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Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:22:26 -0500
From: "Larry Hall (Cygwin)" <reply-to-list-only-lh AT cygwin DOT com>
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Subject: Re: RFE?: CygWinDir in ENV? (was Re: How does one find where Cygwin     was  installed from Windows?)
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Tim McDaniel wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Feb 2009, Larry Hall (Cygwin) wrote:
>> Tim McDaniel wrote:
>>> I have several "trampoline" scripts, a bat file
>>> doing nothing but invoking a corresponding bash shell script or Perl
>>> program.  I have to hard-code a location for the bash / perl
>>> interpreter, but those locations change from user to user (some people
>>> install under c:\, some under the standard location).  I would like to
>>> have the scripts work for any system.
>>
>> This can be done now,
> 
> That appears to contradict what you wrote yesterday:

Not really.  See below.

> ] If you need to do this generically for any batch file, then yes, you
> ] have to rely on external data and heuristics.  Going to the registry
> ] to see if it will help or searching the file system are two
> ] alternatives but there is no one key or one spot that will
> ] unequivocally give you the installation path.  Looking at the mount
> ] paths in the registry will work for 1.5 but is flawed for 1.7.
> ] Looking in the file-system may work depending on what you look for
> ] and where you start looking.
>
> You did mention
> 
> ] HKLM/Software/Cygwin/setup, the "rootdir" value.
> 
> But you noted that that is in version 1.7.

This would work for 1.5 as well if someone back-ported the 1.7 change.
But unless someone makes some change to both the 'setup.exe' for 1.5
and the one for 1.7, you still won't have one place to look for this
information.  And even if this happens, it would only work for
installations that have used the new 'setup.exe'.  That may cover all
1.7 installations but it will be unreliable for 1.5 for... probably
forever (or long enough that it will seem that way.)  That doesn't mean
that one can't create something that works "good enough" for one's
needs.  It just means that "there's no good way"(tm) to do this for
all cases.  If that's not a concern to you, then you diligently read
this thread for its key points for nothing. ;-)

If you're wondering where in the registry to find this information for
1.5 (assuming you're stuck with no other option), this FAQ should
help point you in the right direction:

<http://cygwin.com/faq/faq-nochunks.html#faq.setup.uninstall-all>

> (When mentioning it, by the way, you might also mention REG.exe, a
> program to do registry access, and the options for FOR that allow
> running a program and getting the results in a variable in CMD.exe.
> I hadn't heard of REG until I went searching just now.)

Sounds similar to Cygwin's 'regtool'.  Definitely would be helpful
if you're trying to batch script something like this.

-- 
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
216 Dalton Rd.                          (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746

_____________________________________________________________________

A: Yes.
 > Q: Are you sure?
 >> A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
 >>> Q: Why is top posting annoying in email?

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