Trying to install older version (9.50) of ghostscript - still got 9.52

Trying to install older version (9.50) of ghostscript - still got 9.52

[Jim Garrison]

The current version of ghostscript is 9.52, but I need to install the
previous version, 9.50.  I asked setup_x64.exe to replace 9.52 with
9.50, but after doing this gs --version still said 9.52.

The problem seems to be that downgrading ghostscript from 9.52 to 9.50
does not also downgrade its dependency libgs9 back to 9.50.  Is this
something the setup system could handle, or is it just something
one must know to look for when downgrading packages?

I also tried uninstalling ghostscript 9.52 and reinstalling, but
that didn't touch libgs9 either.

-- 
Jim Garrison jhg@acm.org

Re: Trying to install older version (9.50) of ghostscript - still got 9.52

[Maarten Hoes]

Hi,

On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 2:36 AM Jim Garrison via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com>
wrote:

> The current version of ghostscript is 9.52, but I need to install the
> previous version, 9.50.  I asked setup_x64.exe to replace 9.52 with
> 9.50, but after doing this gs --version still said 9.52.
>
> The problem seems to be that downgrading ghostscript from 9.52 to 9.50
> does not also downgrade its dependency libgs9 back to 9.50.  Is this
> something the setup system could handle, or is it just something
> one must know to look for when downgrading packages?
>
> I also tried uninstalling ghostscript 9.52 and reinstalling, but
> that didn't touch libgs9 either.
>
> --
> Jim Garrison jhg@acm.org
>


Hi,

I recently [1] had a similar question. Turns out you have to take care of
dependencies/prerequisites yourself. It's a manual process that you have to
take care of yourself; setup does not and cannot take care of this for you.
You manually have to figure out what package version go together.

However, I did find this website [2] that archives Cygwin packages releases
by date, so that in essence you can go back to a specific date on which
DD-MM-YYYY all packages were current in the past. I guess you could use
that to go back to the ghostscript release you want. But this does mean
that:

[a]
I'm guessing this is not a 'supported cygwin configuration'

[b]
You will downgrade to *all* other packages that were 'current' at that date.


Not sure if this helps, and hoping someone else has a better answer,


- Maarten


[1]
https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2020-May/244772.html


[2]
http://www.crouchingtigerhiddenfruitbat.org/Cygwin/timemachine.html

Re: Trying to install older version (9.50) of ghostscript - still got 9.52

[Jim Garrison]

On 5/20/2020 11:50 AM, Maarten Hoes via Cygwin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 2:36 AM Jim Garrison via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com>
> wrote:
> 
>> The current version of ghostscript is 9.52, but I need to install the
>> previous version, 9.50.  I asked setup_x64.exe to replace 9.52 with
>> 9.50, but after doing this gs --version still said 9.52.
>>
>> The problem seems to be that downgrading ghostscript from 9.52 to 9.50
>> does not also downgrade its dependency libgs9 back to 9.50.  Is this
>> something the setup system could handle, or is it just something
>> one must know to look for when downgrading packages?
>>
>> I also tried uninstalling ghostscript 9.52 and reinstalling, but
>> that didn't touch libgs9 either.
>>
>> --
>> Jim Garrison jhg@acm.org
>>
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I recently [1] had a similar question. Turns out you have to take care of
> dependencies/prerequisites yourself. It's a manual process that you have to
> take care of yourself; setup does not and cannot take care of this for you.
> You manually have to figure out what package version go together.
> 
> However, I did find this website [2] that archives Cygwin packages releases
> by date, so that in essence you can go back to a specific date on which
> DD-MM-YYYY all packages were current in the past. I guess you could use
> that to go back to the ghostscript release you want. But this does mean
> that:
> 
> [a]
> I'm guessing this is not a 'supported cygwin configuration'
> 
> [b]
> You will downgrade to *all* other packages that were 'current' at that date.
> 
> 
> Not sure if this helps, and hoping someone else has a better answer,
> 
> 
> - Maarten
> 
> 
> [1]
> https://cygwin.com/pipermail/cygwin/2020-May/244772.html
> 
> 
> [2]
> http://www.crouchingtigerhiddenfruitbat.org/Cygwin/timemachine.html

I didn't have to go back to a snapshot of the entire Cygwin
installation. I was able to get what I needed by downgrading
libgs9 as well.


-- 
Jim Garrison jhg@acm.org

Re: Trying to install older version (9.50) of ghostscript - still got 9.52

[Maarten Hoes]

On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 9:48 PM Jim Garrison via Cygwin <cygwin@cygwin.com>
wrote:

>
> I didn't have to go back to a snapshot of the entire Cygwin
> installation. I was able to get what I needed by downgrading
> libgs9 as well.
>
>
That's good to hear. Although I can also imagine situations where version
'X' of any given library is also linked against more programs than 'just' a
single executable you're using, and then you might end up in a situation
where you have to figure out which executable's these are (and what library
versions they were linked against).


- Maarten