Re: Attn: Yaakov [Was: Re: cygutils Postinstall Script Errors With Exit Code 128]

[Charles Wilson <cygwin at cwilson dot fastmail dot fm>]

On 5/29/2013 7:51 PM, Yaakov (Cygwin/X) wrote:
> On 2013-05-29 17:43, Charles Wilson wrote:
> > /usr/share/applications/cygstart.desktop
> > /usr/share/mime/packages/cygutils.xml
>
> Right, because packages providing those kind of files usually need those
> commands to be run in order for them to take effect; see below.
>
> > However, at user request I've manually removed the requires: line,
> > because the addition of these two files to the cygutils package
> > shouldn't have the effect of pulling *PERL* into the Base category. I
> > assumed we'd live with the semi-brokenness for a few days, until...
>
> Perl?  I thought it was Python, due to a false positive in the
> dependency detection with glib2.0, which I fixed on sourceware.

You're right, it was python. One of the gigantic "p*" packages, anyway...

> But now that you mention it, is cygutils *supposed* to be in Base?  It
> is marked category: Utils, but seems to be pulled into Base only because
> of cygwin-doc (which *is* in Base, oddly enough; shouldn't it just be
> Doc?) listing it as a dependency.

I've got email from 2006 [1] where the following was mentioned: "Since 
cygutils is required by some packages in the Base category, ..." so 
maybe at one point, several packages required it.

It's also possible, at one point, that we explicitly wanted it to be in 
that category, as it provided our d2u/u2d tools. Obviously now that we 
have an standalone u2d package that isn't an issue (but I note that 
dos2unix is NOT in Base, but IS listed as requirement for cygutils. So 
if we take action to (effectively) remove cygutils from Base, then 
dos2unix will also go "missing".

> The "problem" here is that cygutils is not primarily a desktop-oriented
> package.  Most packages providing XDG menu and mime entries *are*, so
> these dependencies not only mandatory, but quite modest by those
> standards.  I added these files because it allows better integration
> between desktop file managers
> (Nautilus/Caja/Thunar/PCManFM/Dolphin/etc.) and Windows, e.g. making it
> easy to launch an EXE/MSI installer from one's Downloads folder.
> However, most people use cygutils outside of the desktop, so
> particularly if its pulled into Base, these deps would be more than the
> bare-minimal system.
>
> If cygutils should be in Base, the "solution" is probably one of the
> following:
>
> * provide these files (and postinstall scripts) in a 'cygutils-x11'
> subpackage;
>
> * OR move them to another package (not sure which yet) which will
> already be installed in desktop scenarios, and adding cygutils as a
> dependency thereto.
>
> For now, should we go with the first option?

Yes, that's probably the best way to go. I'll roll a new release with 
that change, for both 32- and 64- cygwin, soon. (Need to investigate the 
recent resurrected report about cygdrop and privelege dropping first).

[1] http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin-apps/2006-03/msg00117.html

--
Chuck


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