MinGW Package Download and Installation Tool
============================================
$Id: readme.txt,v e70f37efc80b 2013/10/04 11:03:38 keithmarshall $
Description
-----------
mingw-get is a tool to assist users in the management of MinGW and MSYS
software installations. Configured via an online XML database, which is
managed by the project maintainers, it offers a choice of graphical and
command line driven user interfaces facilitating selective download and
installation of packages provided by the project.
The XML database provides maintainers with a mechanism for the
specification of inter-package dependencies; this permits configuration
of any package, such that the end user may elect to install just that
specific package, leaving mingw-get to ensure that all dependencies will
be automatically satisfied at installation time.
Licensing Terms
---------------
mingw-get is free software. Permission is granted to copy, modify and
redistribute this software, under the provisions of the GNU General
Public License, Version 3, (or, at your option, any later version), as
published by the Free Software Foundation; see the file COPYING, which
is distributed with the mingw-get-lic package, and with the source code,
for licensing details.
Note, in particular, that mingw-get is provided "as is", in the hope
that it may prove useful, but WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND; not even an
implied WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, nor of FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR
PURPOSE. Under no circumstances will the author, or the MinGW Project,
accept liability for any damages, however caused, arising from the use
of this software.
Release Notes
=============
The information presented below describes the user visible changes
introduced with each release of mingw-get. The online version of this
historical record is restricted to recent releases; the full history is
recorded in the NEWS file, which is included in the source code package.
mingw-get-0.6.2-mingw32-beta-20131004-1
---------------------------------------
Release date: 2013-10-04
This is a further bug fix release; it addresses the following issues:--
- MinGW-Feature #2036 partially implemented: profile.xml now provides
for separate assignment of preferences for each of the CLI and GUI
clients. Users are advised to review the changes which have been made
in the distributed copy of defaults.xml, and to incorporate such
adjustments as they see fit, into their own local copies of
profile.xml; (alternatively, those who don't care to maintain their
own copy of profile.xml should replace any pre-existing copy of
profile.xml with a copy of the distributed defaults.xml).
- MinGW-Bug #2028 partially resolved: affiliation of individual
component packages with any package group is now supported; also the
issue of only the first affiliation for each package being honoured,
when displaying the package list, has been corrected.
- MinGW-Bug #2051 fixed: successful removal of meta-packages is now
correctly recorded when updating the GUI's package list display.
- MinGW-Bug #2052 fixed: the LUA_PATH environment variable is now
correctly specified, for both CLI and GUI clients.
- MinGW-Bug #2054 fixed: pre-remove scripts calling the unlink.js helper
to remove program shortcuts are now assured that the reference path
specified with the '--if-linked' attribute will be normalized to a
canonical file system form, before comparison with the similarly
normalized path name stored in any possibly matching shortcut.
- MinGW-Bug #2057 fixed: mingw-get's embedded Lua interpreter now
provides its own built-in wsh.execute method, which allows invocation
of the Windows Scripting Host, to run any JScript or VBScript helper,
without any need to open a redundant Windows Console.
- The "Apply Changes" dialogue now assigns default focus to the "Apply"
button, rather than to the list of packages to be removed; this avoids
an ugly highlighting issue, when the dialogue is displayed.
mingw-get-0.6.1-mingw32-beta-20130910-1
---------------------------------------
Release date: 2013-09-10
This is a bug fix release; it corrects a potential buffer overrun issue
within the diagnostic message handler for the GUI client, as identified
by MinGW-Bug #2026.
In addition to fixing the fundamental buffer overrun issue, the
following changes have been included:--
- Improved diagnosis of possible file collisions, resulting from the
installation of packages with conflicting content.
- No entry is now recorded in the installation manifest, for any file
which is not extracted from its providing package archive, when such
extraction would result in file collision; (this fixes the secondary
issue noted on the ticket for MinGW #2026).
- Carriage returns are now handled appropriately, when emitted to the
GUI client's diagnostic message handler pseudo-terminal windows.
All users of mingw-get-0.6.0 are advised to upgrade to this release, as
soon as possible.
mingw-get-0.6.0-mingw32-beta-20130904-1
---------------------------------------
Release date: 2013-09-04
This is the first release to incorporate a working prototype for the
mingw-get GUI client, together with the integrated mingw-get-setup.exe
tool. With the advent of these additional capabilities, the existing
mingw-get-inst.exe wrapper becomes redundant, and is now deprecated; it
will be withdrawn after the next mingw-get release.
