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			1423 lines
		
	
	
		
			60 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			XML
		
	
	
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			1423 lines
		
	
	
		
			60 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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 | 
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<qandadiv id="faq.using">
 | 
						|
<title>Using Cygwin</title>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<!-- faq-problems.xml -->
 | 
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<qandaentry id="faq.using.missing-dlls">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why can't my application locate cygncurses-8.dll?  or cygintl-3.dll?  or cygreadline6.dll?  or ...?</para></question>
 | 
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<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Well, something has gone wrong somehow...
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>To repair the damage, you must run Cygwin Setup again, and re-install the
 | 
						|
package which provides the missing DLL package.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you already installed the package at one point, Cygwin Setup won't
 | 
						|
show the option to install the package by default.  In the
 | 
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``Select packages to install'' dialog, click on the <literal>Full/Part</literal>
 | 
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button.  This lists all packages, even those that are already
 | 
						|
installed.  Scroll down to locate the missing package, for instance
 | 
						|
<literal>libncurses8</literal>.  Click on the ``cycle'' glyph until it says
 | 
						|
``Reinstall''.  Continue with the installation.
 | 
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</para>
 | 
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<para>For a detailed explanation of the general problem, and how to extend
 | 
						|
it to other missing DLLs and identify their containing packages, see
 | 
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<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2002-01/msg01619.html"/>.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.startup-slow">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Starting a new terminal window is slow. What's going on?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>There are many possible causes for this.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If your terminal windows suddenly began starting slowly after a
 | 
						|
Cygwin upgrade, it may indicate issues in the authentication
 | 
						|
setup.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>For almost all its lifetime, Cygwin has used Unix-like
 | 
						|
<filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename>
 | 
						|
files to mirror the contents of the Windows SAM and AD databases.
 | 
						|
Although these files can still be used, since Cygwin 1.7.34, new
 | 
						|
installations now use the SAM/AD databases directly.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>To switch to the new method, move these two files out of the way
 | 
						|
and restart the Cygwin terminal. That runs Cygwin in its new default
 | 
						|
mode.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If you are on a system that isn't using AD domain logins, this
 | 
						|
makes Cygwin use the native Windows SAM database directly, which may be
 | 
						|
faster than the old method involving <filename>/etc/passwd</filename>
 | 
						|
and such. At worst, it will only be a bit slower. (The speed difference
 | 
						|
you see depends on which benchmark you run.) For the AD case, it can be
 | 
						|
slower than the old method, since it is trading a local file read for a
 | 
						|
network request. Version 1.7.35 will reduce the number of AD server
 | 
						|
requests the DLL makes relative to 1.7.34, with the consequence that you
 | 
						|
will now have to alter <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename> in order
 | 
						|
to change your Cygwin home directory, instead of being able to change it
 | 
						|
from the AD configuration.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If you are still experiencing very slow shell startups, there are
 | 
						|
a number of other things you can look into:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<orderedlist>
 | 
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  <listitem>
 | 
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    <para>One common cause of slow Cygwin Terminal starts is a bad DNS
 | 
						|
    setup. This particularly affects AD clients, but there may be other
 | 
						|
    things in your Cygwin startup that depend on getting fast answers
 | 
						|
    back from a network server.</para>
 | 
						|
    
 | 
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    <para>Keep in mind that this may affect Cygwin even when the domain
 | 
						|
    controller is on the same machine as Cygwin, or is on a nearby
 | 
						|
    server. A bad DNS server IP can cause long delays while the local
 | 
						|
    TCP/IP stack times out on a connection to a server that simply isn't
 | 
						|
    there, for example.</para>
 | 
						|
  </listitem>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <listitem>
 | 
						|
    <para>Another cause for AD client system is slow DC replies,
 | 
						|
    commonly observed in configurations with remote DC access. The
 | 
						|
    Cygwin DLL queries information about every group you're in to
 | 
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    populate the local cache on startup. You may speed up this process a
 | 
						|
    little by caching your own information in local files. Run these
 | 
						|
    commands in a Cygwin terminal with write access to
 | 
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    <filename>/etc</filename>:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
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    <screen>getent passwd $(id -u) > /etc/passwd
 | 
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getent group $(id -G) > /etc/group</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    <para>Also, set <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename> as
 | 
						|
    follows:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
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    <screen>passwd: files db
 | 
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group:  files db</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
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    <para>This will limit the need for Cygwin to contact the AD domain
 | 
						|
    controller (DC) while still allowing for additional information to
 | 
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    be retrieved from DC, such as when listing remote
 | 
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    directories.</para>
 | 
						|
  </listitem>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <listitem>
 | 
						|
    <para>Either in addition to the previous item or instead of it, you
 | 
						|
    can run <ulink
 | 
						|
    url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygserver.html"><command>cygserver</command></ulink>
 | 
						|
    as a local caching service to speed up DC requests.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    <para>Cygwin programs will check with <command>cygserver</command>
 | 
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    before trying to query the DC directly.</para>
 | 
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  </listitem>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <listitem>
 | 
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    <para>A less preferable option is to create a static read-only cache
 | 
						|
    of the authentication data. This is the old-fashioned method of
 | 
						|
    making Cygwin integrate with AD, the only method available in
 | 
						|
    releases before 1.7.34. To do this, run <command>mkpasswd</command>
 | 
						|
    and <command>mkgroup</command>, then put the following into
 | 
						|
    <filename>/etc/nsswitch.conf</filename> to make Cygwin treat these
 | 
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    files as the only sources of user and group information:</para>
 | 
						|
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    <screen>passwd: files
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group:  files</screen>
 | 
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 | 
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    <para>By leaving out the <computeroutput>db</computeroutput> option,
 | 
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    we are telling the Cygwin DLL not to even try to do AD lookups. If
 | 
						|
    your AD servers are slow, this local cache will speed things up. The
 | 
						|
    downside is that you open yourself up to the <ulink
 | 
						|
    url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache_(computing)">stale cache
 | 
