Cygwin
Get that Linux feeling - on Windows!
This is the home of the Cygwin project
What...
...is it?
Cygwin is:
- a collection of tools which provide a Linux look and feel environment for Windows.
- a DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.
...isn't it?
Cygwin is not:
- a way to run native Linux apps on Windows. You must rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows.
- a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX® functionality like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality.
The Cygwin DLL currently works with all recent, commercially released x86 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows, with the exception of Windows CE and Windows NT4.
For more information see the FAQ.
Current Cygwin DLL version
The most recent version of the Cygwin DLL is 1.7.17-1. Install it by running setup.exe.
Use setup.exe to perform a fresh install or to update an existing installation.
Note that individual packages in the distribution are updated separately from the DLL so the Cygwin DLL version is not useful as a general Cygwin release number.
Updating from Cygwin 1.5.x
Updating from Cygwin 1.5.x to Cygwin 1.7.x may
require additional manual changes. Most notably the mount point
storage has been moved from the Windows registry into the /etc/fstab file. During installation, standard system mount points are automatically copied from the registry but user mount points
are not copied into the user-specific /etc/fstab.d/$USER file.
If you use user mount points then every user will have to run the
PLEASE read the User's Guide before upgrading your Cygwin installation to 1.7. You'll be avoiding future trouble if you do this.
Cygwin legacy version 1.5.x availability
The official support for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me has been discontinued with the latest Cygwin major release 1.7.x. Although unsupported, the legacy version of the Cygwin 1.5.x release is still available for installation.
Help, contact, web page, other info...
For Cygwin licensing or commercial support, please visit the Red Hat Cygwin Product site.
For all other questions and observations, please check the resources available at this site, such as the FAQ, the User's Guide and the mailing list archives. If you've exhausted these resources then please send email to an appropriate mailing list . This includes observations about web pages, setup questions, questions about where to find things, questions about why things are done a certain way, questions about the color preferences of Cygwin developers, questions about the meaning of the number 42, etc.
Please send notification of technical problems (bad html, broken links) concerning these web pages to the Cygwin mailing list.
Please do not send personal email with "quick questions" to individual Cygwin developers. The Cygwin mailing lists are the places for all questions. Really. I mean it.