setup.exe creates files outside install directory

[Igor Peshansky]

On Mon, 6 Nov 2006, Dave Korn wrote:

> On 06 November 2006 16:54, Ben Collver wrote:
>
> > Good day,
> >
> > I installed cygwin to C:\bens\cygwin, and afterwards I found install.log
> > and install.log.full under C:\cygwin\var\log.
>
>   When setup.exe starts up, it has to open the logfile before it asks you
> where you want it installed to.  If there's already a cygwin installation on
> the machine, it'll use that one's /var, but if there isn't because it's the
> very first run ever on the machine....  well, you can see the problem.  I
> reckon you can just delete them and it won't create them again next time you
> use setup.

Umm, actually, setup doesn't write the log file until it exits, by which
point it would have already created the Cygwin mounts.  One possibility
that comes to mind is that setup was started with the default root
directory, but cancelled before it actually got to install anything, and
then re-run.

>   (Disclaimer:  I haven't checked the source code to see that this is
> actually exactly what happens, but I don't see what else it could do on
> a first-ever-run.)
>
>   Hmm, maybe it would be better to fall back on %TEMP% instead of the
> default cygwin install path, or to do so if the C:\cygwin directory
> doesn't exist.

If setup exits before a certain point in the setup process, the log file
ends up in the "current directory" (i.e., the directory setup was run
from).  If it exits after that point, the log file goes to /var/log (where
"/" is whatever the root mount points to).
HTH,
	Igor
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