Re: Portable Cygwin: Hard-Coded Paths in a Restored Cygwin.bat File?

On 05/08/2025 05:56, Brian Inglis via Cygwin-apps wrote:
> On 2025-08-04 17:30, Matthew Sheets via Cygwin-apps wrote:
>> Are there two different versions of Cygwin.bat that Cygwin Setup could 
>> create depending on the context in which Cygwin Setup is executed?
>>
>> If Cygwin setup is being used to create a new installation, the 
>> installed Cygwin.bat is fairly path independent:
>> @echo off
>> setlocal enableextensions
>> set TERM=
>> cd /d "%~dp0bin" && .\bash --login -i
>>
>>
>> However, if Cygwin setup is being executed for an already-existing 
>> installation and restores a deleted Cygwin.bat, that restored 
>> Cygwin.bat contains hard-coded paths:
>> @echo off
>> C:
>> chdir C:\Portable\Cygwin\arch-x86_64\bin
>> bash --login -i
> 
> I still had one of the latter installed from 2013!
> 
> If you look at one of the base packages:
> 
> $ cygcheck -l base-files
> /etc/defaults/Cygwin.bat
> ...
> /etc/postinstall/base-files-profile.sh
> /etc/preremove/base-files-manifest.lst
> /etc/preremove/base-files.sh
> 
> it provides defaults and sets them up in the postinstall script driven 
> by the manifest.
> 
> In our case, the ancient Cygwin.bat was always installed with a hard- 
> coded path by Cygwin setup and never replaced, by design!
> 
> I just updated it from /etc/defaults/ so it looks like your first version.
> 
> You could also rm /Cygwin.bat and rerun /etc/postinstall/base-files- 
> profile.sh, possibly with a .done suffix after Setup.
> 
>> For a portable setup, I am intending to remove and wrap Cygwin.bat and 
>> have _zero_ issue with Cygwin Setup restoring it (I was actually 
>> hoping Cygwin Setup _did_ restore Cygwin.bat so that any updates to 
>> Cygwin.bat could be incorporated), but the challenge here is that a 
>> completely different Cygwin.bat that contains hard-coded paths is 
>> created upon restoration.  Is this file content difference expected?  
>> Could the `cd /d "%~dp0bin"` syntax be used in both cases (in place of 
>> the hardcoded paths)?
> 
> It has been and should be since at least 2016, when it was added to 
> base-files; previously it was installed by Cygwin Setup and never 
> updated if it existed:
> 
>      https://cygwin.com/cgit/cygwin-apps/setup/tree/desktop.cc? 
> id=bf1d58#n163
> 
Huh.

Well, a patch to setup either to remove that function (since it doesn't 
seem to serve any useful purpose now), or modernize the batch file it 
writes would be very welcome.