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Re: Local Setup Cache


----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael A. Chase" <mchase@ix.netcom.com>
To: <cygwin@sources.redhat.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 2:04 PM
Subject: Local Setup Cache


> Currently, setup.exe downloads package files from whatever mirror site a
> user selects and then installs the packages.  As new versions are
produced,
> they get downloaded and installed to replace the old version, but the
> archive files for the old version are not removed.  Eventually this may
fill
> significant amounts of disk space with obsolete files.
>
> I see two likely ways for handling this problem:
>
> 1.  Provide a program that removes files from the cache if they are not
> listed in setup.ini.  The problem with this is that inexperienced users
are
> unlikely to run the cleanup program often enough for it to do any good.
>
> 2.  Modify setup.exe so it will remove obsolete files.  The problem with
> this is that it adds yet another feature to setup.exe.

Setup.exe is used to bootstrap and maintain the _system_. IMO adding
non-installation features to setup.exe just increases it's size with little
benefit... but dselect uses a similar technique, however they just remove
_all_ cached files on the basis that once a files been installed it's not
needed again (unlesss you are installing another machine, when you would say
"N"). The question is only asked when no errors are encountered.

>  Does anyone see any other possibilities?

Not really - in setup vs out of setup is pretty binary :}. I'm against it
(even given my dselect comparison above) while setup.exe is used to install
local files by scanning. If setup could be called like "setup --install
my-local-file-path" in addition to the cache directory, then yes. Otherwise
I think its too hard to make sure we don't wipe out some users local files
that were never downloaded by setup.exe in the first place. If we do do
something in-setup the dselect model akes a lot of sense to me. (delete it
all, the setup is complete after all).

Rob


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