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Re: How to specify the user directory OUTSIDE of Cygwin (installation folder)?


Hi,
  of course, you could change something in /etc/passwd to define a new
home directory. However, it is good to have the convention of home
directories being under one root (at least for non-administrative
accounts). Therefore, my preferred solution is to make a symbolic link.

/home/USER => /cygdrive/d/tools/...

You can have symbolic links with relative paths as a destination,
however, that would assume you still are in the directory universe of
Cygwin. In this case, you are not. Therefore, you have to address this
via /cygdrive/...

Besides... what is the advantage of having a relative path here, anyway?
If you install different flavours of Cygwin as siblings under a common
root, the absolute path will be the same for all instances.

Cheers,
--J.

On 09.09.2017 09:53, Marco Atzeri wrote:
> On 09/09/2017 07:06, Ben Stover via cygwin wrote:
>> By default the user folder of Cygwin (under Win7) is in a subdirectory
>>
>> <installation folder>\home\<username>
>
> from cygwin point of view "/home/<username>"
>
>> How can I put it into a separate directory OUTSIDE of Cygwin?
>>
>> Example:
>>
>> I installed Cygwin in
>>
>> D:\tools\cygwin\v2\
>>
>> and want to put my (resp. all) home directories into
>>
>> D:\tools\cygwin\myhome\
>>
>> If possible I would like to specify my new home directory not as
>> absolute but as relative path.
>>
>> I would prefer a customization somwhow in "Cygwin.bat" like:
>>
>> set cygwinhome=..\myhome
>>
>> Mind the double dots standing for "go up one level".
>>
>> How can I achieve this?
>>
>> Ben
>>
>
>
> mkpasswd -c >> /etc/passwd
>
> change the fifth field of "/etc/passwd"
> from  "/home/<username>"
> to "/cygdrive/d/tools/cygwin/myhome"
>
>
> close all cygwin process and rerun.
>
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