From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 73500 invoked by alias); 29 Aug 2019 06:52:33 -0000 Mailing-List: contact cygwin-help@cygwin.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: cygwin-owner@cygwin.com Mail-Followup-To: cygwin@cygwin.com Received: (qmail 73493 invoked by uid 89); 29 Aug 2019 06:52:33 -0000 Authentication-Results: sourceware.org; auth=none X-Spam-SWARE-Status: No, score=-1.8 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW,SPF_SOFTFAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.1 spammy=icons, fstab, batch, elegant X-HELO: nsstlmta09p.bpe.bigpond.com Received: from nsstlmta09p.bpe.bigpond.com (HELO nsstlmta09p.bpe.bigpond.com) (203.38.21.9) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.93/v0.84-503-g423c35a) with ESMTP; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 06:52:31 +0000 Received: from smtp.telstra.com ([10.10.24.4]) by nsstlfep09p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au with ESMTP id <20190829065228.SRUX24695.nsstlfep09p-svc.bpe.nexus.telstra.com.au@smtp.telstra.com> for ; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:52:28 +1000 Received: from [0.0.0.0] (101.191.56.73) by smtp.telstra.com (5.8.335) id 5D3692920EA48F75 for cygwin@cygwin.com; Thu, 29 Aug 2019 16:52:28 +1000 Subject: Re: Possible Cygwin setup regression with --prune-install To: cygwin@cygwin.com References: <158109b5-8d13-9e88-05b5-0eb581839e81@shaddybaddah.name> <87woewv79r.fsf@Rainer.invalid> From: Shaddy Baddah Message-ID: Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 08:08:00 -0000 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/60.8.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <87woewv79r.fsf@Rainer.invalid> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-IsSubscribed: yes X-SW-Source: 2019-08/txt/msg00391.txt.bz2 Hi Achim, On 29/8/19 4:02 pm, Achim Gratz wrote: > Shaddy Baddah writes: >> -Y --prune-install Prune the installation to only the requested >> packages >> >> My reading of that is that this should defeat any packages from being >> (automatically added). However, even with this option, the base packages >> are still autoselected. > > I've originally implemented that option and the Base packages and > dependencies are explicitly exempted. This is not an option to allow > you to create broken installations, mind you. But it's not an installation really. The only potential "breakage" that I could see is that the attempt to create desktop icons would break. But there's nothing to "postinstall", so having no shell, no anything isn't an issue. OK, I should expand a bit, to give some better understanding. For more than a decade, I have employed an installation technique I'll call an alternative root. See this for example: https://sourceware.org/ml/cygwin/2009-07/msg00904.html The setup allows me to have an install of Cygwin on a host system, and reuse that in a guest VM, over the VM implementations shared FS. Much like the concept of a "zone" in Unix, I setup in the guest an alternative root, with its own etc, var, etc.. and of course fstab for a /tmp away from the one with the limitations of the VM shared FS. Before Cygwin 1.7, I achieved the alternative root through the registry key. After Cygwin 1.7, I have maintained a local patch that works of an environment variable to point at an "alternative root". There are other non-VM applications to this too. To bootstrap the "alternative root", I used to run setup as above. I then could be sure that all the required directories under root were created, with the right Windows ACL, etc. I'd then fill in /etc, setup my launching batch file, and away I go. It's worked very well for me for years. I'd never expect the support of the list to continue this practice. I just lament losing what I see as the "elegant" approach I had to "bootstrap" the alternative root. I might look into maintaining another local patch for Cygwin setup. > >> But can someone talk to what --prune-install is exactly supposed to do? >> And can any consideration be given to a "skeleton/template" install? > > I use that option to make sure that whenever I remove packages from my > install (or downgrade them), the clients pick the exact set of packages > up that I give them. It's also used to shrink installations (i.e. from > a developer installation to user) without leaving lots of cruft behind. Thank you for that. That is different to what I expected. And I can see good uses for this option. -- Regards, Shaddy -- Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/ Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple