* effectively.sgml: New file, "Using Cygwin Effectively with Windows".
This commit is contained in:
Joshua Daniel Franklin
parent
0302dfe509
commit
0da026c397
@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
|
||||
2003-07-31 Joshua Daniel Franklin <joshuadfranklin@yahoo.com
|
||||
|
||||
* effectively.sgml: New file, "Using Cygwin Effectively with Windows".
|
||||
* legal.sgml: Update year in copyright notice.
|
||||
* using.sgml: Include "Using Cygwin Effectively with Windows" section.
|
||||
|
||||
2003-07-15 Christopher Faylor <cgf@redhat.com>
|
||||
|
||||
* pathnames.sgml: Use correct registry key. Clarify '@' operation.
|
||||
|
||||
207
winsup/doc/effectively.sgml
Normal file
207
winsup/doc/effectively.sgml
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,207 @@
|
||||
<sect1 id="using-effectively">
|
||||
<title>Using Cygwin effectively with Windows</title>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Cygwin is not a full operating system, and so must rely on Windows for
|
||||
accomplishing some tasks. For example, Cygwin provides a POSIX view
|
||||
of the Windows filesystem, but does not provide filesystem drivers of
|
||||
its own. Therefore part of using Cygwin effectively is learning to use
|
||||
Windows effectively.
|
||||
Many Windows utilities provide a good way to interact with Cygwin's
|
||||
predominately command-line environment. For example,
|
||||
<command>ipconfig.exe</command> provides information about network
|
||||
configuration, and <command>net.exe</command> views and configures
|
||||
network file and printer resources. Most of these tools
|
||||
support the <literal>/?</literal> switch to display usage information.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Unfortunately, no standard set of tools included with all versions of
|
||||
Windows exists. If you are unfamiliar with the tools available
|
||||
on your system, here is a general guide. Windows 95, 98, and ME have
|
||||
very limited command-line configuration tools. Windows NT 4.0 has much
|
||||
better coverage, which Windows 2000 and XP expanded.
|
||||
Microsoft also provides free downloads for Windows NT 4.0 (the Resource Kit
|
||||
Support Tools), Windows 2000 (the Resource Kit Tools), and XP (the
|
||||
Windows Support Tools). Additionally, many independent sites such as
|
||||
<ulink URL="http://download.com.com">download.com</ulink>,
|
||||
<ulink URL="http://simtel.net">simtel.net</ulink>,
|
||||
and <ulink URL="http://sysinternals.com">sysinternals.com</ulink>
|
||||
provide command-line utilities. A few Windows tools, such as
|
||||
<command>find.exe</command> and <command>sort.exe</command>,
|
||||
may conflict with the Cygwin versions; make sure that you use the full
|
||||
path (<command>/usr/bin/find</command>) or that your Cygwin
|
||||
<literal>bin</literal> directory comes first in your <EnVar>PATH</EnVar>.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2> <title>Pathnames</title>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Windows programs do not understand POSIX pathnames, so any arguments
|
||||
that reference the filesystem must be in Windows (or DOS) format or
|
||||
translated. Cygwin provides the <command>cygpath</command> utility for
|
||||
converting between Windows and POSIX paths. A complete description of its
|
||||
options and examples of its usage are in <Xref Linkend="cygpath">,
|
||||
including a shell script for starting Windows Explorer in any directory.
