How to get setup to *re*install a package from the command line

[Christian Franke]

Eliot Moss wrote:
> I've not been able to find a way to get setup, when used from the command
> line, to *re*install an existing package, so as to repair any brokenness.
>
> For context, I had my disk get trashed and restored from a cloud backup.
> However, that tool is not entirely competent about everything, e.g., 
> links.

Often such backup tools cannot handle reparse points, so for the future 
you might want to set CYGWIN=winsymlinks:lnk or ...:sys. The latter 
requires that the tool handles SYSTEM files properly.

Another problem might occur if incremental backups are used: If a DLL is 
rebased, the write timestamp does not change because memory mapped files 
are used. Then there is (AFAIK) no way to detect file modification 
except comparing its data with previous backup. A full rebase after 
restore should help then.


>
> Most programs work ok, but others clearly are not quite right.  So I 
> want to
> try re-installing all installed packages.  But there does not seem to 
> be any
> way to get command line setup to Reinstall something that is already
> installed, though the GUI tool can certainly do it.

If data in /etc/setup is still intact, a quick way with the GUI should 
be run to the recent 2.921 RC release of setup, select the "Up To Date" 
view and then press and hold Ctrl+R.
https://sourceware.org/pipermail/cygwin/2022-August/252146.html

-- 
Regards,
Christian