Re: [Mingw-users] Gnu coreutils - selecting specific packages to build

[Paul M. <p.f...@gm...>]

On 17 December 2012 17:01, Eli Zaretskii <el...@gn...> wrote:
> The utilities that come from the same *-bin-* distro all use the same
> coherent set of dependencies.  I think your problems are caused by
> installing later versions of identically named DLLs from other
> projects.  A simple solution to that would be to have GnuWin32
> Coreutils in a separate directory, and put there all of their
> dependency DLLs.

Yeah, sorry I wasn't clear. Rogue libiconv versions usually come from
other projects.

Surely if I have gnuwin32 and all the DLLs (including libiconv) in one
directory but have another project containing libiconv *earlier* on my
path, that DLL will be picked up instead of the gnuwin32 one? Or are
you saying that a DLL alongside the exe is used in preference to one
found earlier on PATH? I didn't think that was the case.

Specifically, suppose I have

C:\Gnuwin32\bin containing grep.exe and libiconv-2.dll (call this iconv-a)
C:\Otherproject\bin containing other.exe and libiconv-2.dll (cann this iconv-b)

If PATH has ...;C:\Gnuwin32\bin;C:\Otherproject\bin;... then yes,
grep.exe should get linked to iconv-a. But if PATH has
...;C:\Otherproject\bin;C:\Gnuwin32\bin;... then surely grep.exe will
pick up iconv-b? And if the 2 copies of libiconv aren't compatible (I
don't know why iconv is worse than average for such incompatibilities,
but it seems to be) then the second scenario will cause problems. And
I can't solve them by ordering PATH the first way, as then other.exe
will fail for the same reason.

> FWIW, I had no such problems whatsoever, but then I'm very pedantic in
> installing DLLs.

I wish I knew enough to be properly pedantic :-)

Paul.