Re: [Mingw-msys] Anomalies in 1.0.6, of some concern

[Earnie B. <ear...@ya...>]

Soren Andersen wrote:
> 
> Earnie,
> 
> I am a bit confused about what's going on with msys 1.0.6 downloaded
> and installed yesterday, in a couple
> of respects.
> 
> Firstly: there isn't any "/mingw" directory created at all anymore (so
> there sure isn't anything mapped as "/mingw/bin") [--I am installing
> absolutely fresh onto a system that's never had msys before]. But your
> documentation in /doc/msys/README says:
> 

Hmm...  This is oversight in new distribution format, I'll have to
correct.  However, mkdir /mingw should suffice.

> "Using different binaries: You can't use Cygwin binaries at all.  You
> can use Win32 native binaries but you should put them into the
> /mingw/bin directory tree.  If you wish to replace an MSYS binary with
> a native win32 version then delete the /bin version."
> 
> If it is your expectation that users download a MinGW distro package
> and unpack it into a heirarchy rooted at "/mingw" then I think some
> very prominent documentation should say so

Well, one could also

cat <<EOF>/etc/fstab
c:/path/to/my/mingw/distribution /mingw
EOF

and have /mingw with the mingw binaries in it.

> -- something that new users
> cannot miss, like in a file found in the "[X:\]msys" directory (maybe
> as a comment in 'msys.bat'). If I've got this quite mistaken now then
> I think something else is amiss in your documentation, or else the
> installer isn't doing all that you think it is. Or something.
>

Installing mingw under the msys tree isn't necessary but not at all a
bad idea.
 
> For the record, I (on the system I am building today) have (already
> had, before installing msys) mingw rooted at E:\mingw (E: being the
> drive where my msys is installed, too).
> 
> The above is also impacting on /etc/profile which seems in error as is
> now. As unpacked into my tree, 'profile' started with:
> 
> export PATH="/bin:/mingw/bin:$PATH"
> 

I originally did this with the intention that the use would create the
/etc/fstab entry.  I'll have to review my README file in /doc/msys to
see how it fits in the new distribution.

> (I think. I had already fixed it to suit my needs when I started
> composing this msg).
> 
> Since, again, there is not any "/mingw" subtree this sets path to
> imaginary things and mingw's binaries won't be found. And what about
> the "special" binutils found under "mingw32" in the MinGW distribution?
> Do not these need to be in the PATH too? So it seems that the first
> line of
> '/etc/profile' needs instead of the above, to be:
> 

You of course can modify /etc/profile to point as you like.  I'll put
some documentation into /etc/profile to explain.

> 
> Also, you have this line:
> export CVSROOT=/cvs
> 

Sorry.  I'll correct that.

> It does not seem to me that your '/etc/profile' should be setting such
> a thing without knowing; I think maybe that is one you didn't intend to
> be in there.
> 

Yes, you're correct.

> In any event I think you'll agree that somewhere *prominent* you might
> need to advise/warn/exhort your users to check and edit '/etc/profile'
> to suit their needs BEFORE running msys, with the same vehemence that
> you exhort them to understand what "MSYS.BAT" is doing or exhort them
> to read the doc/msys/README file.
> 
> And yet a bit more oddness. If I run E:/msys/1.0/bin/mount.exe, I get
> this:
> -------<-- cut <-- --------
> E:\msys\1.0\home on /home type user (binmode,noumount)
> F:\msys\1.0\bin on /bin type user (binmode,cygexec,noumount)
> G:\msys\1.0\bin on /usr/bin type user (binmode,cygexec,noumount)
> H:\msys\1.0 on / type user (binmode,noumount)
> I:\msys\1.0 on /usr type user (binmode,noumount)
> J:\TMP on /tmp type user (binmode,noumount)
> K: on /a type user (binmode,noumount)
> L: on /c type user (binmode,noumount)
> M: on /d type user (binmode,noumount)
> N: on /e type user (binmode,noumount)
> -------<-- cut <-- --------
>    etc.
> 
> But:
> -------<-- cut <-- --------
> O:\>echo %HOME%
> P:\home\Administrator
> -------<-- cut <-- --------
> 
> msys seems to be auto-mapping 'E:\msys\1.0\home' to '/home' but there's
> no mention of such a thing in "README" and in fact there's no such dir
> as 'E:\msys\1.0\home' existing either anyway. And I wouldn't want there
> to be since "HOME" for me is somewhere else (it would just be bigtime
> confusing). AND that "somewhere else" is in fact, based on scripting I
> added to '/etc/profile/ (see a little below for "why"), pointing
> towards Win32path "E:\home\Administrator\msys-uhome" (NOT what's shown
> above, which is done outside msys); but when I run msys' shell (sh) a
> .bash_history file is written in the directory ABOVE that, in
> 'E:\home\Administrator'. This is unwholesome, unexpected and unwelcome
> since I am also running Cygwin on this machine and I do NOT want my
> bash-history in Cygwin to include commands I entered in msys, or
> vice-versa (that's the above-mentioned reason for creating a new user
> space "msys-uhome" underneath my old "$HOME", that I wrote above).
> 

I'll have to look into this.  Yes, if you have HOME set in the
environment when starting MSYS it should map /home to that. I suppose I
could even use HOMEDRIVE, HOMEPATH and HOMESHARE in some filter to
determine where /home should be set.

> When I ask where is $HOME from  inside msys' sh(bash):
> $ echo $HOME
> /e/home/Administrator/msys-uhome
> 
> So AFAICT msys' bash is pretty confused on some level, not honoring
> value of $HOME even tho it can report it, not doing expected behavior.
> 

I now also check for the presence of variable HOME in the msys.bat file
and set it before starting to /home/%USERNAME% perhaps that has things
confused as well.  Thanks for your thorough explanation.  Your concerns
will be reviewed.

Earnie.

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