This is the mail archive of the cygwin@cygwin.com mailing list for the Cygwin project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]
Other format: [Raw text]

Re: rollback procedure, was: what determines cygwin path?


On Fri, 25 Apr 2003, Qwer Zxcv wrote:

> Qwer Zxcv wrote:
> >>>> So what I'd like to know is, how is cygwin's path determined?
> >>>> (Apparently not entirely by the windows path, at least not by
> >>>> default.) And how do I fix it?
>
> Max Bowsher wrote:
> >>> Windows + /etc/profile + any user customisation.
>
> Qwer Zxcv wrote:
> >> What I don't know is, in
>
> >> > PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH"
>
> >> * Where are
>
> >>   /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
>
> >>   set?
>
> Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
> > "man mount"
>
> Doesn't help much when yr cygwin's down, but, find another box and DOH!
> I forgot the mount table was in the REGISTRY ! So I fix that, and now
> my old cygwin is working again :-)

The "mount.exe" program will run even if the mounts are all gone (as long
as it's invoked via an absolute path or from the current directory and
cygwin1.dll is in the same directory).

> Despite the apparent deprecation of this line of inquiry, I'd still
> like to document rollback for those who are inclined to "install
> defensively." Does the following rollback procedure sound more-or-less
> correct/complete? (Note that it assumes that one's new cygwin is not
> working.)
>
> 0 Change windows path to point (only) to the old version. Cygwin
>   references should precede windows references.
>
> 1 Use 'regedit' to ensure that entries in
>
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Cygnus Solutions\Cygwin\mounts v2
>
>   notably
>
> /usr/bin
> /usr/lib
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts
>
>   point (only) to the old version.

No, no, no, no, NO!
It's been stated time and time again on this list that going to the
registry is an unsafe and nonportable way of manipulating the mount table.
Especially when mount.exe does a very adequate job.  There already are
plans (and code, AFAIK, though not in the production system) to store the
mount table in a file instead of in the registry.  Please manipulate the
mount table only by using mount.exe (or setup.exe).

> 2 Find or recreate a shortcut to one's old bash-running batchfile.

You can make a backup copy of the shortcut.  You can, in fact, have
multiple shortcuts.  This still doesn't avoid the fact that you cannot
have multiple versions of cygwin1.dll running at the same time (and even
having two different versions on the same machine is dangerous -- you'd do
better by renaming the old cygwin1.dll to old-cygwin1.dll, for example).
	Igor

> 3 Run bash, check for weirdness.
> 4 'cygcheck -svr', check for weirdness.
-- 
				http://cs.nyu.edu/~pechtcha/
      |\      _,,,---,,_		pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu
ZZZzz /,`.-'`'    -.  ;-;;,_		igor at watson dot ibm dot com
     |,4-  ) )-,_. ,\ (  `'-'		Igor Pechtchanski
    '---''(_/--'  `-'\_) fL	a.k.a JaguaR-R-R-r-r-r-.-.-.  Meow!

Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty.
  -- Leto II


--
Unsubscribe info:      http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Problem reports:       http://cygwin.com/problems.html
Documentation:         http://cygwin.com/docs.html
FAQ:                   http://cygwin.com/faq/


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]