With this release of mingw-get-setup.exe, first time installation of
mingw-get has become considerably simpler than previously; please see
the "Installation Instructions" for further information.
In addition to the addition of the GUI client, and the simplified first
time installation procedure, this release incorporates the following new
user visible features:--
- New "preferences" section in profile.xml; this allows users to adjust
the default behaviour for command line options such as "--start-menu"
and "--desktop", to allow the automatic creation of shortcuts, (for
packages which provide them), without requiring explicit specification
of the option on every mingw-get invocation. See the comments within
defaults.xml, for configuration instructions.
- The output from "mingw-get --help" has been revised, to provide a
better explanation of the use of the "version selection" feature,
which allows users to force installation of a particular non-current
version of any package.
- The "gui.exe" subsidiary program has been renamed as "guistub.exe"; it
remains in place, with this new name, to furnish diagnostics, in the
event that the user attempts to invoke the GUI from the command line,
when no GUI support has been installed. Such GUI support is now
provided by "guimain.exe"; this may be installed optionally, by
choosing to install the "mingw-get-gui" package.
- Internal "globbing" of command line arguments is now explicitly
disabled; (any benefit of ever having supported this seems dubious;
however, external "globbing" by shells, such as MSYS' sh.exe and
bash.exe is not, and cannot be, affected by this change).
- For users wishing to follow development at the source code level, the
master source code repository has been relocated from CVS, to a new
git repository at git://git.code.sourceforge.net/p/mingw/mingw-get;
please refer to the INSTALL file, in the current source distribution,
for further information on accessing this repository.
mingw-get-0.5-mingw32-beta-20120426-1
-------------------------------------
Release date: 2012-04-26
This is an emergency bug-fix release; it provides an immediate interim
work-around for bug #3520864, circumventing a critical regression which
was introduced in mingw-get-0.5-mingw32-beta-20120416-1, and is thus a
mandatory upgrade for users who had previously upgraded to that version.
It also incorporates the correction for bug #3520488.
mingw-get-0.5-mingw32-beta-20120416-1
-------------------------------------
Release date: 2012-04-16
This milestone release marks the point at which the code base, for the
CLI implementation, is deemed to have progressed from alpha to beta (or
better) quality. It corrects several packaging deficiencies within the
source code distribution, in addition to fixing two reported bugs; it
also adds several new features.
The following bugs are fixed by this release:--
- #3416013: --reinstall and dependent packages
Specifically, in the case of application of the --reinstall option to
meta-packages, previous releases would have no effect. This is now
corrected, such that the --reinstall action is applied recursively to
each declared requirement of any meta-package, to the depth of the
first non-meta package in each requirement chain.
- #3424406: install --reinstall performs an upgrade
When performing the "install" action, with the --reinstall option,
previous releases would consider the availability of upgrades for the
package in question, promoting the "install" action to "upgrade" when
possible. This anomaly has now been corrected; when specified with
the "install" action, the --reinstall option will cause reinstallation
of the originally installed version, ignoring available upgrades; (the
former behaviour remains available, by specifying the --reinstall
option together with the "upgrade" action).
The following new features have been implemented:--
- Forced installation of a specified (non-current) release.
The package name specified as the predicate of any "install" or
"upgrade" action may now be qualified by a version specification,
allowing the user to select any known version, (not necessarily the
most recently released), for installation. In the case of any package
which has not been previously installed, the format is any of:
mingw-get install "package-name=version-spec"
mingw-get install "package-name<version-spec"
mingw-get install "package-name<=version-spec"
mingw-get install "package-name>=version-spec"
mingw-get install "package-name>version-spec"
while for any package which has been previously installed, and is to
be "rolled back" to an earlier release, the same forms are supported,
using the "upgrade" action in place of "install".
In each of the above command forms, "package-name" represents the
unqualified package name, as it would be specified in any regular
invocation of mingw-get, and "version-spec" is the selector for the
desired version; (in the case of an "=" qualifier, this must be an
exact match for the desired version, unless it ends with the "*" wild
card). For example, if GCC has already been installed at version
4.6.2-1, (the most recent release at this time of writing), it may be
rolled back to the last version 4.5 release by:
mingw-get upgrade "gcc=4.5.*"
or by using an inequality specifier, to exclude gcc-4.6 and later:
mingw-get upgrade "gcc<4.6"
Note that, particularly in the case of the inequality qualifiers, the
argument must be quoted, to avoid interpretation of the inequality
operator as the shell's redirection operator.
