Hello
After using Cygwin for a couple of years, suddenly today a lot of files
in my Cygwin folder were missing, most notably cygwin.bat and
bin/ssh-agent.exe. I have no idea what has happened, the files were
there yesterday. I don't remember if I did an update after yesterday's
use, but I certainly don't remember any errors occurring if I did. I
tried reinstalling the openssh package, but it refused to do so.
Unfortunately I didn't write down the error message but I suspect it was
the same as the one occurring below.
Instead, I decided to start from scratch. After assuring that I had the
latest setup-x64.exe, I renamed my old cygwin64 folder and tried
installing a default installation + opensssh on my C: drive. At the
install of the openssh package, the installer stopped with the message:
"Unable to extract /usr/bin/ssh-agent.exe The file is in use or some
other error occurred. Please stop all Cygwin processes and select
"Retry", or select "Continue" to go on anyway (the file will be updated
after a reboot)." I chose "Continue" and rebooted. The installer
reported no errors but this one. First of all, I don't understand the
error message, because there doesn't seem to be a /usr/bin folder to
install this file to, and from what I can see, the installer tries to
install in /bin because it leaves a file "ssh-agent.exe.new" in that
folder before rebooting. There is no ssh-agent.exe file in that folder
which was empty at the start of the installation so I don't understand
why it's not just created instead of forcing me to do a reboot. I choose
"Continue", and the file did get renamed after a reboot, but Cygwin.bat,
Cygwin.ico, Cygwin-Terminal.ico were missing from my installation. They
didn't seem to be created indicating that the installer actually had
more problems it didn't tell me about.
Strangely enough, if I choose to install Cygwin from scratch in the same
way except that I choose to install on my secondary (D:) drive, the
installer doesn't produce the error. But I really don't want Cygwin on
my D: drive. So I went back to installing on the C: drive again with the
same error. Then on D: again without producing the problem. I have gone
back and fourth at least 5 timers, but the last time I also got the
error installing on my D: drive. There is no consistency on the (except
for the drive) identical installation attempts.
So I decided to keep Cygwin on my D: drive for the time being after a
(seemingly) succesful install. I ran Cygwin.bat which created my
skeleton files and gave me a bash prompt. Then I edited Cygwin.bat and
put "ssh-agent.exe " in front of the bash command like I had in my old
installation to aid in handling my SSH keys. I then ran Cygwin.bat which
made the window pop up for a split second, then it closed again and made
Cygwin.bat disappear along with bin/ssh-agent.exe. How did that change
in Cygwin.bat delete (at least) two files? If I now try to recreate
Cygwin.bat from a backup or save it from my Windows text editor, I get
either a repeating message from Explorer telling me that I need
administrator rights (which I have) to copy the file, or my editor tells
me "Access denied" when trying to save. So the Cygwin installation is
now broken and I can't repair it. I can delete it and start from scratch
again.
I can't explain this behavior in any way except maybe a problem with the
file system or some strange bug in Cygwin. Both drives use NTFS and I've
run chkdsk on C: telling me there are no problems.
Can anyone explain to me what's happening? I'm running on Windows 10
with all available updates (tested yesterday).
Best wishes,
Jan
--
Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html
FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/
Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html
Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
