Re: RFA: Support Windows extended error numbers in safe_strerror

[Bob Rossi <bob@brasko.net>]

On Mon, Feb 06, 2006 at 09:47:04AM +0100, Corinna Vinschen wrote:
> On Feb  6 02:18, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > > From: Christopher Faylor <cgf-mailing-list-please@cygwin.com>
> > wa  However, it should be
> > quite clear that, since Cygwin is a coherent system of tools that need
> > to work together, [...]
> 
> That's a misconception.  You're mixing Cygwin, the distribution with
> Cygwin, the DLL.  Take a tool and the libraries it's linked against,
> and you're all set.

Eli, I have to side with you here. Even though I find Cygwin absolutely
amazing, it is documented, that there is *no* absolute way to deliver a
Cygwin DLL and ensure that your package will work on the target system.

If there are 2 Cygwin DLL's on a system, then Cygwin can not operate.
For instance, if I install GNAT 3.15p, and I have Cygwin installed, I
have to modify the GNAT binary of GDB to change the name of the DLL they
renamed Cygwin to back to cygwin1.dll. Then, I have to remove the Cygwin
DLL they used. Fortunately this even works.

Secondly, it's impossible to create a package that ensures the user
doesn't go ahead and install Cygwin 5 minutes after they install the
GDB package, which would basically break your GDB installation.

I personally think the Cygwin DLL installation issue needs to be brought
to the next level, before it's considered OK to install the cygwin1.dll

Anyways, I use Cygwin daily and couldn't live with out it, however, as
trying to package CGDB, I've found the only reasonable alternative is to
attempt to get it upstream with the Cygwin distribution.

Thanks,
Bob Rossi