EXTERNAL SENDER: Capturing a Cygwin instance from another PC

[Dale Lobb (Sys Admin)]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Cygwin <cygwin-bounces+dale.lobb=bryanhealth.org@cygwin.com>
> On Behalf Of Jose Isaias Cabrera via Cygwin
> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2023 8:53 AM
> To: cygwin List <cygwin@cygwin.com>
> Subject: EXTERNAL SENDER: Capturing a Cygwin instance from another PC
>
>
> Greetings!
>
> I have a new Win11 PC, and I wanted to capture the same Cygwin setup that I
> have in another Win10 PC. I copied the C:\cygwin64 folder from the Win10 pc
> to the Win11 pc, then I downloaded a fresh setup-x86_64.exe from
> cygwin.com to the win11 PC. I ran it and chose "Install from Local Directory"
> and only one shortcut for "Cygwin64 Terminal" was created on the desktop.
> No Cygwin nor Cygwin-X folders were created on the Start menu. The
> original cygwin from the Win10 PC had X installed also.
>
> Any idea how to get this done automatically? I know I can go and create
> folders manually, etc., but it kind of a pain. Any help would be greatly
> appreciated. Thanks.
>
> josé
>
> --
<snip>

  I've had some success doing this in the past (pre Cygwin64 days), but I did it using rsync from inside a Cygwin shell on the original machine, copying to a windows mapped drive pointing to the "C$" admin share of the target machine.  Note: You will need admin privs on the target machine to use the C$ share.  You also will have to have the default mount setting in /etc/fstab to NOT include "noacl" (which it doesn’t by default) so that Cygwin file protection masks get copied, and you need to use a set of options for rsync that copy the file privs and dates.  I believe I used "rsync -av /cygdrive/c/cygwin64 /cygdrive/<mapped drive letter/", but then, I did not have any special files in my Cygwin tree, so YMMV.

  Also, Cygwin has a registry hive located at \HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygwin that you will want to export and import into the new machine.  You may need to modify the locations listed in some of the sub-keys, if you changed the physical location of the installation during the move (e.g. if you copied it from the C drive on the original machine to the "D" drive on the target, or if you renamed the installation directory).

  In order to use the "Install from Local directory" option, You will probably have to find and move, or at least reference, the original installation directories, where the binary packages were downloaded in order to correctly update the installation after the move.

  Good Luck!

Best Regards,

Dale



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