Cygwin question

[Lloyd Rasmussen]

I just found info on command-line options for the Cygwin setup program in 
section 2.3 of the Cygwin FAQ at
   http://cygwin.com/faq/

I didn't check whether the options below are in this list.

At 09:54 AM 1/29/2009, you wrote:
>Hi.
>Actually there is an alternative method to doing the manual way you suggested.
>I got annoyed yesterday with the hole gui thing, and wrote to the cygwin 
>packages list explaining the issues blind people face.
>I got a very interesting e mail response back which I have pasted below.
>very interesting I am sure you will agree.
>
>
>Fortunately, the latest version of setup for 1.7 allows
>package selection from the command line.
>This is a _huge_ (ok maybe not that big) deal for users
>exactly like you.
>You can do things like:
>
>setup -q -n -D -L %SITE% %LOCALDIR% %PACKAGES%
>
>if you set up environment variables for SITE, LOCALDIR, and
>PACKAGES.
>Note that PACKAGES should be a comma separated list of packages
>you want to install with NO SPACES between entries.
>All the dependencies ar looked after automagically.
>
>Good luck!
>
>first off, does anyone no what that first lot of command line switches do 
>before the % bits where you have to enter the various options?
>also, rightly or wrongly, I have tried entering the info about the 
>packages I want to download into a shortcut I created to the cygwin setup 
>on my desktop, along with all the info for the mirror site I want to use, 
>and the local folder. the setup runs, and it seems to download the base 
>set of packages no problem, but it completely ignores the list of custom 
>packages I have entered. does anyone have any thoughts why this might be?
>Thanks for your help.
>Alex.
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Tony Baechler" <tony at baechler.net>
>To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list at redhat.com>
>Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2009 2:16 PM
>Subject: Re: Cygwin question
>
>
>>Hi,
>>
>>The short answer is "not really."  It's possible to just click on the 
>>"All" button to install every Cygwin package.  If you want a nice 
>>installer, that's as good as it gets.  If you want not such a nice 
>>install, you can manually install packages once the base system is 
>>installed.  This isn't recommended or really supported.  You'll need to 
>>make sure that bash, coreutils, tar and bzip2 are working.  All are part 
>>of the base system which is installed if you just go with the defaults 
>>and don't change anything.  It would also help to install an ftp client 
>>such as ncftp, but the Windows ftp client would work.  Go to a Cygwin 
>>mirror such as ftp.osuosl.org and download the packages you want to 
>>install. Make a temp directory and extract the archives within 
>>bash.  Manually move the files into the correct places, such as moving 
>>mypkg/usr/share/doc to your c:\cygwin\usr\share\doc and mypkg/etc to 
>>c:\cygwin\etc.  Don't move files from the usr/bin directory to 
>>cygwin\usr\bin because it won't work. Instead, just dump them into 
>>\cygwin\bin.  You should have a postinstall and possibly other scripts to 
>>run.  Make sure they're executable (they should be) and run them after 
>>everything is manually in place.  If you're lucky, it will actually 
>>work.  If not, just click on All from the installer and install 
>>everything, allowing for about 2 GB of disk space.
>>
>>Note that all of the above is for Cygwin 1.5.  I haven't used 1.7.  You 
>>should try it and see if it's better.  Note that 1.7 is still in testing 
>>and won't run on anything less than XP or 2000.  I would like to know if 
>>1.7 is any better.  Get http://cygwin.com/setup1.7.exe or setup-1.7.exe 
>>instead of the usual setup.exe.
>>
>>Tom Masterson wrote:
>>>Does anyone know of an accessible way to install packages under cygwin?
>>
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>
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Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Project Engineer, Engineering Section
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535   <http://www.loc.gov/nls>
HOME:  <http://lras.home.sprynet.com>
The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent 
those of NLS.