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: not a bug; just a suggestion



Andrew MacGinitie wrote:

I have access to an internet connection on a different machine than where I want to install Cygwin; I do not have access on that target machine. It seems to me that one of your web pages (http://cygwin.com/download.html) calls me a masochist because of that. I suggest you may want to replace that aspersion with simple instructions that would facilitate:
1. get setup.exe off the web.
2. get the files needed by setup.exe in a zip, gz, or tar file off the web
3. sneakernet (CDRW, anyone?) to my other system, place the files (& maybe untar, unzip, etc.)
4. run setup, & point to the local files

That's not really masochism, I claim.

Perhaps. But it seems that it's easy to figure that out on your own -- you did, after all.


And how much trouble would it be, really, to use a program like WinZip to package the necessary files,

Terribly difficult -- and a *really* bad idea from the bandwidth p.o.v. We could make one giant tarball (or zipfile -- even though WinZip has problems with very large files, I have found) on, say, July 1, 2002.

On July 2, 2002, I release a new libtool. Corinna releases a new ssh. On July 3, 2002, there's a new mutt package.

Do we re-roll the megafile every time? if yes, then folks will keep downloading the megafile over and over, instead of simply updating the files that changed/were added.

If not, then we've moved into "releases" -- 'the July 1, 2002 release', the 'July 15, 2002 release'. etc. And then folks will start talking about "this operation worked in the July 15, 2002 release" and we say 'update to current' and they say 'but the August 1, 2002 release hasn't come out yet'

Aarrgh.

Things are split up for *precisely* this reason. there are no "full.exe" releases anymore, and there will not be. period.

If you want to download everything to machine one, for later installation on machine two -- DO that. You can use a mirroring tool; perhaps we could show people how do this on the webpage:

Download 'wackget' from
http://millweed.com/projects/wackget/
'wackget' is a native Windows version of wget, with a GUI, that is GPLed. Read its docs. Point it at your favorite cygwin mirror. Go.

OR

Download wGetGUI (wgetgui.zip) from
http://www.jensroesner.de/wgetgui/
Download ssllibs.zip and wget-1.8.2b.zip from
http://space.tin.it/computer/hherold/
Unpack 'em all into a single directory. Run wgetguie

'wGetGUI' is another GPL'ed front end for wget. Install, read the manual, use the 'mirror site' option, and point it to your favorite cygwin mirror.

NOTE: you may need to download the activeX control:
http://activex.microsoft.com/controls/vb5/COMCTL32.CAB
unpack, and install using the provided .inf file (you must do this as Administrator)

Technically, we could distribute wgetgui.zip + sources, ssllib.zip + sources, and wget-*.zip + sources from www.cygwin.com; they are all GPL progs. (Whether doing so is a good idea or not is another question) But one isn't allowed to redistribute the activeX controls without a license; that's why I pointed at the MS website http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q172991


thereby solving the chicken/egg problem for anyone who has WinZip (most Windoze users, I think)? Surely there are equivalent free software solutions as well, if it's a question of philosophy (lha comes to mind).

It's not a problemm with the ZIP format or winzip (there are GPL implementations; e.g. InfoZip's 'unzip.exe' for one). It's that the whole concept of megatarballs is problematic.



Anyway, just a suggestion. But maybe you'd rather not have any atypical users (or just users like me).

No, but you *were* able to figure out how to solve your problem. That's good -- but do you assume that everyone else out there is less intelligent? <g>

--Chuck



--
Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple
Bug reporting: http://cygwin.com/bugs.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]