Bug Report: Purging Old and Invalid User Names With Spaces

[Keith Mitchell]

Problem: Virgin Installs of CygWin on Windows XP work fine but a total 
purge (deletion of all CygWin files and directories) and a fresh 
reinstall with different set of usernames do not work properly, i.e., 
usernames that have been CHANGED using the XP user manager to new 
usernames. This problem occurred as a result of my changing all my 
usernames with spaces to usernames without spaces to make them Linux 
compatible.

I wanted to thank all for the responses. After many reinstallations of 
CygWin, I finally identified the problem and got things working. This is 
just a bug report documenting my discoveries and what I believe is going on.

 1. A virgin install of CygWin makes a list of all user names on the 
system. This list is reflected in /etc/passwd after any reinstall. I am 
guessing this list is stored in the Windows XP registry as this list 
does not exist on the drive where CygWin is installed, in my case, the D 
drive. This list is NEVER updated on subsequent CygWin installs. This is 
the REAL problem: no updates on subsequent installs.

2. Subsequent installations of CygWin utilize the aforementioned out of 
date username list, even though those usernames have been changed and 
are no longer valid

3. My problems occurred as a result of a conflict between the list of 
original usernames that are no longer valid created by the first virgin 
install of CygWin and usernames that currently valid after user manager 
changes. This registry entry (or whatever the source of the invalid 
usernames) entry needs either to either be purged before or updated as a 
result of subsequent CygWin installs.

Again thanks to all.

Keith Mitchell

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