Re: Using the setup application commandline: multiple -P arguments possible?

On 01/06/2026 17:49, Soren via Cygwin wrote:
> Previously, many days ago, we had the following exchange:
> 
> [Soren]
>>> I am puzzled as to how I can ask setup-x86_64.exe to install multiple
> packages in a single run.
>>> I've tried this: using multiple -P <arg> flags, but it seems that only
> the
>>> first package thus specified is noticed by setup.

Hmm... the code does claim to handle multiple -P options.

>>>
>>> I've thought of trying these:
>>>    -P 'package1,package2,package3,[...]'
> 
> [Marco]
>> this works for me, without need of ' in my bat file
[...]>
> Running setup from the commandline still isn't providing me with obedience
> to the -P option. I just tried (running from a bash shell in minTty):
> 
>   cygstart C:/ix/cygwin/setup-x86_64 -vdnN -P perl-Alien-Build
> perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML perl-CPAN-Reporter

Sorry to hear this is giving you trouble.

I know that the parsing for this option is maybe a bit janky and could 
use some improvement, but it can be made to work.

Firstly: -P is followed by a single string, so you should use the syntax 
Marco confirmed as working, i.e. package names separated by only a comma.

If you can point out where our documentation suggests space-separated 
names can work, I'll get that fixed.

(There's obviously some bug adding to the confusion here as the 
non-options 'perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML' and 'perl-CPAN-Reporter' are being 
silently ignored by setup.)

> None of the named packages appeared in setup. Now, I did what I could
> think of to check whether setup behavior was happening because the
> pkgs were already installed.
> 
> perl-Alien-Build  was already installed, so was perl-CPAN-Reporter.
> perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML was *not* installed on the system already.
> 
> When I tried placing just perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML as the only argument, in
> setup it didn't appear. I seem to be going backwards rather than
> making forward progress.
> I surely would be appreciative if anyone could help me with how to run
> setup from the commandline.

> $ ./setup-x86_64 -vdnN -P perl-Alien-Build,perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML,perl-CPAN-Reporter

checking /var/log/setup.log.full afterwards (or drop cygstart and add -B 
so you can see the output of setup)

[...]
> package: perl-Alien-Build version:
> package: perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML version:
> package: perl-CPAN-Reporter version:
> Added manual package perl-Alien-Build
> Added manual package perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML
> Added manual package perl-CPAN-Reporter
[...]

> $ ./setup-x86_64 -vdnN -P perl-Alien-Build -P perl-CPAN-Meta-YAML -P perl-CPAN-Reporter

Likewise, also seems to add the requested packages.

> Oh, and I STILL cannot Shift-Ins to paste into minTTY.

One email thread, one issue, please.


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