Re: base-files-mketc.sh

[Igor Pechtchanski <pechtcha at cs dot nyu dot edu>]

On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, Pierre A. Humblet wrote:

> At 11:46 AM 2/3/2003 -0500, Igor Pechtchanski wrote:
>
> >FYI, base-files-mketc.sh uses the `cygpath -u ...` syntax to get the
> >directory.
> Yep, I saw that.
>
> >Thus, if your cygdrive prefix is changed *before* the
> >postinstall scripts run, the script should pick up the correct one.
> Currently impossible in a new install, and confusing to somebody
> just starting with Cygwin.

Yes, I'm looking into that.  I also had thought along the lines of your
comment about it being confusing to new users.  Perhaps, instead of making
a whole bunch of new controls in one propsheet, we should have an
"Advanced..." button that would pop up a dialog with all the extra
options...  What do people think?

> >If you change your cygdrive prefix *after* the install, you're bound to break
> >all kinds of things anyway, and you should verify that nothing on your
> >system uses the old prefix.
> AFAIR the only problems I had were the links in /etc
> What else do you think of?

Hmm, I'm not sure.  You may be right for the moment (on a new install, in
any case).  However, any postinstall script using the `cygpath -u ...`
syntax would have that problem, and who can guarantee that no others will
be added in the future?

> >One possible compromise would be to allow user control of the cygdrive
> >prefix from setup.exe...  I'll look to see how much change that would
> >require.
>
> Sure, but what's the problem with putting the Windows path in the
> symlink? That works just fine, I don't see what the trade-off is.
> Basically remove the cygpath -u you alluded to in the first paragraph.
>
> Pierre

If I understand the (new style) symlink implementation correctly, both the
POSIX path and the Windows path are needed in the corresponding shortcut.

IMHO, changing the cygdrive prefix is an advanced user action, and the
user doing it should be aware of the consequences.  One of them being that
she has to check all the symlinks to make sure they aren't broken anymore.
	Igor
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