The Cygwin setup.exe Package Server

-This page documents how to create a server download tree that Cygwin's -setup.exe understands, including the genini script that -creates setup.ini files. Please note that the instructions on this -page work at the present time, but may change in the future. They are provided -on a strictly as-is basis. You can download genini from the -Cygwin-apps -CVS. -

- -

-They should be useful for creating a local mirror with or without custom Cygwin -packages. At the present, we recommend using an Apache web server running on a -Linux distribution such as Debian GNU/Linux -since not all the software works properly on Cygwin. If you want information -on how to install Cygwin, read the Setting Up -Cygwin page. For more information on creating packages that -setup.exe understands, read the -Cygwin Package Contributor's Guide.

- -

Creating a local Cygwin mirror with rsync

- -You do not need to know anything about how the server tree is created if -you just want a copy of an existing tree. Simply follow these steps: -

The first step in creating a local Cygwin mirror is to pick which - existing mirror you will download your packages from. A list of - mirrors can be found here. -
- Download the current Cygwin tree. Currently the Cygwin tree is roughly - 80 GB of disk space. If disk space is a problem, you may want to use a - public mirror and only add your own custom packages as described in the - next section. (Substitute your chosen mirror - for example.com and your DocumentRoot for /var/www/): -
```
-	rsync -vaz rsync://example.com/pub/cygwin/ /var/www/cygwin
-	
```
-
- Test the mirror by pointing a browser at - http://your-server/cygwin/. You should see Cygwin's - setup.exe, the setup.bz2 file, the release - directory, and other items such as the mailing list archives. If your - server is not configured to show directory indexes, you can download - http://your-server/cygwin/setup.exe directly. Run - setup.exe and type the URL of your server. -
- Assuming everything works properly, you are almost done. You now have - a current Cygwin mirror, but you need to keep it updated by running the - rsync command periodically. The easiest way to do this is by - putting it in your crontab. -

- - -

Creating a custom Cygwin package server

NOTE: The instructions below may be out of date. If you are running a -custom package server and can update this documentation, please send it to the -cygwin-apps list. -

-The package format that setup.exe understands is well documented -in the Cygwin Package Contributor's -Guide, which mentions that the setup.ini file (compressed to -setup.bz2) is generated by a script. This perl script is named -genini, and it can be downloaded from CVS and used to create a custom -Cygwin package server. If you are planning on creating a custom package -server, we strongly recommend subscribing to the cygwin-apps mailing list -where changes in the setup.ini format and genini are -discussed and announced. -

-Download the genini script from the - Cygwin-apps - CVS. -It also requires the Archive::Perl module which you can install via -CPAN or apt-get install libarchive-tar-perl on Debian. -
- Create a directory to store your files (i.e., the setup.* files - and the release/ tree). I use /var/www/custom-cygwin/. Put a - copy of setup.exe in that directory (for genini to get - the version number). If you also created a local mirror as described - above, you can link those files: -
```
-	#!/bin/sh
-	mkdir custom-cygwin
-	cd custom-cygwin
-	ln -s /var/www/cygwin/setup.exe .
-	mkdir release
-	cd release
-	ln -s /var/www/cygwin/release/* .
-	
```
- That way you can use only your custom mirror to get all the packages. - Note that whenever a new package is uploaded, you will need to link its - directory to your custom mirror. -

- Add your custom package to the release tree. You can add an empty - package in the Base categories that depends on several other - packages to automatically install them for anyone using your custom - mirror. For example: -

-	#!/bin/sh
-	mkdir custompackage
-	cd custompackage
-	touch custompackage-0.0.1-1.tar.bz2
-	touch custompackage-0.0.1-1-src.tar.bz2
-	cat > setup.hint << EOF
-	@ custompackage
-	sdesc: "My favorite packages"
-	ldesc: "My favorite packages"
-	category: Base
-	requires: bzip2 clear cygwin-doc file less openssh pinfo rxvt wget
-	EOF
-

- Run genini to create setup.bz2 for setup.exe: -
```
-	genini > setup
-	bzip2 setup
-	
```
- You will see error messages from genini about non-existant - pacakages if you do not have a full mirror (or if you made an error - in a setup.hint file). -
- Test your mirror with setup.exe! -

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