Setup not accepting multiple pkgs on the commandline anymore?

[Brian Inglis]

On 2025-12-16 11:22, Soren via Cygwin wrote:
> Hello Jon, Cygwinstas,
> I am attempting to operate setup.exe by commandline arguments and what I'd
> like to have happen, doesn't. In advance, sorry to bore readers if this is
> an often-discussed issue or whatever. The point I want to make is that
> `--packages' does not seem to work as how it's documented.
> 
> First I tried building this pipeline (I am not a shell genius, but I get by
> ...anyway, improvement suggestions welcome):
> 
> cygcheck -e 'perl-pod-*' | sed -ne 's/\s:.\+//p' | xargs | sed -ne 's/
> /,/gp' |
>    tee Documents/script-data/CygwinPodDists.lst
> 
> Tmpfile Documents/script-data/CygwinPodDists.lst now contains:
> 
> perl-Pod-Coverage,perl-Pod-Coverage-TrustPod,perl-Pod-Escapes,perl-Pod-Eventual,perl-Pod-LaTeX,perl-Pod-Markdown,perl-Pod-Parser,perl-Pod-Perldoc,perl-Pod-Plainer
> 
> ...which ought to be valid arguments for --packages
> 
> However, what I intended to have happen does not. Even when I simplify it
> to offer only a single package name it does not do the right thing:
> 
> $ "/cygdrive/c/Program Files/setup-x86_64.exe" -q --download --root
> C:\ix\cygwin  --local-package-dir "C:/Users/soren/cygDL.dir" --site
> https://cygwin.mirror.constant.com --include-source --packages
> "perl-Pod-Eventual"
> 
> What DOES it do? It downloads all (AFAICT) of base cygwin!:
> $ find cygDL.dir/ -type f
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/base-cygwin/base-cygwin-3.8-2-src.tar.xz
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/base-cygwin/base-cygwin-3.8-2.tar.xz
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/base-files/base-files-4.3-3-src.tar.zst
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/base-files/base-files-4.3-3.tar.zst
> ... etc etc ...
> 
> Is setup in fact trying to fulfill all the dependency prerequisits for
> "perl-Pod-Eventual"?!? As a write this, that just occured to me. Sure
> enough:
> 
> $ find cygDL.dir/ -type f -name '*Pod*'
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/perl-Pod-Eventual/perl-Pod-Eventual-0.094003-2-src.tar.zst
> cygDL.dir/https%3a%2f%2fcygwin.mirror.constant.com
> %2f/noarch/release/perl-Pod-Eventual/perl-Pod-Eventual-0.094003-2.tar.zst
> Well. I won't write "ok, nevermind" since in the case of multiple
> comma-delimited package names it appeared that setup did nothing at all.
> And couldn't setup print SOMETHING to the console to mark the operation of
> fetching each package, so that the user has some idea of what it's doing?
> That would be really sweet.

Cygwin Setup writes a log to /var/log/setup.log.full with a summary of all runs 
to /var/log/setup.log; add -v for more details; if you are prepared for some 
interaction and to see messages interactively use -M instead of -q; you might 
need -g to install/upgrade prereqs.

-- 
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis              Calgary, Alberta, Canada

La perfection est atteinte                   Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter  not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher  but when there is no more to cut
                                 -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry