Cygwin Registry Entries and Scriptability?

[Larry Hall (RFK Partners, Inc)]

At 02:51 PM 2/14/2002, Mack, Daemian wrote:
>Hi all.  I'm using Wise Installer to package and script an upgrade utility
>for Windows machines.  As part of this package, I'm using Cygwin's bash.exe,
>rsync.exe, and the latest cygwin1.dll.  At the moment, I'm just copying
>these three files to the hard disk on the target machine, then launching a
>bash.exe process with various arguments to rsync.exe to perform an rsync
>over the net.
>
>I've heard that the way I'm doing it might not be correct, mostly because
>the full setup of Cygwin provides registry entries concerning mount points,
>so that, for instance, the directive /cygdrive/c/windows/desktop means
>something to Cygwin utilities.
>
>But what I'm finding with my testing is that every time I run bash.exe on a
>machine with no other Cygwin install, these registry entries are created
>dynamically.  I suspect cygwin1.dll is doing this when it's called by
>bash.exe.  
>
>To all appearances, then, a full install of Cygwin seems redundant, since I
>can reference /cygdrive/c and get my work finished just fine without it.
>
>I'd like confirmation or denial of this, because I'd like to move forward
>without scripting a full Cygwin installation, using only these three files.


I'm not sure what you mean by a "full Cygwin installation, using only these
three files".  To people on this list, a full Cygwin installation is more
than just the three files you indicate.

/cygdrive is meant to represent implicit mounts to local hard drives.  The
Cygwin DLL takes care of generating these.  Other mount points (/usr/bin,
/usr/lib, and /) are created by setup.exe and are not dynamically created 
as needed.  Your biggest concerns, though, should be:

   1. Detecting an existing Cygwin installation so that your installation 
      doesn't clash with Cygwin's.

   2. Robustly handling a subsequent installation of Cygwin.

It's worth noting that the installation you're describing would be 
considered a custom one by this list and should come with its own 
support channel.  This list can't be it.  I suspect that you're aware of
this but in case you're not, it's an important point to consider.

Hope that helps,



Larry Hall                              lhall@rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      http://www.rfk.com
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
Holliston, MA 01746                     (508) 893-9889 - FAX


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