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Cygwin
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What Is Cygwin?

Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts:

A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality.

A collection of tools which provide Linux look and feel.

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.

Note that the official support for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me will be discontinued with the next major version (1.7.0) of Cygwin.

What Isn't Cygwin?

Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows.

Cygwin is not 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.

Help, contact, web page, other info...

Install or update now! (using setup.exe)	or	get help on using setup.exe.	or	find where a package or file lives in the Cygwin release.

Latest Cygwin DLL release version is 1.5.25-11

Install
Cygwin
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Installing and Updating Cygwin

The latest net releases of the Cygwin DLL are numbered 1.n.x, where "n" is currently "5" (e.g., 1.5.25). Any Cygwin program built from December 1998 onward should work correctly with 1.n.x DLLs.

The 1.n.x version numbering refers only to the Cygwin DLL. Individual packages like bash, gcc, less, etc. are released independently of the DLL. The setup.exe utility tracks the versions of all installed components and provides the mechanism for installing or updating everything available from this site for Cygwin.

Run setup.exe any time you want to update or install a Cygwin package.

Note that, when installing packages for the first time, setup.exe does not install every package. Only the minimal base packages from the Cygwin distribution are installed by default. Clicking on categories and packages in the setup.exe package installation screen will provide you with the ability to control what is installed or updated. Clicking on the "Default" field next to the "All" category will provide you with the opportunity to install every Cygwin package. Be advised that this will download and install hundreds of megabytes to your computer. The best plan is probably to click on individual categories and install either entire categories or packages from the categories themselves.

Once you've installed your desired subset of the Cygwin distribution, setup.exe will remember what you selected so rerunning the program will update your system with any new package releases.

News

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.25-11 release
An update release for the Cygwin DLL and its accompanying utilities.
Mar 9 2008, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.25-7 release
Dec 17 2007, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.25-5 release
Dec 9 2007, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.24-2 release
Jan 31 2007, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.24-1 release
Jan 26 2007, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.23-2 release
Dec 20 2006, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.23-1 release
Dec 19 2006, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.22-1 release
Nov 14 2006, Corinna Vinschen (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.21-1 release
Jul 23 2006, Christopher Faylor (Co-Project Leader)

New Cygwin DLL 1.5.20-1 release
Jul 2 2006, Christopher Faylor (Co-Project Leader)

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.

Not responsible for errors in content, meaning, tact, or judgment. Live and let live. Toes go in first. I didn't do it. Enjoy. Cygwin DLL and utilities are Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Red Hat, Inc. Other packages have other copyrights.
UNIX ® is a registered trademark of the Open Group in the United States and other countries.

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