Cygwin
Cygwin (/ˈsɪɡwɪn/ SIG-win) is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows.
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 |
| Stable release | |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C/C++ |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows |
| Type | POSIX standard utilities, POSIX standard library, C standard library, compatibility layer |
| License | GPLv3, LGPLv3 |
| Website | cygwin |
The terminal emulator Mintty is the default command-line interface provided to interact with the environment. 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.
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.
Cygwin is free and open-source software, released under the GNU Lesser General Public License version 3. It was originally developed by Cygnus Solutions, 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).
The brand motto is "Get that Linux feeling – on Windows".