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    problem</ulink>: any time the AD databases change, your local cache
 | 
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    will go out of date until you update the files manually.</para>
 | 
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  </listitem>
 | 
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</orderedlist>
 | 
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<para>If none of the above helps, the best troubleshooting method is to
 | 
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run your startup scripts in debug mode. Right-click your Cygwin Terminal
 | 
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icon, go to Properties, and edit the command. It should be something
 | 
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like <command>C:\cygwin\bin\mintty.exe -i /Cygwin-Terminal.ico
 | 
						|
-</command>.  Assuming you are using Bash for your login shell, change
 | 
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it to <command>C:\cygwin\bin\mintty /bin/bash -lx</command> then try
 | 
						|
running Cygwin Terminal again. The <option>-x</option> option tells Bash
 | 
						|
to write every command it runs to the terminal before launching it. If
 | 
						|
the terminal immediately starts filling with lines of text but then
 | 
						|
pauses, the line where the output paused is your clue as to what's going
 | 
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on. The Cygwin DLL proper probably isn't the cause of the slowdown in
 | 
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this case, since those delays happen before the first line of text
 | 
						|
appears in the terminal.</para>
 | 
						|
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						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
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 | 
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<qandaentry id="faq.using.slow">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why is Cygwin suddenly <emphasis>so</emphasis> slow?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
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 | 
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<para>If suddenly <emphasis>every</emphasis> command takes a
 | 
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<emphasis>very</emphasis> long time, then something is probably attempting to 
 | 
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access a network share.  You may have the obsolete <literal>//c</literal>
 | 
						|
notation in your PATH or startup files.  Using <literal>//c</literal> means
 | 
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to contact the <emphasis>network server</emphasis> <literal>c</literal>, which
 | 
						|
will slow things down tremendously if it does not exist.  
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.shares">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why can't my services access network shares?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<para>If your service is one of those which switch the user context
 | 
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(sshd, inetd, etc), then it depends on the method used to switch to
 | 
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another user.  This problem as well as its solution is described in
 | 
						|
detail in the Cygwin User's Guide, see
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html"/>.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Workarounds include using public network share that does not require
 | 
						|
authentication (for non-critical files), providing your password to a
 | 
						|
<command>net use</command> command, or running the service as your own
 | 
						|
user with <literal>cygrunsrv -u</literal> (see
 | 
						|
<literal>/usr/share/doc/Cygwin/cygrunsrv.README</literal> for more
 | 
						|
information).
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.path">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How should I set my PATH?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>This is done for you in the file /etc/profile, which is sourced by bash
 | 
						|
when you start it from the Desktop or Start Menu shortcut, created by
 | 
						|
<literal>setup.exe</literal>.  The line is
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:$PATH"
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Effectively, this <emphasis role='bold'>prepends</emphasis> /usr/local/bin and /usr/bin to your
 | 
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Windows system path.  If you choose to reset your PATH, say in
 | 
						|
$HOME/.bashrc, or by editing etc/profile directly, then you should
 | 
						|
follow this rule.  You <emphasis role='bold'>must</emphasis> have <literal>/usr/bin</literal> in your PATH
 | 
						|
<emphasis role='bold'>before</emphasis> any Windows system directories.  (And you must not omit
 | 
						|
the Windows system directories!)  Otherwise you will likely encounter
 | 
						|
all sorts of problems running Cygwin applications.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you're using another shell than bash (say, tcsh), the mechanism
 | 
						|
is the same, just the names of the login scripts are different.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.not-found">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Bash (or another shell) says "command not found", but it's right there!</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If you compile a program, you might find that you can't run it:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ gcc -o hello hello.c
 | 
						|
        bash$ hello
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						|
        bash: hello: command not found
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Unlike the Windows default behaviour, Unix shells like bash do not look for programs in <literal>.</literal> (the current
 | 
						|
directory) by default.  You can add <literal>.</literal> to your PATH (see above),
 | 
						|
but this is not recommended (at least on UNIX) for security reasons.
 | 
						|
Just tell bash where to find it, when you type it on the command line:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ gcc -o hello hello.c
 | 
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        bash$ ./hello
 | 
						|
        Hello World!
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.converting-paths">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How do I convert between Windows and UNIX paths?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Use the 'cygpath' utility.  Type '<literal>cygpath --help</literal>' for
 | 
						|
information.  For example (on my installation):
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ cygpath --windows ~/.bashrc
 | 
						|
        D:\starksb\.bashrc
 | 
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        bash$ cygpath --unix C:/cygwin/bin/ls.exe
 | 
						|
        /usr/bin/ls.exe
 | 
						|
        bash$ cygpath --unix C:\\cygwin\\bin\\ls.exe
 | 
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        /usr/bin/ls.exe
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
Note that bash interprets the backslash '\' as an escape character, so
 | 
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you must type it twice in the bash shell if you want it to be recognized
 | 
						|
as such.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.bashrc">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why doesn't bash read my .bashrc file on startup?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<para>Your .bashrc is read from your home directory specified by the HOME
 | 
						|
environment variable.  It uses /.bashrc if HOME is not set.  So you need
 | 
						|
to set HOME (and the home dir in your passwd account information) correctly.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.bash-insensitive">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How can I get bash filename completion to be case insensitive?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Add the following to your <literal>~/.bashrc</literal> file:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	shopt -s nocaseglob
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>and add the following to your <literal>~/.inputrc</literal> file:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	set completion-ignore-case on
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.filename-spaces">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Can I use paths/filenames containing spaces in them?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin does support spaces in filenames and paths.  That said, some
 | 
						|
utilities that use the library may not, since files don't typically
 | 
						|
contain spaces in Unix.  If you stumble into problems with this, you
 | 
						|
will need to either fix the utilities or stop using spaces in filenames
 | 
						|
used by Cygwin tools.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>In particular, bash interprets space as a word separator.  You would have
 | 
						|
to quote a filename containing spaces, or escape the space character.
