This is the mail archive of the cygwin 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: Blocking a base package from installing


Am 07.10.2016 um 02:07 schrieb Linda Walsh:
Achim Gratz wrote:
Now, that last question of yours: No, the package manager should never
allow you to not install a base package.  These are in category "Base"
precisely so the rest of the system can rely on the functionality
provided.
---
    And what other programs will stop functioning if vim is not installed?

Vi is, for better or for worse, the default/fall-back system editor. It is assumed to be there by every useful definition of what "Unix" is. The possibilities for things breaking if it's not there are therefore almost endless.

    If I compile and install a version of vim on my system, why would I
want to put it in a location like /usr/local where
it might not be used -- all the time?

Because /usr/local is the designated location for software that's not part of the organized software distribution. If you want to build your own, /usr/local is where it's supposed to go --- or $HOME if you don't have admin privileges.

Unix does have a very different approach to installing programs compared to Windows, in that it collects files from various packages in a few central places: /usr/bin, /usr/etc, /etc, and so on. That approach requires consistent organization to avoid complete chaos. Distributions like Cygwin provide that organization. You mess with that at your own peril. That's why non-distribution software gets its own area to work in: /usr/local.

    I'm the only user on my system -- whether I run as a user
or as root, or whatever, I'm not doing this for someone else.

Did it occur to you that the system really has to support much more varied use cases than your own particular corner case?

If I try to edit a file using 'vim' from the explorer menu, will it
invoke my vim in /usr/local -- of course not.

If you do set up such an explorer menu entry, it'll do whatever you tell it to. It'll only end up "of course not" working if you "of course" configure things differently than you actually wanted to. But why would anyone do that?

--
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


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