Re: Adding Cygwin and MSYS2 to DEPENDENCIES

[Collin Funk]

Hi Bruno,

On 5/1/24 5:35 PM, Bruno Haible wrote:
> This details about the two packages are correct. But the impression that
> the entire DEPENDENCIES file would give is not right. Namely, the
> impression is that all users need not only 'make', 'm4', ..., 'tar',
> but also Cygwin and MSYS2.
> 
> IMO three things are wrong in particular:
>   - Mentioning these packages for everyone. Rather, they are only for users
>     who use Windows.
>   - The word "recommended" should not be used, because it may be interpreted
>     as GNU recommending something that requires proprietary software 
> (Windows).
>   - Make it clear that Cygwin is preferred over MSYS2. [1][2][3]

Good points, thanks! I was worried of the wording too. I felt adding a
Windows section and saying "Required" would also give the impression
that it is endorsed, which is obviously not the case.

I read the emails you sent and INSTALL.windows in gettext. How about
this revised version based on that information?

Since Cygwin is preferred we can just have a single section for that.
Mention explicitly that it is preferred over MSYS2. My impression is
that people use MSYS2 for building native Windows software, so mention
the same can be done with Cygwin's mingw tool chain binaries.

Then say it is "Optional" which should make it clear that GNU does not
recommend it.


diff --git a/DEPENDENCIES b/DEPENDENCIES
index b700c05bc6..9bb66fbcd9 100644
--- a/DEPENDENCIES
+++ b/DEPENDENCIES
@@ -197,3 +197,13 @@ at any time.
     https://www.gnu.org/software/tar/
   + Download:
     https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/tar/
+
+* Cygwin
+  + Optional. Needed only for Windows users.
+    Provides a POSIX-like environment and binary packages necessary to
+    build and run software. Native Windows binaries can be built with
+    a packaged mingw tool chain. This method is preferred over MSYS2.
+  + Homepage:
+    https://cygwin.com/
+  + Download:
+    https://cygwin.com/install.html

Collin