 | 
						|
For example:
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash-2.03$ cd '/cygdrive/c/Program Files'
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
or
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash-2.03$ cd /cygdrive/c/Program\ Files
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.shortcuts">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why can't I cd into a shortcut to a directory?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin does not follow MS Windows Explorer Shortcuts
 | 
						|
(*.lnk files).  It sees a shortcut as a regular file and this you
 | 
						|
cannot "cd" into it.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin is also capable to create POSIX symlinks as Windows shortcuts 
 | 
						|
(see the CYGWIN environment variable option "winsymlinks"), but these
 | 
						|
shortcuts are different from shortcuts created by native Windows
 | 
						|
applications.  Windows applications can usually make use of Cygwin
 | 
						|
shortcuts but not vice versa.  This is by choice.  The reason is that
 | 
						|
Windows shortcuts may contain a bunch of extra information which would
 | 
						|
get lost, if, for example, Cygwin tar archives and extracts them as
 | 
						|
symlinks.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Changing a Cygwin shortcut in Windows Explorer usually changes a Cygwin
 | 
						|
shortcut into a Windows native shortcut.  Afterwards, Cygwin will not
 | 
						|
recognize it as symlink anymore.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.find">
 | 
						|
<question><para>I'm having basic problems with find.  Why?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Make sure you are using the find that came with Cygwin and that you
 | 
						|
aren't picking up the Win32 find command instead.  You can verify that
 | 
						|
you are getting the right one by doing a "type find" in bash.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If the path argument to find, including current directory (default), is
 | 
						|
itself a symbolic link, then find will not traverse it unless you
 | 
						|
specify the <literal>-follow</literal> option.  This behavior is different than most
 | 
						|
other UNIX implementations, but is not likely to change.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If find does not seem to be producing enough results, or seems to be
 | 
						|
missing out some directories, you may be experiencing a problem with one
 | 
						|
of find's optimisations.  The absence of <literal>.</literal> and <literal>..</literal>
 | 
						|
directories on some filesystems, such as DVD-R UDF, can confuse find.
 | 
						|
See the documentation for the option <literal>-noleaf</literal> in the man page.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.su">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why doesn't <literal>su</literal> work?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>The <literal>su</literal> command has been in and out of Cygwin distributions, but
 | 
						|
it has not been ported to Cygwin and has never worked.  It is
 | 
						|
currently installed as part of the sh-utils, but again, it does not work.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>You should rather install <literal>sshd</literal> and use
 | 
						|
<literal>ssh username@localhost</literal> as a <literal>su</literal>
 | 
						|
replacement.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>For some technical background into why <literal>su</literal> doesn't
 | 
						|
work, read
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-06/msg00897.html"/> and
 | 
						|
related messages.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.man">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why doesn't <literal>man -k</literal>,
 | 
						|
<literal>apropos</literal> or <literal>whatis</literal> work?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Before you can use <literal>man -k</literal>, <literal>apropos</literal>
 | 
						|
or <literal>whatis</literal>, you
 | 
						|
must create the whatis database.  Just run the command
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	mandb
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>(it may take a few minutes to complete).
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.chmod">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why doesn't <literal>chmod</literal> work?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If you're using FAT32 instead of NTFS, <literal>chmod</literal> 
 | 
						|
will fail since FAT32 does not provide any permission information.
 | 
						|
You should really consider converting the drive to NTFS with
 | 
						|
<literal>CONVERT.EXE</literal>.  FAT and FAT32 are barely good enough
 | 
						|
for memory cards or USB sticks to exchange pictures...
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>For other cases, understand that Cygwin attempts to show UNIX 
 | 
						|
permissions based on the security features of Windows, so the Windows 
 | 
						|
ACLs are likely the source of your problem.  See the Cygwin User's 
 | 
						|
Guide at <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/ntsec.html"/>
 | 
						|
for more information on how Cygwin maps Windows permissions.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.shell-scripts">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why doesn't my shell script work?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>There are two basic problems you might run into.  One is the fact that
 | 
						|
<command>/bin/sh</command> is really <command>bash</command>.
 | 
						|
It could be missing some features you might expect in
 | 
						|
<command>/bin/sh</command>, if you are used to <command>/bin/sh</command>
 | 
						|
actually being <command>zsh</command> (MacOS X "Panther") or
 | 
						|
<command>ksh</command> (Tru64).  
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Or, it could be a permission problem, and Cygwin doesn't understand
 | 
						|
that your script is executable.  On NTFS or NFS just make the script
 | 
						|
executable using <literal>chmod +x</literal>.  However,
 | 
						|
<literal>chmod</literal> may not work due to restrictions of the
 | 
						|
filesystem (see FAQ entry above).  In this case Cygwin must read the
 | 
						|
contents of files to determine if they are executable.  If your script
 | 
						|
does not start with
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	#! /bin/sh
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>(or any path to a script interpreter, it does not have to be /bin/sh)
 | 
						|
then Cygwin will not know it is an executable script.  The Bourne shell
 | 
						|
idiom
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	:
 | 
						|
	# This is the 2nd line, assume processing by /bin/sh
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>also works.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Note that you can use the filesystem flag <literal>cygexec</literal> in
 | 
						|
<filename>/etc/fstab</filename> to force Cygwin to treat all files
 | 
						|
under the mount point as executable.  This can be used for individual
 | 
						|
files as well as directories.  Then Cygwin will not bother to read files
 | 
						|
to determine whether they are executable.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.printing">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How do I print under Cygwin?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>lpr is available in the cygutils package.  Some <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2008-05/msg00123.html">usage hints</ulink> are available courtesy of Rodrigo Medina.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Jason Tishler has written a couple of messages that explain how to use
 | 
						|
a2ps (for nicely formatted text in PostScript) and ghostscript (to print
 | 
						|
PostScript files on non-PostScript Windows printers).  Start at
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-04/msg00657.html"/>.  Note that
 | 
						|
these are old mails and <command>a2ps</command> as well as
 | 
						|
<command>file</command> are long available as part of the Cygwin distribution.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Alternatively, you can use the Windows <command>print</command>
 | 
						|
command.  Type
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ print /\?
