Re: Switch to a new PC

[Adam Dinwoodie <adam@dinwoodie.org>]

On Wed, Feb 09, 2022 at 04:12:28PM +0100, Vanda Vodkamilkevich wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 4, 2022 at 13:12  AM  marco.atzeri  wrote:
> 
> >> I wouldn't expect most tools to work on special files in /dev. Even tar
> >> fails on /proc, it would begin to pack your local registry...
> >> Make a basic installation on the new system, then sync the rest.
> >> An even cleaner way might be to clone your installation via setup, using
> >> /etc/setup/installed.db - maybe someone has a script for that -
> >> and then just sync the /home hierarchy.
> >
> >script I wrote some time ago for re-installation
> >
> >
> https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46829532/cygwin-save-package-selections-for-later-reinstall/
> >
> >
> Just for the record:
> I just played with the script provided in stackoverflow which generates a
> bat file, and it seems that the behaviour of the '-P' switch of setup  has
> changed because now it explicitely needs the version of the package (at
> least for me it didn't worked without the version number:  " -P
> package=version_as_seen_by_cygcheck") . Can someone (probably Jon Turney)
> confirm this usage of the '-P' switch (BTW the mandatory '='  is explained
> nowhere - Nor in 'setup -h' or the setup web pages - and can be seen only
> in  the source code).

I don't think this is correct.  I use the setup program's -P option
regularly, including with the latest 2.917 release, and it successfully
installs packages.  Indeed, I've just tried running it to install
2048-cli (given it's a package I know I don't have installed) and it
successfully installed the package without specifying a version number.

Can you give a bit more information about exactly what commands you're
running, what you're expecting to happen, and what precisely happens
instead?

> By needing the version number the script on stackoverflow will then
> generate a "too long" command in the bat file and it will crash; I had to
> modify it manually to split the command line in 4 ...
> Note on the script: if you forgot to run it before loosing your cygwin
> tree, it can still work after a 'Base' installation if you kept the old
> installed.db file and replace (temporary) the actual installed.db with this
> one :)