Re: distributing preconfigured cygwin (was: running self compiled 32 bit binary on 64 bit Windows?)

[Andrey Repin <anrdaemon at yandex dot ru>]

Greetings, Ulli Horlacher!

> On Sat 2018-07-14 (16:31), Achim Gratz wrote:

>> >> You have to install Cygwin, not "transfer".
>> >
>> > I have several 100 users, none of them is able to install cygwin and
>> > the packages they need the official way, they are way to *CENSORED* for
>> > this job :-}
>> 
>> If they can follow your current instructions, they can surely start some
>> script that does this correctly?

> I do not have a script which installs all needed packages.

Write one.

>> > I give them my preconfigured cygwin.zip (or cygwin64.zip) and tell them to
>> > unpack it in C:\
>> >
>> > http://fex.belwue.de/usecases/cygwin.html
>> 
>> Whatever you call it, it's still cludgey nonsense that might or might
>> not work.  Only when it's not working your users will really be unable
>> to figure out what to do since they won't even know what is failing.

> So far, it has worked for all my users. No one is complaining.

"No one is complaining" does not equal "it all works correctly".
Trust a person who had spent 20 years in IT support on this simple knowledge.
If nobody had complained, that means, either
1. They have qualification to resolve any arising issues by themselves,
2. They do not trust you enough and seeking help elsewhere,
3. They just trudge with it, ignoring any sign of problem and assuming that it
just does the right stuff no matter what.

>> script that calls setup to install it and any other packages you need
>> (if not already installed by way of dependency).  Setup can deal with
>> multiple package repositories, so you can use one of the official
>> mirrors as the primary package repository and only provide your package
>> as an add-on repository (like cygwin ports does).

> How do I write such a script?
> Is there documentation/examples about this?

setup.exe --help

> This install script must first download the cygwin base package, install
> it and then run setup with all needed cygwin packages.
> But at the very beginning, I do not have a shell at all?

You can package Cygwin's setup.exe into a scripted installer, and maintain a
private repository mirror, if you need a stable set of packages.


-- 
With best regards,
Andrey Repin
Friday, August 17, 2018 18:15:57

Sorry for my terrible english...


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