|
||||
The same format works for most Windows programs, for example
|
||||
<screen>
|
||||
<literal>notepad.exe "$(cygpath -aw "Desktop/Phone Numbers.txt")"</literal>
|
||||
</screen>
|
||||
A few programs require a Windows-style, semicolon-delimited path list,
|
||||
which <command>cygpath</command> can translate from a POSIX path with the
|
||||
<literal>-p</literal> option. For example, a Java compilation from
|
||||
<command>bash</command> might look like this:
|
||||
<screen>
|
||||
<literal>javac -cp "$(cygpath -pw "$CLASSPATH")" hello.java</literal>
|
||||
</screen>
|
||||
Since using quoting and subshells is somewhat awkward, it is often
|
||||
preferable to use <command>cygpath</command> in shell scripts.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
</sect2>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2> <title>Console Programs</title>
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Another issue is receiving output from or giving input to the console-based
|
||||
Windows programs. Unfortunately, interacting with Windows console
|
||||
applications is not a simple matter of using a translation utility. Windows
|
||||
console applications and designed to run under <command>command.com</command>
|
||||
or <command>cmd.exe</command>, and some do not deal gracefully with other
|
||||
situations. Cygwin can receive console input only if it
|
||||
is also running in a console (DOS box) since Windows does not provide
|
||||
any way to attach to the backend of the console device. Another
|
||||
traditional Unix input/output method, ptys (pseudo-terminals), are
|
||||
supported by Cygwin but not entirely by Windows. The basic problem is
|
||||
that a Cygwin pty is a pipe and some Windows applications do not like
|
||||
having their input or output redirected to pipes.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
To help deal with these issues, Cygwin supports customizable levels of
|
||||
Windows verses Unix compatibility behavior. To be most compatible with
|
||||
Windows programs, use a DOS prompt, running only the occasional Cygwin
|
||||
command or script. Next would be to run <command>bash</command> with
|
||||
the default DOS box. To make Cygwin more Unix compatible in this case,
|
||||
set <EnVar>CYGWIN=tty</EnVar> (see <Xref Linkend="using-cygwinenv">).
|
||||
Alternatively, the optional <command>rxvt</command> package provides
|
||||
a native-Windows version of the popular X11 terminal emulator (it is not
|
||||
necessary to set <EnVar>CYGWIN=tty</EnVar> with <command>rxvt</command>).
|
||||
Using <command>rxvt.exe</command> provides the most Unix-like environment,
|
||||
but expect some compatibility problems with Windows programs.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
</sect2>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2> <title>Cygwin and Windows Networking</title>
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Many popular Cygwin packages, such as <command>ncftp</command>,
|
||||
<command>lynx</command>, and <command>wget</command>, require a
|
||||
network connection. Since Cygwin relies on Windows for connectivity,
|
||||
if one of these tools is not working as expected you may need to
|
||||
troubleshoot using Windows tools. The first test is to see if you
|
||||
can reach the URL's host with <command>ping.exe</command>, one of the
|
||||
few utilities included with every Windows version since Windows 95.
|
||||
If you chose to install the inetutils package, you may have both
|
||||
Windows and Cygwin versions of utilities such as <command>ftp</command>
|
||||
and <command>telnet</command>. If you are having problems using one
|
||||
of these programs, see if the alternate one works as expected.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
There are a variety of other programs available for specific situations.
|
||||
If your system does not have an always-on network connection, you
|
||||
may be interested in <command>rasdial.exe</command> (or alternatives for
|
||||
Windows 95, 98, and ME) for automating dialup connections.
