dselect - formally Re: Running as root

[Igor Peshansky]

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Stephen Grant Brown wrote:

> Hi Dave and all the other people on this list,
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave" <kilroyd@XXXXXXXXXX.XXX>
> To: "Stephen Grant Brown" <s_g_brown@XXXX.XXX.XX>
> Cc: <cygwin@XXXXXX.XXX>

Hi, Stephen.  First off, <http://cygwin.com/acronyms/#PCYMTNQREAIYR>.
Thanks.  Secondly, attaching a BMP file to show the output of a text-only
program is pretty wasteful (not to mention bothersome to open).  More
below.

> Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 7:17 PM
> Subject: Re: dselect - formally Re: Running as root
>
> > Stephen Grant Brown wrote:
> > <snip>
> >
> > > The output of the program (which is dselect) I am having trouble
> > > with is in the attached file.
> > > How do I find out which file has read-only access?
> > >
> > > I am making the assumption that if a program is in the cygwin
> > > distribution, the cygwin community would like to get it working
> > > properly. Is this assumption valid? assume = ass + U + me.
> >
> > As Brian said in a separate thread:
> > http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2006-01/msg00632.html
>
> I have reread that post.
>
> > Just to repeat. If you trying to update cygwin, please use setup.exe,
> > the only supported mechanism for doing so.
>
> I used setup.exe only a night or two before I did the post. I installed
> the latest of everything.
> dselect is a package installed by the cygwin setup.exe.

I believe what Dave meant was that you cannot update Cygwin using dpkg.

> > If you are looking for a mechanism to do updates via the command line,
> > there isn't a tool do this. However setup.exe can be fooled into doing
> > this (please Google), and there are attempts to make setup.exe more
> > useful from the command line.
> >
> > There are a few package managers from Linux distributions available
> > (dselect and rpm are the ones I can think of). As far as I know these
> > are only present for two reasons:
> > - to allow inspection of packages for these distributions
>
> I am unable to use dselect for the inspection of packages in the Debian
> distribution.

Eh?  I don't see this in your screen dump.  All it says is that you will
be unable to *install* the packages, only preview the available
selections.  Looks like that's exactly what you want to do as you stated
above.  I also don't see any mention of the root user.

Please let us know what the exact error message was, and why it made you
think you needed root access.

> > - to help investigations of the feasability of other packaging methods
> > for cygwin.
> >
> > None of them are currently capable of maintaining a cygwin
> > installation.
> >
> > Also, you will note that dpkg was last updated in 2002 and IIRC is
> > looking for a maintainer (or may be culled at any time).
> >
> > If you still want help with dselect, I suggest you describe exactly
> > what you are trying to do with it, and the steps you take which lead
> > to the problem. It will them become clear whether or not that
> > behaviour is expected to work or not.
>
> I open a bash shell. I type dselect at the command line. The error comes
> up as in the attached screen dump.

I see no error -- only an informational message that no packages can be
installed (but you didn't expect to be able to install Debian packages on
Cygwin anyway, did you?).
HTH,
	Igor
-- 
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