Also note that any explicit *inclusive* version range, such as:
mingw-get upgrade "gcc>4.5<4.6"
is permitted; however no white space is permitted, anywhere within the
qualified package specification.
- Support for package maintainer scripted installation hooks.
An embedded script interpreter, based on Lua version 5.2, has been
incorporated; this provides support for "pre-install", "post-install",
"pre-remove", and "post-remove" action hooks, which may be specified
by package maintainers, in the form of Lua scripts embedded within
"action" elements in any package's XML catalogue entry.
This capability is further supported by the provision of Lua modules,
providing a standardised mechanism for creation of MS-Windows shell
links, (a.k.a. shortcuts).
- New option: "--desktop"
Grants permission, to package maintainer specified scripts, to create
shortcuts on the user's desktop; alternatively, it may be specified as
--desktop=all-users, to make such shortcuts available to all users.
- New option: "--start-menu"
Grants permission, to package maintainer specified scripts, to create
shortcuts in the user's start menu; alternatively, it may be specified
as --start-menu=all-users, to make such shortcuts available in the
start menus of all users.
Installation Instructions
=========================
The information which follows describes the procedure for installing and
configuring mingw-get, and for keeping the installation current. The
online version of this document is an abridged form, focussing on the
installation of binary releases; users who prefer to build and install
from source are advised to consult the unabridged form of this document,
which may be found in the file "INSTALL", within the source code
distribution tarball.
Please report bugs as directed at http://mingw.org/Reporting_Bugs
First Time Installation of a Current Binary Release
---------------------------------------------------
Note that, as of release 0.6.0, the installation procedure for mingw-get
has been significantly simplified. The installation instructions which
follow relate to this release, and later; for instructions relating to
any earlier release, or if you are unable to run the new setup tool on
any legacy version of Windows, please refer to the following section,
under the heading "First Time Installation of a Legacy Binary Release".
To install mingw-get, visit the MinGW files repository at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files
then, from the "Installer" folder, download and run mingw-get-setup.exe,
and select your choices from the options presented [*], to install
mingw-get. When this has completed, you will then be offered the option
to immediately continue with the installation of a basic selection of
MinGW packages [**]. If you do choose to continue with package
selection, this will be processed by an integrated preview of the mingw-
get GUI application, (regardless of whether you have accepted or
declined the option to install the GUI); to complete your initial
installation:--
- Select individual packages, within the upper right hand "list-view"
pane of the GUI window;
- From the "Package" menu, (which also appears as a pop-up, when you
click the status icon at the left hand side of the list entry), select
the option to "Mark for Installation", in respect of each package
which you wish to install;
- Having so marked all packages which you wish to install, from the
"Installation" menu select the "Apply Changes" option, to complete
your initial installation.
After you have completed the installation of mingw-get, as described
above, and regardless of whether you chose to install additional
packages, or not, you are advised to review the configuration, as
specified in your profile.xml file, and noting in particular, any new
features which are described in the supplied defaults.xml file, if you
have a profile.xml from a previous release; please refer to the section
below, under the heading "Specifying the Configuration", for details.
[*] By default, mingw-get-setup.exe will offer to install mingw-get into
the "C:\MinGW" directory. You are *strongly* recommended to adopt this
default; however, if you do decide to change it, please *do* choose an
alternative with no white space within its absolute path name. In
particular, those who choose to ignore this advice, and install MinGW
into some subdirectory of (for example) C:\Program Files", usually
discover to their cost that certain tools may not work correctly.
[**] The set of packages offered, as the foundation for a basic
installation, are equivalent to those offered by the mingw-get-inst.exe
companion to earlier releases of mingw-get. Unlike mingw-get-inst.exe,
mingw-get-setup.exe, does *not* insist that you install the basic GCC
compiler suite. You are free to install it, or not, at your own option;
if you do wish to install it, please select the "mingw32-base" package,
which is the equivalent of the minimum mandatory selection imposed by
mingw-get-inst.exe
First Time Installation of a Legacy Binary Release
--------------------------------------------------
The instructions which follow relate to the installation of mingw-get
releases prior to version 0.6.0; they also apply in the case of later
versions, where a legacy version of Windows may not permit you to run
the new mingw-get-setup.exe tool. For installation of release 0.6.0, or
any later release, using the new tool, please refer to the preceeding
section, under the heading "First Time Installation of a Current Binary
Release".
