svn failing on cygwin with return code 53

Problem: subversion client fails under cygwin with no output

Solution: run setup.exe. Choose a different download mirror. Click the "Base" package until it says "Reinstall". Continue with the installation, and make sure it finishes cleanly.


Story:
svn was jacked. Running svn with any arguments caused it to exit with error code 53:

$ svn
$ echo $?
53

A coworker suggested rebaseall.

That turned up this tidbit:

ash$ /bin/rebaseall
/usr/bin/cygfreetype-6.dll: skipped because nonexistent
/usr/bin/cygz.dll: skipped because nonexistent

Hmm. cygz.dll. That seems pretty important.

Running svn.exe from ash poped up a dialog that read:

This application has failed to start because cygz.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix theis problem.

Heh. Already tried that.

Something about running cygwin apps under the usual bash shell suppresses this (very useful) error message.

I tried reinstalling the "Base" package with no success. Changing mirrors, and doing it again worked. Maybe a tcp connection got reset during the previous upgrade? Who knows.

Happy ending:

$ svn
Type 'svn help' for usage.

Set your cygwin home in Vista

Having two homes can suck.

Fortunately, Cygwin now reads the $HOME (or %HOME%) variable from the windows environment.

Right click on "Computer"
Properties
Advanced system settings link

Environment Variables button

Add a user variable HOME with value c:\users\YOUR_USERNAME