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Re: Cygwin installing too much stuff


"Brandon J. Van Every" wrote:

> I have a reasonably healthy Cygwin installation that I typically use to
> build various HLL compilers.  One of these compilers needed the "zip"
> tool in order to be built.   So I fired up Cygwin and clicked to install
> "zip."  Well, instead of doing just that, it also started installing
> Ruby, and TeTex, and seemingly a whole bunch of other things.  I know
> for fact that the simple "zip" tool is not dependent upon this stuff, so
> I am wondering why Cygwin is installing it all.

No, there's no obvious reason why zip would require those.

> - is Cygwin pushing new versions of stuff I previously downloaded?  That
> would be BAD.  That would mean that every time I use a dialup, I'm
> likely to get more new stuff that takes a long time to download that I
> don't really want.

No, not at all.  The only packages that setup will attempt to install
without prompting are those in the cateogies 'Base' and 'Misc'.  But
those packages are all core packages that most people need and certainly
doesn't include ruby or tetex.

> - is Cygwin just fulfilling a broken download I started earlier?  I did
> try to grab TeTex the other week, and I thought it finished, but I never
> did use it or test it.  In this case, I'd really like to prioritize my
> downloads.  When I download "zip," for me that means "I want zip NOW."
>   I don't want it in alphabetical order.

I can't answer your question without knowing exactly how you use setup,
i.e. what you click on.

You have the power to tell setup exactly what you want or don't want. 
Switch the view to 'Partial' and it will list exactly what it's planning
on installing, updrading, or uninstalling when you press Next.  Select
the 'Keep' radio button to reset all choices - this tells it to keep
every package at its current version and don't download anything.  From
there you can select what you want.  If you select the 'Curr' radio
button (the default mode on startup) it will attempt to keep up to date
on all packages that are currently installed, but it will not add any
new ones - unless there are packages that you don't have installed that
are listed as requirements of packages that you do have installed.

There is no 'queue' or anything of packages.  Setup is completely
stateless - that is, when you run it it starts out in Curr and tries to
keep you up to date with what you have currently installed, but no
more.  It has no memory of what you did last time, other than the yes/no
of whether a package was installed or not.

I'm afriad that's about all I can tell you without knowing more about
exactly how you're using it.  For example, if you are inadventently
setting an entire category to 'Install', then yes you will get a ton of
stuff.  But that doesn't happen unless you click on the cycle glyph next
to the category.  So, again, tell us exactly what you're clicking on and
we'll see if we can help.  It would also help if you would post your
cygcheck output as requested in the problem reporting guidelines, so
that we can see what packages you have installed currently.

Brian

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