How do I select a specific package version

[flaviojs]

I am trying to build with cygwin (no mingw or msys2) in a windows-latest github runner.
In an attempt to fix build issues I want to try an older version of gcc but don't know how to select the package version.

Can you give me an example of how it is done and update the docs?
If the feature is not available, please add it.

[jon-turney]

Good question. Unfortunately, because Cygwin uses a rolling distribution, there are no good answers.

Setup accepts package=version-release constraints in the package list fed to it, and those probably make their way through this action unchanged, so you could probably just put those in the packages parameter to this action.

But that's unreliable, because it won't work after the required version has been expired from the Cygwin package repository.

The other method would be to pick a historical Cygwin snapshot from the Cygwin Time Machine, which has the version(s) you want, and specify the appropriate circa (timestamp) URL as the site parameter to this action.

There's definitely a need for better documentation on this point, here, but also on the Cygwin website itself...

[flaviojs]

Thanks for the info. =)

I tried with gcc-core=7.4.0-1 (last version with working ada) but still got the latest version installed.
With gcc-core==7.4.0-1 it said version =7.4.0-1 not found so maybe setup has a bug where it parses the wanted version but ignores it in practice.

[flaviojs]

After fixing my build issues I dedicated some time analyzing the setup.exe source:

1. ChooserPage::applyCommandLinePackageSelection() ignores the install wanted_version when UpgradeAlsoOption is true.
2. Command line option '-g' sets UpgradeAlsoOption to true.
3. running the same command-line commands as this github actions show the same bad behavior.
4. removing the -g option installs the requested gcc-core version (7.4.0-1).

[Laguna1989]

Also interested in this if it is fixed yet 👀

[kmilos]

Same here, would like gcc 13 from test...

[kmilos]

@jon-turney @me-and @kgraefe @mlocati Can we please have the -g option moved out as a configurable parameter for the action? A parameter for adding -t would also be nice. 😉

[jon-turney]

Can we please have the -g option moved out as a configurable parameter for the action? A parameter for adding -t would also be nice.

I think the '-g' option is only here as a workaround for some historical bugs in setup. It doesn't actually do anything useful when initially installing cygwin (apart from preventing version constraints from working)

So I've dropped it in the v5 just tagged (this also includes a parameter to turn on -t/--allow-test-packages).

I'll leave this issue open for the moment, since the question is poses still needs answering in the documentation.

[flaviojs]

Thanks. 👍
For documentation, an example in the input description is more than enough as long as it shows how multiple packages are selected, one of them with a specific version.

Based on the cygwin-setup source, it expects a single ',' between each package and it expects a single '=' between the package name and the package version:

README.md

Input	Default	Description
packages	none	List of additional packages to install. (example: cmake,autobuild,gcc-core=7.4.0-1)

action.yml

inputs:
  packages:
    description: List of additional packages to install. (example: `cmake,autobuild,gcc-core=7.4.0-1`)
    required: false

Since gcc-core 7.4.0-1 is no longer available, another example package should be chosen.

[talregev]

Good question. Unfortunately, because Cygwin uses a rolling distribution, there are no good answers.

Setup accepts package=version-release constraints in the package list fed to it, and those probably make their way through this action unchanged, so you could probably just put those in the packages parameter to this action.

But that's unreliable, because it won't work after the required version has been expired from the Cygwin package repository.

The other method would be to pick a historical Cygwin snapshot from the Cygwin Time Machine, which has the version(s) you want, and specify the appropriate circa (timestamp) URL as the site parameter to this action.

There's definitely a need for better documentation on this point, here, but also on the Cygwin website itself...

How I select from Cygwin Time Machine?
For example I try to put this link:
http://ctm.crouchingtigerhiddenfruitbat.org/pub/cygwin/circa-2/2009/12/22/013115

and it add to the link the platform (x86) that I don't need.
Can you help? maybe add a case for using this github action with Cygwin Time Machine?

I understand I put non working link, and replace it with working link.
Still it will be nice for example. thank you.

[jon-turney]

How I select from Cygwin Time Machine?

Yeah, that page could be made a lot easier to navigate, but that's out of my control.

For example I try to put this link:
http://ctm.crouchingtigerhiddenfruitbat.org/pub/cygwin/circa-2/2009/12/22/013115

Buried in that page is a link to the index you (and presumably nearly everyone these days) want:s http://ctm.crouchingtigerhiddenfruitbat.org/pub/cygwin/circa/64bit/index.html

Locate the appropriate point in time ("circa") you want to travel back to, and use the URL provided as the site parameter.

I agree, a worked example in the documentation would be idea.