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>for usage instructions (note the <literal>?</literal> must be escaped
 | 
						|
from the shell).
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Finally, you can simply <command>cat</command> the file to the printer's share name:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ cat myfile > //host/printer
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>You may need to press the formfeed button on your printer or append the
 | 
						|
formfeed character to your file.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.unicode">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why don't international (Unicode) characters work?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Internationalization is a complex issue. The short answer is that
 | 
						|
Cygwin relies on the setting of the setting of LANG/LC_xxx environment
 | 
						|
variables. The long answer can be found in the User's Guide in the
 | 
						|
section <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setup-locale.html">Internationalization</ulink>
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para> Cygwin uses UTF-8 by default.  To use a different character set, you
 | 
						|
need to set the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG environment variables.</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.weirdchars">
 | 
						|
<question><para>My application prints international characters but I only
 | 
						|
see gray boxes</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
<para>In the case of Cygwin programs, this likely means that the
 | 
						|
character set as determined by the LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE or LANG environment
 | 
						|
variables does not match the one set on the Text page of the Cygwin Terminal's
 | 
						|
options.  Setting the locale in the terminal's options will set the LANG
 | 
						|
variable accordingly.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Non-Cygwin programs in the Cygwin Terminal do not usually take
 | 
						|
heed of the locale environment variables.  Instead, they often use the
 | 
						|
so-called console codepage, which can be determined with the command
 | 
						|
<command>cmd /c chcp</command> followed by the appropriate Windows
 | 
						|
codepage number.  The codepage number for Cygwin's default UTF-8 character
 | 
						|
set is 65001.</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.multiple-copies">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Is it OK to have multiple copies of the DLL?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
<para>Yes, as long as they are used in strictly separated installations.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>The Cygwin DLL has to handle various sharing situations between
 | 
						|
multiple processes.  It has to keep a process table.  It has to maintain
 | 
						|
a mount table which is based on the installation path of the Cygwin DLL.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>For that reason, the Cygwin DLL maintains shared resources based on
 | 
						|
a hash value created from its own installation path.  Each Cygwin DLL
 | 
						|
on the machine constitutes a Cygwin installation, with the directory
 | 
						|
the Cygwin DLL resides in treated as "/bin", the parent directory as "/".
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Therefore, you can install two or more separate Cygwin distros on
 | 
						|
a single machine.  Each of these installations use their own Cygwin DLL,
 | 
						|
and they don't share the default POSIX paths, nor process tables, nor
 | 
						|
any other shared resource used to maintain the installation.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>However, a clean separation requires that you don't try to run
 | 
						|
executables of one Cygwin installation from processes running in another
 | 
						|
Cygwin installation.  This may or may not work, but the chances that the
 | 
						|
result is not what you expect are pretty high.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you get the error "shared region is corrupted" or "shared region
 | 
						|
version mismatch" it means you have multiple versions of cygwin1.dll
 | 
						|
running at the same time which conflict with each other.  Apart from
 | 
						|
mixing executables of different Cygwin installations, this could also happen
 | 
						|
if you have one a single Cygwin installation, for example, if you update the
 | 
						|
Cygwin package without exiting <emphasis>all</emphasis> Cygwin apps (including
 | 
						|
services like sshd) beforehand.</para>
 | 
						|
<para>The only DLL that is sanctioned by the Cygwin project is the one that
 | 
						|
you get by running <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/install.html">setup-x86.exe or setup-x86_64.exe</ulink>,
 | 
						|
installed in a directory controlled by this program.  If you have other
 | 
						|
versions on your system and desire help from the cygwin project, you should
 | 
						|
delete or rename all DLLs that are not installed by
 | 
						|
<filename>setup.exe</filename>.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you're trying to find multiple versions of the DLL that are causing
 | 
						|
this problem, reboot first, in case DLLs still loaded in memory are the
 | 
						|
cause.  Then use the Windows System find utility to search your whole
 | 
						|
machine, not just components in your PATH (as 'type' would do) or
 | 
						|
cygwin-mounted filesystems (as Cygwin 'find' would do).
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.third-party.multiple-copies">
 | 
						|
<question><para>
 | 
						|
I read the above but I want to bundle Cygwin with a product, and ship it
 | 
						|
to customer sites.  How can I do this without conflicting with any Cygwin
 | 
						|
installed by the user?
 | 
						|
</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer><para>
 | 
						|
Usually, if you keep your installation separate, nothing bad should happen.
 | 
						|
However, for the user's convenience, and to avoid potential problems which
 | 
						|
still can occur, consider to integrate your product with an already existing
 | 
						|
Cygwin installation on the user's machine, or, if there is none, consider
 | 
						|
to install the official Cygwin distro on behalf of the user and integrate
 | 
						|
your tools from there.  (If you write a tool to make this easy, consider
 | 
						|
contributing it for others to use)
 | 
						|
</para></answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.bundling-cygwin">
 | 
						|
<question><para>
 | 
						|
Can I bundle Cygwin with my product for free?
 | 
						|
</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer><para>
 | 
						|
Starting with Cygwin version 2.5.2, which is LGPL licensed, yes, albeit
 | 
						|
it's not recommended for interoperability reasons.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin versions prior to 2.5.2 were GPL licensed.
 | 
						|
If you choose to distribute an older cygwin1.dll, you must be willing to
 | 
						|
distribute the exact source code used to build that copy of cygwin1.dll
 | 
						|
as per the terms of the GPL.  If you ship applications that link with
 | 
						|
older cygwin1.dll, you must provide those applications' source code
 | 
						|
under a GPL-compatible license.
