Re: Could we include diff and grep (etc.) executables on Windows?

[Phillip Lord <phillip.lord@russet.org.uk>]

Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>>>> Maybe streamlining the MSYS way to install Emacs is the easiest/best way
>>>> to solve this problem?
>>> Depends on what you mean by that (and what you mean when you say "MSYS").
>
> God question.  IIUC one of the main problems with bundling tools is
> having to compile them, keep the versions up-to-date, distributing the
> sources, etc....
>
> So what I meant mostly was: don't actually bundle them, but just provide
> some straightforward way to install Emacs+tools where the tools are
> actually fetched from some other place that handles the job of
> compiling, keeping them up-to-date, distributing the sources, ...
>
> I assumed MSYS could be that "other place" but apparently that's not
> the case.  Maybe that doesn't invalidate the underlying idea, tho.


For the current windows downloads I don't actually compile the tools,
just download them (except where source for the current version of a
binary does not exist, which happens rarely but often enough to
irritate).

I don't do anything for "keeping-up-to-date"; in fact, I keep the
dependencies pinnned at an old version for the entire release
cycle. This is obviously both sensible and problematic at the same time.

Phil