygwin and windows to match then just mount it that
way.  You can mount things however you want them, but that doesn't mean
you have to have the files physically in the root dir.  Mount c:\windows
on /windows, c:\documents and settings\ on /home, whatever.  That's no
justification for installing Cygwin in the root directory.

Brian

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