A/B install?

[Eliot Moss]

On 8/28/2024 8:14 PM, Jason Pyeron via Cygwin wrote:
> Sad to admit, but I have not updated Cygwin in a very long time.
> 
> It takes a very long (more than an hour) time to update Cygwin due to the amount of items installed. I have not had the luxury of nor running Cygwin processes in that update time.
> 
> I have been wondering if an A/B directory approach may help.
> 
> Run from Cygwin.A, update Cygwin.B, stop processes and switch A and B.
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> I know this does not address the I have 60+ minty running, but this approach can be done while rebooting.

There's no fundamental problem AFAIK with multiple installs as long as their
directory hierarchies are kept distinct.  it does double your space
requirement, of course.

Another thing you could consider is updating only some packages at a time.  Of
course one package may depend on a number of libraries, etc., so it is not
easy to determine without some fiddling in your choices how big a particular
update might be.

You can also separate the downloading from the installation.

It might be possible to kind of "clone" your setup into another directory
hierarchy, update there while continuing to use you current installation, and
then copy back.  This could be delicate because of links and such.

Maybe other folks have other suggestions?

Regards - Eliot Moss