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Unix-like environment for Windows
Cygwin
Running Cygwin, including Cygwin/X, under Windows XP
Original author(s)
Steve Chamberlain, Cygnus Solutions
Developer(s)
Cygnus Solutions, Red Hat, Cygwin project volunteers
Initial release
October 18, 1995; 28 years ago (1995-10-18)
Stable release
3.5.3[1]
/ 3 April 2024; 28 days ago (3 April 2024)
Repository
cygwin.com/git/newlib-cygwin.git
Written in
C/C++
Operating system
Microsoft Windows
Type
POSIX standard utilities, POSIX standard library, C standard library, compatibility layer
License
GPLv3, LGPLv3[2]
Website
cygwin.com
Cygwin (/ˈsɪɡwɪn/SIG-win)[3] is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows.
The terminal emulator Mintty is the default command-line interface provided to interact with the environment.[4] The Cygwin installation's directory layout mimics the root file system of Unix-like systems, with directories such as /bin, /home, /etc, /usr, and /var.
In addition to providing many Unix utilities and a Unix look and feel, Cygwin allows source code designed for Unix-like operating systems to be compiled and run on Windows with minimal modification.
Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications. Thus it is possible to launch Windows applications from the Cygwin environment, as well as to use Cygwin tools and applications within the Windows operating context.[5]
Cygwin consists of two parts:
a dynamic-link library (DLL) in the form of a C standard library that acts as a compatibility layer for the POSIX API.
an extensive collection of software tools and applications that provide a Unix-like look and feel.[5]
Cygwin is free and open-source software, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3.[6] It was originally developed by Cygnus Solutions,[7][8] which was later acquired by Red Hat (now part of IBM), to port the Linux toolchain to Win32, including the GNU Compiler Suite. Rather than rewrite the tools to use the Win32 runtime environment, Cygwin implemented a POSIX-compatible environment in the form of a dynamic-link library (DLL).[9]
The brand motto is "Get that Linux feeling – on Windows".[10]
^"cygwin 3.5.3-1". 3 April 2024. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
^"Cygwin Licensing Terms". Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2022-12-15.
^Hall, Larry (2004-09-14). "Re: How do you pronounce it?". Cygwin (Mailing list). Archived from the original on 2011-08-30. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
^"Cygwin". www.cygwin.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-21. Retrieved 2015-11-21.
^ ab"Cygwin FAQ". cygwin.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-07. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
^"Cygwin library now available under GNU Lesser General Public License". Red Hat. Archived from the original on 2016-06-24. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
^"A brief history of the Cygwin project". Cygwin. 2018-02-02. Archived from the original on 2020-01-08. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
^"Cygwin32: A Free Win32 Porting Layer for UNIX Applications". USENIX. 1998-08-03. Archived from the original on 2020-01-11. Retrieved 2020-01-10.
^"(Solved) Linux Subsystem vs Cygwin vs MobaXterm". Tech Help Forum by How-To Geek. 2017-01-24. Archived from the original on 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2019-03-15.
Cygwin (/ˈsɪɡwɪn/ SIG-win) is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. The terminal emulator Mintty is the default command-line...
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platforms including Linux, Unix and Windows (either natively or inside Cygwin). The availability of the source code enables the user to scrutinize the...
compatibility with the FUSE file system by using a wrapper that can be built with Cygwin and MinGW. Dokan is free software released under the terms of the LGPL and...
Packet Tracer Router Sim Cygwin: For Microsoft Windows, provides a POSIX environment and system libraries (contained in cygwin.dll). This does not allow...
software for a new chip design. Cygnus was also the original developer of Cygwin, a POSIX layer and the GNU toolkit port to the Microsoft Windows operating...
Benjamin Riefenstahl (26 Feb 2001). "Re: Cygwin Termcap information involving extended ascii charicters". cygwin (Mailing list). Archived from the original...
install the Cygwin or MSYS system on top of Windows to provide a Unix-like compatibility layer, though, allowing configure scripts to run. Cygwin also provides...
the iconv library and the utility is provided by GNU's libiconv found in Cygwin and GnuWin32 environments; there is also a "purely Win32" implementation...
ported to other platforms such as Solaris, macOS, Microsoft Windows (via Cygwin and MinGW/MSYS), Sony PlayStation Portable (used by PSP modding scene) and...
at the Wayback Machine, Gambas Mailing List Cygwin Install Guide - Gambas Wiki gambas3 package - Cygwin website Morgan, R. (2014-06-29). "How to Run...
software portal mintty is a free and open source terminal emulator for Cygwin, the Unix-like environment for Windows. It features a native Windows user...
processes) package, and only function in conjunction with a mounted /proc. Cygwin implemented a procfs that is basically the same as the Linux procfs. Nemeth...
synchronization from/to Windows systems. cwRsync contains Cygwin DLLs and a compiled version of rsync on Cygwin. A client GUI is also provided as of the version...
Debian GNU/Hurd, HP-UX, Solaris, QNX, Haiku, and Microsoft Windows (via the Cygwin library and API). Binary packages and builds of WeeChat are available for...
BSD Python No Yes Yes No Yes May 16, 2015 BackupPC GPLv2.0 Perl Yes (with Cygwin) Yes Yes Yes ? June 20, 2020 (Stable) Back In Time GPLv2.0 Python No No...
GLX 3D graphics extensions capabilities. The Xming X server is based on Cygwin/X, the X.Org Server. It is cross-compiled on Linux with the MinGW compiler...
Xenix Zephyr Cygwin provides a largely POSIX-compliant development and run-time environment for Microsoft Windows. MinGW, a fork of Cygwin, provides a...
and TLS. The OpenBSD version has been ported to the FreeBSD base, Windows/Cygwin, and Linux. Mac OS X comes with netcat installed as of OSX 10.13 or users...
systems on which the clients can run natively (without emulation). Requires Cygwin Requires SwsVpkt Requires OS X v10.4.3 or later Requires RubyCocoa 1.0.0...
Global Information
/ 3 April 2024