 | 
						|
</para></answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.older-cygwin-conflict">
 | 
						|
<question><para>
 | 
						|
But doesn't that mean that if some application installs an older Cygwin
 | 
						|
DLL on top of a newer DLL, my application will break?
 | 
						|
</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer><para>
 | 
						|
It depends on what you mean by "break".  If the application installs a
 | 
						|
version of the Cygwin DLL in another location than Cygwin's /bin
 | 
						|
directory then the rules in
 | 
						|
<xref linkend="faq.using.third-party.multiple-copies"></xref> apply. 
 | 
						|
If the application installs an older version of the DLL in /bin then you
 | 
						|
should complain loudly to the application provider.
 | 
						|
</para><para>
 | 
						|
Remember that the Cygwin DLL strives to be backwards compatible so a
 | 
						|
newer version of the DLL should always work with older executables.  So,
 | 
						|
in general, it is always best to keep one version of the DLL on your
 | 
						|
system and it should always be the latest version which matches your
 | 
						|
installed distribution.
 | 
						|
</para></answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.missing-packages">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why isn't package XYZ available in Cygwin?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Probably because there is nobody willing or able to maintain it.  It
 | 
						|
takes time, and the priority for the Cygwin Team is the Cygwin package.
 | 
						|
The rest is a volunteer effort.  Want to contribute?  See
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/packaging.html"/>.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.old-packages">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why is the Cygwin package of XYZ so out of date?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>(Also: Why is the version of package XYZ older than the version that I
 | 
						|
can download from the XYZ web site?  Why is the version of package XYZ
 | 
						|
older than the version that I installed on my linux system?  Is there
 | 
						|
something special about Cygwin which requires that only an older version
 | 
						|
of package XYZ will work on it?)
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Every package in the Cygwin distribution has a maintainer who is
 | 
						|
responsible for sending out updates of the package.  This person is a
 | 
						|
volunteer who is rarely the same person as the official developer of the
 | 
						|
package.  If you notice that a version of a package seems to be out of
 | 
						|
date, the reason is usually pretty simple -- the person who is
 | 
						|
maintaining the package hasn't gotten around to updating it yet. Rarely,
 | 
						|
the newer package actually requires complex changes that the maintainer
 | 
						|
is working out. 
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you urgently need an update, sending a polite message to the cygwin
 | 
						|
mailing list pinging the maintainer is perfectly acceptable.  There are
 | 
						|
no guarantees that the maintainer will have time to update the package
 | 
						|
or that you'll receive a response to your request, however.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Remember that the operative term here is "volunteer".
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.accessing-drives">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How can I access other drives?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>You have some flexibility here.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin has a builtin "cygdrive prefix" for drives that are not mounted.
 | 
						|
You can access any drive, say Z:, as '/cygdrive/z/'.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>In some applications (notably bash), you can use the familiar windows
 | 
						|
<drive>:/path/, using posix forward-slashes ('/') instead of Windows
 | 
						|
backward-slashes ('\').  (But see the warning below!)  This maps in the
 | 
						|
obvious way to the Windows path, but will be converted internally to use
 | 
						|
the Cygwin path, following mounts (default or explicit).  For example:
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ cd C:/Windows
 | 
						|
	bash$ pwd
 | 
						|
        /cygdrive/c/Windows
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
and
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ cd C:/cygwin
 | 
						|
	bash$ pwd
 | 
						|
        /
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
for a default setup.  You could also use backward-slashes in the
 | 
						|
Windows path, but these would have to be escaped from the shell.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para><emphasis role='bold'>Warning:</emphasis> There is some ambiguity in going from a Windows path
 | 
						|
to the posix path, because different posix paths, through different
 | 
						|
mount points, could map to the same Windows directory.  This matters
 | 
						|
because different mount points may be binmode or textmode, so the
 | 
						|
behavior of Cygwin apps will vary depending on the posix path used to
 | 
						|
get there.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>You can avoid the ambiguity of Windows paths, and avoid typing
 | 
						|
"/cygdrive", by explicitly mounting drives to posix paths.  For example:
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ mkdir /c
 | 
						|
	bash$ mount c:/ /c
 | 
						|
	bash$ ls /c
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
Then <literal>/cygdrive/c/Windows</literal> becomes <literal>/c/Windows</literal> which is a
 | 
						|
little less typing.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Note that you have to enter the mount point into the
 | 
						|
<filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file to keep it indefinitely. 
 | 
						|
The mount command will only add the mount point for the lifetime
 | 
						|
of your current Cygwin session.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>You can change the default <literal>cygdrive</literal> prefix and whether it is binmode or textmode using the <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> file
 | 
						|
as well.  See the Cygwin User's Guide at
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using.html#mount-table"/>
 | 
						|
for more details.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.copy-and-paste">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How can I copy and paste into Cygwin console windows?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>First, consider using mintty instead of the standard console
 | 
						|
window.  In mintty, selecting with the left-mouse also copies,
 | 
						|
and middle-mouse pastes.  It couldn't be easier!
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>In Windows's console window, open the properties dialog.
 | 
						|
The options contain a toggle button, named "Quick edit mode".  It must
 | 
						|
be ON.  Save the properties.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>You can also bind the insert key to paste from the clipboard by adding 
 | 
						|
the following line to your .inputrc file: 
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	"\e[2~": paste-from-clipboard 
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.firewall">
 | 
						|
<question><para>What firewall should I use with Cygwin? </para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>We have had good reports about Kerio Personal Firewall, ZoneLabs
 | 
						|
Integrity Desktop, and the Windows built-in firewall. Other well-known
 | 
						|
products including ZoneAlarm and Norton Internet Security have caused
 | 
						|
problems for some users but work fine for others. At last report,
 | 
						|
Agnitum Outpost did not work with Cygwin.  If you are having strange
 | 
						|
connection-related problems, disabling the firewall is a good
 | 
						|
troubleshooting step (as is closing or disabling all other running
 | 
						|
applications, especially resource-intensive processes such as indexed
 | 
						|
search).
