154 lines
6.5 KiB
XML
154 lines
6.5 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding='UTF-8'?>
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<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook V4.5//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
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<qandadiv id="faq.about">
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<title>About Cygwin</title>
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<!-- faq-what.xml -->
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.what">
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<question><para>What is it?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para>Cygwin is a distribution of popular GNU and other Open Source tools
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running on Microsoft Windows. The core part is the Cygwin library which
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provides the POSIX system calls and environment these programs expect.
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</para>
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<para>The Cygwin distribution contains thousands of packages from the Open
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Source world including most GNU tools, many BSD tools, an X server and a full
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set of X applications. If you're a developer you will find tools, headers
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and libraries allowing to write Windows console or GUI applications that make
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use of significant parts of the POSIX API. Cygwin allows easy porting of many
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Unix programs without the need for extensive changes to the source code. This
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includes configuring and building most of the available GNU or BSD software,
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including the packages included with the Cygwin distribution themselves.
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They can be used from one of the provided Unix shells like bash, tcsh or zsh.
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</para>
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</answer></qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.supported">
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<question><para>What versions of Windows are supported?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para>Cygwin can be expected to run on all modern, released versions of Windows.
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State January 2016 this includes Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and all
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later versions of Windows up to Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.
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The 32 bit version of Cygwin also runs in the WOW64 32 bit environment on
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released 64 bit versions of Windows, the 64 bit version of course only on
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64 bit Windows.
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</para>
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<para>Keep in mind that Cygwin can only do as much as the underlying OS
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supports. Because of this, Cygwin will behave differently, and
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exhibit different limitations, on the various versions of Windows.
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</para>
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</answer></qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.where">
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<question><para>Where can I get it?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para>The home page for the Cygwin project is
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<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/"/>.
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There you should find everything you need for Cygwin, including links
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for download and setup, a current list of mirror sites, a User's
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Guide, an API Reference, mailing lists and archives.
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</para>
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<para>You can find documentation for the individual GNU tools typically
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as man pages or info pages as part of the Cygwin net distribution.
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Additionally you can get the latest docs at
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<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/manual"/>.
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</para>
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</answer></qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.free">
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<question><para>Is it free software?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para>Yes. Parts are GNU software (gcc, gas, ld, etc...), parts are covered
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by the standard X11 license, some of it is public domain, some of
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it was written by Red Hat (or the former Cygnus Solutions) and placed under
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the GPL. None of it is shareware. You don't have to pay anyone to use it
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but you should be sure to read the copyright section of the FAQ for more
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information on how the GNU General Public License may affect your use of
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these tools.
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</para>
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<para>Note that when we say "free" we mean freedom, not price. The goal of
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such freedom is that the people who use a given piece of software
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should be able to change it to fit their needs, learn from it, share
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it with their friends, etc. The GPL or LGPL licenses allows you those
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freedoms, so it is free software.
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</para>
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</answer></qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.version">
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<question><para>What version of Cygwin <emphasis>is</emphasis> this, anyway?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para>To find the version of the Cygwin DLL installed, you can use
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<filename>uname</filename> <literal>-r</literal> as you would for a Unix kernel.
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As the Cygwin DLL takes the place of a Unix kernel,
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you can also use the Unix compatible command:
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<filename>head</filename> <filename>/proc/version</filename>,
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or the Cygwin specific command:
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<filename>cygcheck</filename> <literal>-V</literal>.
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Refer to each command's
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<literal>--help</literal> output and the
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<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/'>Cygwin User's Guide</ulink>
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for more information.
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</para>
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<para>If you are looking for the version number for the whole Cygwin
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release, there is none.
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Each package in the Cygwin release has its own version, and the
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<literal>cygwin</literal> package containing the Cygwin DLL and Cygwin
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system specific utilities is just another (but very important!) package.
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The packages in Cygwin are continually improving, thanks to
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the efforts of volunteers who maintain the Cygwin ports.
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Each package has its own version numbers and its own release process.
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</para>
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<para>So, how do you get the most up-to-date version of Cygwin? Easy. Just
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download the Cygwin Setup program by following the
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<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/install.html'>installation instructions</ulink>.
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The Setup program will handle the task of updating the packages on your system
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to the latest version.
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For more information about using Cygwin's Setup program, see
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<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setup-net.html'>Setting Up Cygwin</ulink>
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in the Cygwin User's Guide.
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</para></answer></qandaentry>
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<qandaentry id="faq.what.who">
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<question><para>Who's behind the project?</para></question>
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<answer>
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<para><emphasis role='bold'>(Please note that if you have cygwin-specific
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questions, all of these people will appreciate it if you use the cygwin
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mailing lists rather than sending personal email.)</emphasis>
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</para>
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<para>
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Corinna Vinschen is the current project lead,
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responsible for the Cygwin library and a lot more.
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</para>
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<para>
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Yaakov Selkowitz is the guy behind the current build and packaging system
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and maintained by far the most packages in the Cygwin distribution.
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</para>
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<para>
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Jon Turney is maintainer of the Cygwin X server and related packages.
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</para>
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<para>
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The packages are maintained by a large group of
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<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-pkg-maint'>volunteers</ulink>.
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</para>
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<para>
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Please note that all of us volunteering on Cygwin try to be as responsive as
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possible and deal with patches and questions as we get them, but
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realistically we don't have time to answer all of the email that is sent to
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the main mailing list.
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Making releases of the tools and packages is an activity in our spare time,
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helping people out is not our primary focus, so some email will have to go
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unanswered.
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</para>
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<para>Many thanks to everyone using the tools for their many contributions in
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the form of advice, bug reports, and code fixes. Keep them coming!
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</para></answer></qandaentry>
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</qandadiv>
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