Jean-Michel POURE wrote: >>Since Larry didn't touch this, I'll respond. Cygwin packages can be >> > unpacked/interpreted/understood by a NON cygwin program (setup.exe is a > native windows app). ALL ports of RPM that I have seen require cygwin -- > which means they cannot easily be used to install cygwin itself on a virgin > system. This is a serious drawback. > > This clearly is a demonstration that cygwin would benefit from a static > compilation option. I know this is not an issue for you all, but ...
No, actually you are wrong -- this is not a demonstration of anything of the sort. Let us suppose that you COULD link cygwin1.dll statically (into rpm.exe?). What mount table would be available for that cygwin-inside-rpm.exe to use? In the scenario you raise, there is really no fundamental difference between cygwin-inside-rpm.exe, and a cygwin.dll-based-rpm with a cygwin1.dll sitting next to it. The fact is, you need a NON cygwin program to do some initial system configuration before cygwin-based progs can operate properly on a virgin system. This has been discussed so damn many times on the mailing list it's really starting to piss me off... > Coming back to RPM, this would be so nice to issue this command: > rpm --rebuild --target=cygwin package_name.rpms to compile any existing > apckage for Cygwin. > > There are 100 times more Linux developpers than $Windows developpers. Why > to reinvent the wheel with another installation format? Oh, heaven forbid we actually invent a streaming tape format and then repurpose it for disk archives. Oh, wait, that's tar -- and it's been around since 1962 at least. Then there's that upstart gzip format -- it's only been around since the mid 70's, that young whippersnapper. .tar.gz is not new. >Do you really think > you can create a universal format including DEB and RPM? Then you need to > produce more work than the creators of these formats. This is such a > difficult project... No, we just want to teach setup.exe to unpack either pure DEBs or pure RPMS. Prefereably using librpm.a or libdeb.a, which already exist. However, those are cygwin/unixy ports, so we run into the problems described earlier. Don't like my superior tone? I don't blame you -- it's very irritating to be "talked down to" as if one was a child playing with adult toys. Want to know why I took such an abrasive tone? Because your message was written that way, too. "This is clearly..." and "Do you really think..." indeed. --Chuck -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