|
||||
Users who frequently change their network
|
||||
configuration can script these changes with <command>netsh.exe</command>
|
||||
(Windows 2000 and XP). For proxy users, the open source
|
||||
<ulink URL="http://apserver.sourceforge.net">
|
||||
NTLM Authorization Proxy Server</ulink> or the no-charge
|
||||
<ulink URL="http://www.hummingbird.com/products/nc/socks/index.html">
|
||||
Hummingbird SOCKS Proxy</ulink> may allow you to use Cygwin network
|
||||
programs in your environment.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
</sect2>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2><title>The cygutils package</title>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
The optional cygutils package contains miscellaneous tools that are
|
||||
small enough to not require their own package. It is not included in a
|
||||
default Cygwin install; select it from the Utils category in
|
||||
<command>setup.exe</command>. Several of the cygutils tools are useful
|
||||
for interacting with Windows.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
One of the hassles of Unix-Windows interoperability is the different line
|
||||
endings on text files. As mentioned in <Xref Linkend="using-textbinary">,
|
||||
Unix tools such as <command>tr</command> can convert between CRLF and LF
|
||||
endings, but cygutils provides several dedicated programs:
|
||||
<command>conv</command>, <command>d2u</command>, <command>dos2unix</command>,
|
||||
<command>u2d</command>, and <command>unix2dos</command>. Use the
|
||||
<literal>--help</literal> switch for usage information.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2><title>Creating shortcuts with cygutils</title>
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
Another problem area is between Unix-style links, which link one file
|
||||
to another, and Microsoft .lnk files, which provide a shortcut to a
|
||||
file. They seem similar at first glance but, in reality, are fairly
|
||||
different. By default, Cygwin uses a mechanism that creates symbolic
|
||||
links that are compatible with standard Microsoft .lnk files. However,
|
||||
they do not include much of the information that is available in a
|
||||
standard Microsoft shortcut, such as the working directory, an icon,
|
||||
etc. The cygutils package includes a <command>mkshortcut</command>
|
||||
utility for creating standard Microsoft .lnk files.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
If Cygwin handled these native shortcuts like any other symlink,
|
||||
you could not archive Microsoft .lnk files into <command>tar</command>
|
||||
archives and keep all the information in them. After unpacking,
|
||||
these shortcuts would have lost all the extra information and would
|
||||
be no different than standard Cygwin symlinks. Therefore these two types
|
||||
of links are treated differently. Unfortunately, this means that the
|
||||
usual Unix way of creating and using symlinks does not work with
|
||||
Windows shortcuts.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
</sect2>
|
||||
|
||||
<sect2><title>Printing with cygutils</title>
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
There are several options for printing from Cygwin, including the
|
||||
<command>lpr</command> found in cygutils (not to be confused with the
|
||||
native Windows <command>lpr.exe</command>). The easiest way to use cygutils'
|
||||
<command>lpr</command> is to specify a default device name in the
|
||||
<EnVar>PRINTER</EnVar> environment variable. You may also specify a device
|
||||
on the command line with the <literal>-d</literal> or <literal>-P</literal>
|
||||
options, which will override the environment variable setting.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
A device name
|
||||
may be a UNC path (<literal>\\server_name\printer_name</literal>), a reserved
|
||||
DOS device name (<literal>prn</literal>, <literal>lpt1</literal>), or a
|
||||
local port name that is mapped to a printer share. Note that forward slashes
|
||||
may be used in a UNC path (<literal>//server_name/printer_name</literal>),
|
||||
which is helpful when using <command>lpr</command> from a shell that uses
|
||||
the backslash as an escape character.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<para>
|
||||
<command>lpr</command> sends raw data to the printer; no formatting is done.
|
||||
Many, but not all, printers accept plain text as input. If your printer
|
||||
supports PostScript, packages such as
|
||||
<command>a2ps</command> and <command>enscript</command> can prepare text
|
||||
files for printing. The ghostscript package also provides some translation
|
||||
from PostScript to various native printer languages. Additionally, a native
|
||||
Windows application for printing PostScript, <command>gsprint</command>, is
|
||||
available from the <ulink URL="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/">Ghostscript
|
||||
website</ulink>.
|
||||
</para>
|
||||
|
||||
</sect2>
|
||||
|
||||
</sect1>
|
||||
@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
|
||||
<LegalNotice id="legal">
|
||||
|
||||
<Para>Copyright © 1998,1999,2000,2001 Red Hat, Inc.</Para>
|
||||
<para>Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Red Hat, Inc.</para>
|
||||
|
||||
<!--
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -16,4 +16,6 @@ DOCTOOL-INSERT-using-cygwinenv
|
||||
|
||||
DOCTOOL-INSERT-using-utils
|
||||
|
||||
DOCTOOL-INSERT-using-effectively
|
||||
|
||||
</chapter>
|
||||
|
||||
Loading…
Reference in New Issue
Block a user