Would it be possible to update the bash package?

[Adam Dinwoodie]

On Sun, Mar 06, 2022 at 10:59:57AM -0500, Zartaj Majeed wrote:
> On 3/5/2021 2:23 PM, Christoph Reiter wrote:
> > On Fri, Mar 5, 2021 at 5:50 PM L A Walsh <cygwin@tlinx.org> wrote:
> > >          Really I don't see a compelling reason there should be
> > > any hurry to update.  In my own testing, I've been unable to
> > > build a version that doesn't crash/dump core on linux and don't
> > > really think the 5.x series has had a thorough vetting such
> > > that it would be regarded as being as stable as 4.3/4.4.
> > 
> > fyi, we've been using bash 5.1 in MSYS2 for 2-3 months now without any issues.
> > 
> > regards
> 
> Does bash 5.1 crash in cygwin? Please let us know so we can help - bash 4.4 is now over 5 years old

As far as I'm aware, nobody has checked.  We have the perennial OSS
project problem: someone has to do it.  Eric Blake is the maintainer for
Cygwin's bash package (as well as the clearly-related bash-completion
and bashdb packages), but I know hasn't had much time for Cygwin work
for a while.

If you want to help, I suspect the best starting point will be to
download the source packages for the current Cygwin Bash, bump the
version in the cygport file up to the latest and greatest upstream
version, try compiling, and see what breaks and what needs fixing.

Once you have it working, based on previous discussions (e.g. [0]) it
should be possible to add you as a co-maintainer or sole maintainer for
these packages.

[0]: https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin-apps/2021-August/041444.html

There's more guidance at https://cygwin.com/packages.html, and in
particular in the "Adopting an orphaned package" at
https://cygwin.com/packaging-contributors-guide.html (these packages
aren't strictly orphaned, but the process is fundamentally the same).

HTH

Adam