not a bug; just a suggestion

[Charles Wilson]

Andrew MacGinitie wrote:

> I have access to an internet connection on a different machine than 
> where I want to install Cygwin; I do not have access on that target 
> machine.  It seems to me that one of your web pages 
> (http://cygwin.com/download.html) calls me a masochist because of that.  
> I suggest you may want to replace that aspersion with simple 
> instructions that would facilitate:
> 1. get setup.exe off the web.
> 2. get the files needed by setup.exe in a zip, gz, or tar file off the web
> 3. sneakernet (CDRW, anyone?) to my other system, place the files (& 
> maybe untar, unzip, etc.)
> 4. run setup, & point to the local files
> 
> That's not really masochism, I claim. 


Perhaps.  But it seems that it's easy to figure that out on your own -- 
you did, after all.

> And how much trouble would it be, 
> really, to use a program like WinZip to package the necessary files, 


Terribly difficult -- and a *really* bad idea from the bandwidth p.o.v. 
We could make one giant tarball (or zipfile -- even though WinZip has 
problems with very large files, I have found)  on, say, July 1, 2002.

On July 2, 2002, I release a new libtool.  Corinna releases a new ssh. 
On July 3, 2002, there's a new mutt package.

Do we re-roll the megafile every time?  if yes, then folks will keep 
downloading the megafile over and over, instead of simply updating the 
files that changed/were added.

If not, then we've moved into "releases" -- 'the July 1, 2002 release', 
the 'July 15, 2002 release'.  etc.  And then folks will start talking 
about "this operation worked in the July 15, 2002 release" and we say 
'update to current' and they say 'but the August 1, 2002 release hasn't 
come out yet'

Aarrgh.

Things are split up for *precisely* this reason.  there are no 
"full.exe" releases anymore, and there will not be.  period.

If you want to download everything to machine one, for later 
installation on machine two -- DO that.  You can use a mirroring tool; 
perhaps we could show people how do this on the webpage:

Download 'wackget' from
http://millweed.com/projects/wackget/
'wackget' is a native Windows version of wget, with a GUI, that is 
GPLed.  Read its docs.  Point it at your favorite cygwin mirror.  Go.

OR

Download wGetGUI (wgetgui.zip) from
    http://www.jensroesner.de/wgetgui/
Download ssllibs.zip and wget-1.8.2b.zip from
   http://space.tin.it/computer/hherold/
Unpack 'em all into a single directory.  Run wgetguie

'wGetGUI' is another GPL'ed front end for wget.  Install, read the 
manual, use the 'mirror site' option, and point it to your favorite 
cygwin mirror.

NOTE: you may need to download the activeX control:
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb5/COMCTL32.CAB
unpack, and install using the provided .inf file (you must do this as 
Administrator)

Technically, we could distribute wgetgui.zip + sources, ssllib.zip + 
sources, and wget-*.zip + sources from www.cygwin.com; they are all GPL 
progs.  (Whether doing so is a good idea or not is another question) 
But one isn't allowed to redistribute the activeX controls without a 
license; that's why I pointed at the MS website 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q172991

> thereby solving the chicken/egg problem for anyone who has WinZip (most 
> Windoze users, I think)? Surely there are equivalent free software 
> solutions as well, if it's a question of philosophy (lha comes to mind).


It's not a problemm with the ZIP format or winzip (there are GPL 
implementations; e.g. InfoZip's 'unzip.exe' for one).  It's that the 
whole concept of megatarballs is problematic.


> Anyway, just a suggestion.  But maybe you'd rather not have any atypical 
> users (or just users like me).


No, but you *were* able to figure out how to solve your problem. 
That's good -- but do you assume that everyone else out there is less 
intelligent?  <g>

--Chuck



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