Re: Simplifying Cygwin PosgreSQL Installation

Jason,

Thanks again for the reply. I think that command line support in
setup.exe is a great idea. I noticed when browsing through the source
code that there were comments about it. With command line support
many, if not all of the dialogs could be skipped, and it might make it
possible to install Cygwin as part of other applications when no/slow
internet connections are present. This would be ideal. I'd like to
contribute, too, but there are issues:

1. I've never written a line of C/C++ code in my life. I have no
notion of pointers, memory allocation, macros or linking. I've
never made or applied patches. The most I've done is type
"./configure" and "make". I believe I've heard that C++ has
something of a nontrivial learning curve---I doubt anyone wants me
hacking around their C++ code.

2. Currently "./configure" and "make" do not work with the setup.exe
source package. I spent a couple hours last week trying to get the
thing to compile without success, thinking I might just try to hack
it a bit. Searching the mailing lists indicated that that perhaps
I should try with gcc 2.95 and not 3.1, but "mingw"
support---whatever that is---is necessary and not available as a
Cygwin package for 2.95, or so it seems.

I don't think I'm the right guy for the job, at least not without a
*lot* of hand-holding. My guess is that a real Cygwin developer would
prefer just making the fix instead of trying to shepherd me through
the process. That said, I'd be willing to donate some time to trying
if anyone is interested in said hand-holding.

As a meta-remark regarding your (kind) suggestion that my project be
made a Cygwin package. I thought about that. The Cygwin distribution
contains mostly general purpose tools, especially those of interest to
developers and people interacting with *nix. Our project is written
in Java, and of interest to gas-phase chemical process engineers. I
don't believe there is a single Java app in Cygwin, is there? Nor do
there seem to be large packages for specialized audiences like ours.
I'm not sure that Cygwin ever intends to have such packages.

On the other hand, if the Cygwin install process could be streamlined,
its tools could be used by application developers and piggy-backed on
their installations, and a lot more bona fide Cygwin distributions
would be installed. (Just musing out loud, here.)

Anyway, thanks again,
Glenn Murray
http://www.mines.edu/~gmurray

On Wed, 23 Oct 2002, Jason Tishler wrote:

> Glenn,
>
> On Tue, Oct 22, 2002 at 04:46:51PM -0600, Glenn Murray wrote:
> > Thank you very much for your reply, I am learning a lot already.
>
> You are welcome.
>
> > Keep in mind that my goal is to simplify installation of Cygwin
> > PostreSQL, not to mention cygipc. The difficult part of the install
> > is navigating through the setup.exe dialogs. Your Suggestion #2
> > reproduces that problem and your Suggestion #3 makes it harder. Only
> > your Suggestion #1 might simplify this by enabling me to tell the user
> > to "Hit the `Next' button until done", so let me ask about that.
>
> Agreed. You can solve the above issue, by contributing command line
> support to Cygwin's setup.exe. Note that the infrastructure required
> for this support is already implemented. Search cygwin-apps@ for the
> details.
>
> > By "Create a minimal Cygwin mirror" do you mean create a space on a
> > web server and put files (as described in
> > http://cygwin.com/setup.html) that setup.exe can find?
>
> Yes.
>
> > I did a search in cygwin-apps for "upset" and found lots of references
> > but not an explanation. I take it that upset helps build a setup.ini
> > file which gets downloaded from the mirror.
>
> Yes.
>
> > Where do you get it? I didn't find "upset" as a cygwin package.
>
> See the following:
>
> http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-apps/2002-07/msg00175.html
>
> > How does setup.exe see this mirror and not the official Cygwin
> > mirrors, i.e., how do I "point my Windows users" to that particular
> > mirror?
>
> Just tell your users to enter your specified "User URL" in the "Choose A
> Download Site" dialog.
>
> Jason
>