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>On the whole, Cygwin doesn't care which firewall is used.  The few rare
 | 
						|
exceptions have to do with socket code.
 | 
						|
Cygwin uses sockets to implement many of its functions, such as IPC.
 | 
						|
Some overzealous firewalls install themselves deeply into the winsock
 | 
						|
stack (with the 'layered service provider' API) and install hooks
 | 
						|
throughout.  Sadly the mailing list archives are littered with examples
 | 
						|
of poorly written firewall-type software that causes things to break.
 | 
						|
Note that with many of these products, simply disabling the firewall
 | 
						|
does not remove these changes; it must be completely uninstalled.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>See also <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/faq/faq.html#faq.using.bloda"/>
 | 
						|
for a list of applications that have been known, at one time or another, to 
 | 
						|
interfere with the normal functioning of Cygwin.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.sharing-files">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How can I share files between Unix and Windows?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>During development, we have Linux boxes running Samba and NFS as well
 | 
						|
as Windows machines.  We often build with cross-compilers under Linux and copy
 | 
						|
binaries and source to the Windows system or just toy with them
 | 
						|
directly off the Samba-mounted partition.  Or, we use the Microsoft NFS
 | 
						|
client and just use NFS shares on Linux from Windows.  And then there are
 | 
						|
tools like <literal>scp</literal>, <literal>ftp</literal>,
 | 
						|
<literal>rsync</literal>, ...
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.case-sensitive">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Is Cygwin case-sensitive??</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Several Unix programs expect to be able to use to filenames
 | 
						|
spelled the same way, but with different case.  A prime example
 | 
						|
of this is perl's configuration script, which wants
 | 
						|
<literal>Makefile</literal> and <literal>makefile</literal>.  Windows can't
 | 
						|
tell the difference between files with just different case, so the
 | 
						|
configuration fails.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>To help with this problem, Cygwin supports case sensitivity.  For a
 | 
						|
detailed description how to use that feature see the Cygwin User's Guide at
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html"/>.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.dos-filenames">
 | 
						|
<question><para>What about DOS special filenames?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>In Windows, files cannot be named com1, lpt1, or aux (to name a few);
 | 
						|
either as the root filename or as the extension part.  If you do, you'll have
 | 
						|
trouble.  Unix programs don't avoid these names which can make things
 | 
						|
interesting.  E.g., the perl distribution has a file called
 | 
						|
<literal>aux.sh</literal>.  The perl configuration tries to make sure that
 | 
						|
<literal>aux.sh</literal> is there, but an operation on a file with the magic
 | 
						|
letters 'aux' in it will hang.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>At least that's what happens when using native Windows tools.  Cygwin
 | 
						|
can deal with these filenames just fine.  Again, see the User's Guide at
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-specialnames.html"/>
 | 
						|
for a detailed description of what's possible with filenames and what is not.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.hangs">
 | 
						|
<question><para>When it hangs, how do I get it back?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If something goes wrong and the tools hang on you for some reason (easy
 | 
						|
to do if you try and read a file called aux.sh), first try hitting ^C to
 | 
						|
return to bash or the cmd prompt.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>If you start up another shell, and applications don't run, it's a good
 | 
						|
bet that the hung process is still running somewhere.  Use the Task
 | 
						|
Manager, pview, or a similar utility to kill the process.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>And, if all else fails, there's always the reset button/power switch.
 | 
						|
In theory this should never be necessary, though.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.directory-structure">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why the weird directory structure?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Why do /lib and /usr/lib (and /bin, /usr/bin) point to the same thing?
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Why use mounts instead of symbolic links?
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Can I use a disk root (e.g., C:\) as Cygwin root?  Why is this discouraged?
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>After a new installation in the default location, your mount points will
 | 
						|
look something like this:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ mount
 | 
						|
	C:\cygwin\bin on /usr/bin type ntfs (binary,auto)
 | 
						|
	C:\cygwin\lib on /usr/lib type ntfs (binary,auto)
 | 
						|
	C:\cygwin on / type ntfs (binary,auto)
 | 
						|
	C: on /cygdrive/c type ntfs (binary,posix=0,user,noumount,auto)
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Note that /bin and /usr/bin point to the same location, as do /lib and
 | 
						|
/usr/lib.  This is intentional, and you should not undo these mounts
 | 
						|
unless you <emphasis>really</emphasis> know what you are doing.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Various applications and packages may expect to be installed in /lib or
 | 
						|
/usr/lib (similarly /bin or /usr/bin).  Rather than distinguish between
 | 
						|
them and try to keep track of them (possibly requiring the occasional
 | 
						|
duplication or symbolic link), it was decided to maintain only one
 | 
						|
actual directory, with equivalent ways to access it.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Symbolic links had been considered for this purpose, but were dismissed
 | 
						|
because they do not always work on Samba drives.  Also, mounts are
 | 
						|
faster to process because no disk access is required to resolve them.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Note that non-cygwin applications will not observe Cygwin mounts (or
 | 
						|
symlinks for that matter).  For example, if you use WinZip to unpack the
 | 
						|
tar distribution of a Cygwin package, it may not get installed to the
 | 
						|
correct Cygwin path.  <emphasis>So don't do this!</emphasis>
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>It is strongly recommended not to make the Cygwin root directory the
 | 
						|
same as your drive's root directory, unless you know what you are doing
 | 
						|
and are prepared to deal with the consequences.  It is generally easier
 | 
						|
to maintain the Cygwin hierarchy if it is isolated from, say, C:\.  For
 | 
						|
one thing, you avoid possible collisions with other (non-cygwin)
 | 
						|
applications that may create (for example) \bin and \lib directories.
 | 
						|
(Maybe you have nothing like that installed now, but who knows about
 | 
						|
things you might add in the future?)