To install mingw-get, visit the MinGW files repository at:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files
and, from the "Installer/mingw-get-<version>-<class>-<release>" folder,
download your choice of either:
mingw-get-<version>-mingw32-<class>-<release>-bin.zip
or (preferred, if you know how to unpack it):
mingw-get-<version>-mingw32-<class>-<release>-bin.tar.xz
Whichever of these you choose to download, you should unpack it into the
directory in which you intend to host your MinGW installation; (we
*strongly* recommend that you adopt our standard of C:\MinGW [*], unless
you have an exceptional reason to make an alternative choice), then use
your preferred method for assignment of environment variables to add the
appropriate directory (default C:\MinGW\bin) to your PATH; (this should
be added as a permanent PATH assignment).
Having completed this phase of installation, you may then wish to review
the following section on configuration; if nothing else, you may wish to
copy the supplied defaults.xml file to profile.xml, even if you choose
not to introduce any customisations. Finally, to initialise the
installation recording database, you should run the command [**]:
C:\> mingw-get install mingw-get
[*] If you insist on adopting a different directory from the recommended
default, you are *strongly* advised to avoid any directory which has
white space in its absolute path name; in particular, those who choose
to ignore this advice, and install MinGW into some subdirectory of (for
example) C:\Program Files", usually discover to their cost that certain
tools may not work correctly.
This document will refer to files as though installed in the recommended
default location, with a path prefix of C:\MinGW. If, having read the
above warning, you do decide to adopt an alternative installation path,
then please substitute your alternative prefix, as appropriate, where
this document refers to C:\MinGW.
[**] If you have chosen mingw-get-0.6.2-mingw32-bin.tar.xz as your
installation source, rather than mingw-get-0.6.2-mingw32-bin.zip, you
may like to create the directory:
C:\MinGW\var\cache\mingw-get\packages
(together with any requisite parents, and adjusting the C:\MinGW prefix
to suit your installation choice, if necessary). You may then move the
mingw-get-0.6.2-mingw32-bin.tar.gz file to it, *before* you run the
above command; this will relieve mingw-get of the overhead which would
be incurred by downloading the file a second time.
Specifying the Configuration
----------------------------
When you invoke mingw-get, it will attempt to read configuration data
from the file:
C:\MinGW\var\lib\mingw-get\data\profile.xml
(with any necessary adjustment of the C:\MinGW installation prefix, as
noted previously); if, and only if, this file cannot be read, then a
fallback attempt will be made, to read the configuration from:
C:\MinGW\var\lib\mingw-get\data\defaults.xml
instead. Of this pair of files, profile.xml is *not* included within
the mingw-get distribution, but defaults.xml *is*. It is a liberally
commented XML file, which you are advised to copy to create profile.xml;
you may then modify this, as you see fit, to suit your own installation
requirements. [*]
At the present time, the only entries you should consider changing are
the path names specified by the "path" attribute associated with each of
the "sysroot" elements within the first (only) "system-map" element;
(these specify the prefix directory path names for your installation).
You probably want to make the path for the "mingw32" subsystem match
your choice for your mingw-get installation; (the "%R" notation, used in
defaults.xml, sets it up thus, regardless of whether you choose to
install in C:\MinGW, or an alternative location).
[*] The recommendation to copy defaults.xml to profile.xml may seem to
be an unnecessary inconvenience; it is implemented this way in order to
safeguard any configuration changes you wish to make; during an upgrade,
defaults.xml will be overwritten, but profile.xml will not, so your
configuration will be preserved.
Upgrading an Existing Installation to a Newer Binary Release
------------------------------------------------------------
Once you have completed a first-time installation of mingw-get, whether
from a binary release or by building and installing from source, you may
wish to upgrade it, as the project team publishes new releases. Unless
you insist on *always* installing from source, (in which case each
upgrade effectively becomes a fresh first-time installation from the new
source code), and provided:
- you have previously installed mingw-get-0.1-mingw32-alpha-3 or newer,
and
- you have completed the first-time installation process, by running
C:\> mingw-get install mingw-get
then you may upgrade to a newer binary release by running
C:\> mingw-get update
C:\> mingw-get upgrade mingw-get
Otherwise, if you have a previously unfinalised installation, i.e. you
did not previously run
C:\> mingw-get install mingw-get
and that previous installation is of mingw-get-0.1-mingw32-alpha-3 or
newer, then you may upgrade and finalise by running
C:\> mingw-get update
C:\> mingw-get install mingw-get
Alternatively, any previous installation of mingw-get may be upgraded by
simply performing a new first-time installation, overwriting the
previously installed version; (this is the only option available, if the
original installation predates mingw-get-0.1-mingw32-alpha-3).
$Document: readme.txt $: end of file
