baffling cygwin setup.exe behavior

[Don Hatch]

I've always been baffled by cygwin setup's behavior.
I wish I understood it and could control it.

Here is a typical example where I want to do something
very simple and I have no idea how to get the setup program
to do it.  Help!

My goal: upgrade rcs to the "currently considered most stable"
version, without changing anything else on the system.

Here is what I tried, in excruciating detail.

I run "cygcheck -c rcs", which outputs:
    Cygwin Package Information
    Package              Version        Status
    rcs                  5.7-11         OK
I run cygwin setup-x86.exe.
The splash window says "Setup.exe version 2.829 (32 bit)".
   I click Next.
On the next window I select "Install from Internet",
   and click Next.
On the next window I select
   Root Directory: C:\cygwin
   Install For: All Users
   and click Next.
On the next window I select
   Local Package Directory: C:\Users\hatch\Downloads
   and click Next.
On the next window I select "Direct Connection"
   and click Next.
On the next window I select the download site
   http://cygwin.mirrors.hoobly.com
   and click Next.
It quickly downloads some stuff and
   puts me in the "Select Packages" window,
   with the "Curr" radio button selected and View=Category.

First I browse around to see what the "Curr" world looks
like (i.e. "Globally select the version that is currently
considered the most stable. (RECOMMENDED)" according
to the tooltip):
I open the Devel folder and scroll down to the "rcs" row,
which says:
   Current = 5.7-11
   New = <arrows> 5.8.2-1
   Bin? = [X]
   Src? = [ ]
   Size = 286k
   Package = rcs: The Revision Control system
So far I think this makes sense:
yes, I have 5.7-11 installed, and I want to upgrade to 5.8.2-1.
I click on the "<arrows> 5.8.2-1" to see what other
possibilities are available for this package.
It goes through the following values:
   <arrows> 5.8.2-1   (initial value)
   <arrows> Keep
   <arrows> 5.8.1-1
   <arrows> Uninstall
   <arrows> Keep
   <arrows> 5.8.1-1
   <arrows> Uninstall
   ...
Huh?  Once I've clicked it once,
it never cycles back to the initial value
of 5.8.2-1.  So that's baffling thing #1.
(The only way I can see to get it to show 5.8.2-1 again
is to globally change from "Curr" to something else
and then back to "Curr".)

Next, I change the global radio button
from "Curr" to "Keep"
(i.e. "Sets all packages to their currently installed version.
This is equivalent to telling setup not to make any changes
to any package." according to the tooltip).
I think this is the right thing to do
since since I don't want to change any packages except rcs--
I figure I will now be able to change just rcs individually.

I open the Devel folder again and scroll down to the "rcs" row,
which now says:
   Current = 5.7-11
   New = <arrows> Keep
   Bin? = n/a
   Src? = n/a
   Size = ?
   Package = rcs: The Revision Control System
When I click on the "<arrows> Keep" it cycles through:
   <arrows> Keep      (initial value)
   <arrows> 5.8.1-1
   <arrows> Uninstall
   <arrows> Keep
   <arrows> 5.8.1-1
   <arrows> Uninstall
   ...
Huh?  My desired value of 5.8.2-1 isn't available
from here at all???  That's baffling thing #2.

So, as far as I can see,
the only way to get rcs 5.8.2-1 is to globally select "Curr"
and *don't click on rcs at all*.
So, to upgrade rcs and nothing else,
I'd have to globally select "Curr"
and manually change every package *except* rcs
to "Keep", leaving rcs alone.
That seemed like a lot of work and error prone,
and I knew I was going to be doing all this several times,
and who knows whether I'd run into other problems on the way.
So instead, I elected to upgrade
my entire system to "Curr", even though
that's not really what I wanted.

If anyone can explain what's going on here
(is this a bug? or something wrong with my thinking?)
and how to do this simple operation,
I'd really appreciate it.

Don

-- 
Don Hatch
hatch@plunk.org
http://www.plunk.org/~hatch/

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