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.anti-virus">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How do anti-virus programs like Cygwin?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Users have reported that NAI (formerly McAfee) VirusScan for NT (and
 | 
						|
others?) is incompatible with Cygwin.  This is because it tries to scan
 | 
						|
the newly loaded shared memory in cygwin1.dll, which can cause fork() to
 | 
						|
fail, wreaking havoc on many of the tools.  (It is not confirmed that
 | 
						|
this is still a problem, however.)
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>There have been several reports of NAI VirusScan causing the system to
 | 
						|
hang when unpacking tar.gz archives.  This is surely a bug in VirusScan,
 | 
						|
and should be reported to NAI.  The only workaround is to disable
 | 
						|
VirusScan when accessing these files.  This can be an issue during
 | 
						|
setup, and is discussed in that FAQ entry.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Some users report a significant performance hit using Cygwin when their
 | 
						|
anti-virus software is enabled.  Rather than disable the anti-virus
 | 
						|
software completely, it may be possible to specify directories whose
 | 
						|
contents are exempt from scanning.  In a default installation, this
 | 
						|
would be <literal>C:\cygwin\bin</literal>.  Obviously, this could be
 | 
						|
exploited by a hostile non-Cygwin program, so do this at your own risk.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>See also <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/faq/faq.html#faq.using.bloda"/>
 | 
						|
for a list of applications that have been known, at one time or another, to
 | 
						|
interfere with the normal functioning of Cygwin.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.emacs">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Is there a Cygwin port of GNU Emacs?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Yes.  Install the emacs package.  This provides everything you
 | 
						|
need in order to run GNU emacs in a terminal window.  If you also want
 | 
						|
to be able to use the X11
 | 
						|
(<ulink url="https://x.cygwin.com/"/>)
 | 
						|
GUI, install the emacs-X11 package.  In either case, you run emacs by
 | 
						|
typing 'emacs' or '/usr/bin/emacs'.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.xemacs">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Is there a Cygwin port of XEmacs?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Yes.  It can be used in three different modes:</para>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>X11 (<ulink url="https://x.cygwin.com/"/>) GUI</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
<para>You have to <emphasis>set</emphasis> the DISPLAY environment variable
 | 
						|
before starting xemacs.</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0 xemacs &
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Windows native GUI</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
<para>You have to <emphasis>unset</emphasis> the DISPLAY environment variable
 | 
						|
before starting xemacs.</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ DISPLAY= xemacs &
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Console mode</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
<para>Start xemacs with -nw in a terminal (native or X11) window</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	bash$ xemacs -nw
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
<para>To use all the standard packages with XEmacs you should download the following
 | 
						|
two packages:</para>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>xemacs-sumo - XEmacs standard packages</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>xemacs-mule-sumo - XEmacs MULE (MUlti Lingual Emacs) packages</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.symlinkstoppedworking">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why don't some of my old symlinks work anymore?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Cygwin supports multiple character sets.  Symlinks created with Cygwin
 | 
						|
are using the UTF-16 character set, which is portable across all character
 | 
						|
sets.  Old symlinks were written using your current Windows codepage, which
 | 
						|
is not portable across all character sets.  If the target of the symlink
 | 
						|
doesn't resolve anymore, it's very likely that the symlink points to a target
 | 
						|
filename using native, non-ASCII characters, and you're now using another
 | 
						|
character set than way back when you created the symlink.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Solution: Delete the symlink and create it again under you new Cygwin.
 | 
						|
The new symlink will be correctly point to the target no matter what character
 | 
						|
set you're using in future.</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.symlinks-samba">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why don't symlinks work on Samba-mounted filesystems?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Symlinks are marked with "system" file attribute.  Samba does not
 | 
						|
enable this attribute by default.  To enable it, consult your Samba
 | 
						|
documentation and then add these lines to your samba configuration
 | 
						|
file:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
	map system = yes
 | 
						|
	create mask = 0775
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Note that the 0775 can be anything as long as the 0010 bit is set.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Alternatively, use Windows shortcuts as symlinks.  See the CYGWIN
 | 
						|
environment variable option "winsymlinks" 
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/using-cygwinenv.html"/>
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.sshd-in-domain">
 | 
						|
<question><para>How do I setup sshd in a domain?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
If you want to be able to logon with domain accounts to a domain member
 | 
						|
machine, you should make sure that the "cyg_server" account under which
 | 
						|
the sshd service is usually running, is a domain account.  Otherwise you
 | 
						|
might end up with weird problems.  For instance, sshd might fail to load
 | 
						|
the child process when trying to login with a domain account.  A potential,
 | 
						|
confirmed error message is
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  *** fatal error - unable to load user32.dll, Win32 error 1114
 | 
						|
</screen>.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
Here's how you set up a sshd with a domain service account.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
First of all, create a new domain account called "cyg_server".  This
 | 
						|
account must be an administrative account, so make sure it's in the
 | 
						|
"Administrators" group.  Now create a domain policy which is propagated
 | 
						|
to all machines which are supposed to run an sshd service.  This domain
 | 
						|
policy should give the following user rights to the "cyg_server" account:
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  Act as part of the operating system (SeTcbPrivilege)
 | 
						|
  Create a token object               (SeCreateTokenPrivilege)
 | 
						|
  Replace a process level token       (SeAssignPrimaryTokenPrivilege)
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
Now to install sshd on the member machine, logon to that machine as
 | 
						|
an admin.  Make sure the aforementioend global policy has been propagated
 | 
						|
to this machine.  Examine the Local Security Policy settings and, if
 | 
						|
necessary, call gpupdate.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
If everything looks ok, run bash.  Starting with Windows Vista, make
 | 
						|
sure you're running bash elevated.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
Then run ssh-host-config.  Answer all questions so that "cyg_server" is
 | 
						|
used to run the service.  When done, check ownership of
 | 
						|
<literal>/var/empty</literal> and all <literal>/etc/ssh*</literal>
 | 
						|
files.  All of them must be owned by "cyg_server".  If that's ok, you're
