Re: RFC: 1.7.33 problem with user's home directory

[Andrey Repin <anrdaemon@yandex.ru>]

Greetings, Corinna Vinschen!

> Up to Cygwin 1.7.32, mkpasswd (but not with -u) generated the Cygwin
> home directory by converting the SAM/AD home folder entry to POSIX
> style, if it's non-empty.  Fallback is /home/$USER.

> When I implemented the new scheme I thought it a good idea to decouple
> the Cygwin home dir from the Windows home dir.  However, in the today's
> discussion the following two arguments came up:

> - If you're using the Windows home folder setting to maintain file
>   server based home directories, you typically want that these
>   directories are used for Cygwin stuff as well (central administration,
>   central backup).
>   Having to maintain the home directories twice, once in the
>   homeDirectory, once in the unixHomeDirectory entry is quite a hassle,
>   especially given that unixHomeDirectory does not support variable
>   substitution (e.g. "/home/%USERNAME%" won't work).

> - If you're already using AD as NIS server, unixHomeDirectory is already
>   used for UNIX machines.  Trying to align the unixHomeDirectory for
>   Cygwin to homeDirectory for all the rest of Windows will potentially
>   become impossible then.

> These arguments are quite serious and it questions the "good idea" part
> of this change a lot.

> What do you think?

> Shall the "db" entries utilize the Windows home folder if it exits(*)
> and drop using the unixHomeDirectory?  It seems inevitable...

All I can say about this issue is… I told you.
I see literally zero reason to maintain separate, cygwin-specific "home"
directory.
If you want a separate environment to play with, VirtualBox is there to
accommodate your wildest dreams. (Though, Oracle is trying hard to turn people
away from using VB since 4.3.13+)


--
WBR,
Andrey Repin (anrdaemon@yandex.ru) 11.11.2014, <03:37>

Sorry for my terrible english...