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Cygwin - Versioned Distro's (was Re: A request?)


> On Thu, Apr 17, 2003 at 09:43:21AM -0400, Fletcher, Bob (GEAE, IT) wrote:
> >I'm a bit late to this discussion, but I'll jump in anyway.
> >
> >To the original question; I'd like to violate group etiquette and throw
> >in a big "Me to".  Having a cleaner versioning process would be a big
> >benefit to cygwin.
>
> You're missing an IMO, there.
>
> >Also to the original question, a suggestion.  I have the same problem.
> >I've taken the approach of running 'setup' on a box, then capturing the
> >files, my preferred mount points, path settings and anything else I
> >want to change, and building a Microsoft format "msi' package.  I can
> >put this on a server and distribute it to internal users and they get
> >exactly my configuration.  BTW, all you really need is a zip of the
> >cygwin directory and .reg file dump of
> >HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygnus Solutions The MSI is just a bit
> >easier to install, and I can pput in the shortcuts for people.
>
> Great.  You have a solution.  This isn't hard.  There are many ways to
> make this work.
>
> The problem seems to be that people want someone else to do the work for
> them.  While I can fully comprehend why you'd want someone to spend a
> lot of time coming up with a "stable" release so that you wouldn't have
> to, and how much of a benefit this could be to some folks, the simple
> fact is that this isn't something that I want to do.  One could consider
> this unreasonable, I suppose, except for the oft-stated fact that this
> is a volunteer project and I really don't have to do be doing anything
> at all.  I *am* supplying you with valuable software at no cost to you,
> though.  Currently, this is the limit of my largesse.
>
> Cygwin is a strange environment.  It has many users and few contributors.
> Probably that's because Red Hat is involved and people, unconsciously or
> consciously think that somehow Red Hat is or should be footing the bill.
> Or, maybe it's because the expertise level isn't high enough since
> we're talking about a Windows environment.
>
> However, to a very large degree this is a volunteer process rather than
> a voting process.  If you think "stable" releases are a good idea, then
> I will gladly appoint you the cygwin stable release maintainer, I'll set
> you up with disk space on sources.redhat.com and you can start doing
> your magic.  I will set you up with a mailing list, if you want.

Ever since this one came up a while ago I've been thinking about the
benefits that a so-called stable release would bring:

Firstly, we would have a set of known-to-be-stable tools (yeah I know.) for
the Cygwin environment. Secondly we'd be able to offer a pre-configured (to
a certain extent) development and or porting environment that are ready to
go. Thirdly if we had a "proper" distribution, upstream maintainers may be
more willing to accept Cygwin specific patches/fixes, and may also help
Cygwin get more recognition for it's efforts along the way. Fourthly
(Brrrrrr), if we had a stable/versioned distribution we could stop all the
"Is there a stable Cygwin release" type questions. ;-)

Ok, So the last one was just for symmetry, but I think the first three
tallied up make a good enough reason to go for it. And if people want to be
using the cutting-edge in Cygwin then they'll just use the net release.
Could also be the birth of CPM, too.

Any thoughts?

If this is accepted by the powers that be and the RCM's then all we need to
do is come up with a good solid plan of how it will all work. I need a few
weeks to clear the backlog and release a few packages, but after that I'd
like to start getting this together (if there's no objections).

What we'd need:

- A CVS repository
- Part of the web site dedicated to the distribution
- A Mailing list
- Volunteers to handle bug reports, release updates &c

I've put myself up, and Brian Ford raised interest.Anyone else?

Elfyn


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