Thread: Does MinGW Write to Disk?

  1. #1
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    Does MinGW Write to Disk?

    Hi

    I've set MSYS+MinGW on my usb stick so I can have a portable compiler on the go.

    I was wondering though, does MinGW write locally inside its folder? I don't want to shorten my usb stick's life.

    Many thanks!

  2. #2
    Kernel hacker
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    I don't believe it does. I did a quick experiment with setting the \dev-cpp\bin director to read-only, and compile using gcc, and it seems to work fine.

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  3. #3
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    In any case you can use the TMPDIR environment variable to control where gcc generates temporary files. The default is to do it on the target directory, which I believe is what you will want anyways.
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

  4. #4
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    Thank both of you very much!
    I will test whether or not my portable IDE is functional tomorrow at work.

  5. #5
    &TH of undefined behavior Fordy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by glo View Post
    Hi

    I've set MSYS+MinGW on my usb stick so I can have a portable compiler on the go.

    I was wondering though, does MinGW write locally inside its folder? I don't want to shorten my usb stick's life.

    Many thanks!
    I dont worry about usb drives and write backs - they are pretty cheap these days. I picked up an 8GB drive for under £20 the other day!

  6. #6
    Malum in se abachler's Avatar
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    I use a stick drive for my most super duper secret hush hush stuff because I can lock it in the vault at days end. I dont really worry about the life of the stick, since an 8GB stick will give you millions of builds for pretty much the largest project for which you are likely to have sole physical control of the source. The sticks usually give you plenty of warning when they are starting to fail, so you can replace the stick at the first sign of trouble.

  7. #7
    Woof, woof! zacs7's Avatar
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    Not to mention the Kingston ones come with a 5 year warranty

  8. #8
    &TH of undefined behavior Fordy's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by abachler View Post
    I use a stick drive for my most super duper secret hush hush stuff because I can lock it in the vault at days end.
    Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan fiction?

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