 | 
						|
usually all set and you can start the sshd service via
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ cygrunsrv -S sshd
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>or</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ net start sshd
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.ssh-pubkey-stops-working">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why does public key authentication with ssh fail after updating to Cygwin 1.7.34 or later?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>
 | 
						|
This is the result of fixing a long-standing security problem in Cygwin's
 | 
						|
POSIX ACL handling.  IEEE 1003.1e draft 17 defines that the permissions
 | 
						|
of secondary user and group entries in an ACL are reflected in the group
 | 
						|
permission mask by or'ing the permissions of the file's primary group with
 | 
						|
all permissions of secondary users and groups in the ACL.  The background
 | 
						|
is that this way the standard POSIX permission bits reflect the fact that
 | 
						|
<emphasis role='bold'>somebody else</emphasis> has additional, otherwise
 | 
						|
potentially invisible permissions on the file.  This relatively complex
 | 
						|
interface has been defined in order to ensure that applications that are
 | 
						|
compliant with IEEE 1003.1 (“POSIX.1”) will still function as expected on
 | 
						|
systems with ACLs.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>So, what does that mean for your situation?  Typically this means the
 | 
						|
private key file, for instance <filename>~/.ssh/id_rsa</filename>, has too
 | 
						|
open permissions.  OpenSSH expects the permissions of the private key file
 | 
						|
to be 0600.  Let's use the default SSH2 RSA keyfile as example:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-------  1 user group 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>However, if other accounts can read the file, the key is potentially
 | 
						|
compromised.  Consider the file has additional rw- permissions for a group
 | 
						|
<literal>bad_guys</literal>.  Up to Cygwin 1.7.33 that would have looked
 | 
						|
like this:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-------+ 1 user group 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Notice the extra <emphasis role='bold'>+</emphasis> character following
 | 
						|
the permission string.  This shows that additional ACL entries are in the ACL.
 | 
						|
But an application only checking the POSIX permission bits (and ssh is one of
 | 
						|
them!), will not notice the fact, because it gets the permissions 0600 for the
 | 
						|
file.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Starting with Cygwin 1.7.34, the extra permissions are reflected in
 | 
						|
the group permission bits per IEEE 1003.1e draft 17:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-rw----+ 1 user group 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>So now ssh will notice that the file has extra permissions and it will
 | 
						|
complain.  The same problem occurs if the file
 | 
						|
<filename>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</filename> has too open permissions.  On
 | 
						|
the client side you won't get any helping text, though, other than that you're
 | 
						|
suddenly asked for a password.  That's a rather good hint to have a closer
 | 
						|
look at the server's <filename>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</filename> file.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>To fix the permissions of your private key file or your
 | 
						|
<filename>~/.ssh/authorized_keys</filename> file, simply use the
 | 
						|
<command>setfacl</command> command with the <literal>-b</literal> option. 
 | 
						|
This removes all additional ACL entries and thus fixes the permissions to
 | 
						|
be not too open:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-rw----+ 1 user group 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  $ setfacl -b .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-------  1 user group 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>If the second <command>ls</command> command still gives you
 | 
						|
<computeroutput>-rw-rw----</computeroutput> permissions after running
 | 
						|
the above commands, it is proably because the file's primary group
 | 
						|
is your user's personal group:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
  -rw-rw----  1 Fred Fred 1766 Aug 26  2013 .ssh/id_rsa
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Since the Windows security system treats groups and users as
 | 
						|
much the same thing, a change to the user or group permissions on
 | 
						|
such a file reflects the change to both user and group. In effect,
 | 
						|
mode 0600 becomes mode 0660. Because we are saying we want these
 | 
						|
files to be readable only by our user, the fix for this is easy:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ chgrp `id -g` ~/.ssh/*
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>That resets the group on these files to your default group
 | 
						|
which should be something like <computeroutput>Users</computeroutput>,
 | 
						|
depending on your local configuration. If that doesn't work, you can
 | 
						|
try something like this instead:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ chgrp None ~/.ssh/*
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>That group always exists, but its name is different on
 | 
						|
non-English versions of Windows. You might also want to use a
 | 
						|
domain group instead of a local group if your site uses Windows
 | 
						|
domains. For example, you might want to use the <computeroutput>Domain
 | 
						|
Users</computeroutput> group instead.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>For more information on <command>setfacl</command>, see
 | 
						|
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setfacl.html"/></para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.same-with-rhosts">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why is my .rhosts file not recognized by rlogin anymore after updating to Cygwin 1.7.34?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>The problem is exactly the same as with the key files of SSH.  See
 | 
						|
<xref linkend="faq.using.ssh-pubkey-stops-working"/>.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>The solution is the same:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .rhosts
 | 
						|
  -rw-rw----+ 1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 .rhosts
 | 
						|
  $ setfacl -b .rhosts
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l .rhosts
 | 
						|
  -rw-------  1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 .rhosts
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.same-with-permissions">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why do my files have extra permissions after updating to Cygwin 1.7.34?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>The problem is exactly the same as with the key files of SSH.  See
 | 
						|
<xref linkend="faq.using.ssh-pubkey-stops-working"/>.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>The solution is the same:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l *
 | 
						|
  -rw-rwxr--+ 1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 file1
 | 
						|
  -rw-rwxr--+ 1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 file2
 | 
						|
  $ setfacl -b *
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l *
 | 
						|
  -rw-r--r--  1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 file1
 | 
						|
  -rw-r--r--  1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 file2
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>You may find that newly-created files also have unexpected
 | 
						|
permissions:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ touch foo
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l foo
 | 
						|
  -rw-rwxr--+ 1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 foo
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>This probably means that the directory in which you're creating
 | 
						|
the files has unwanted default ACL entries that are inherited by
 | 
						|
newly-created files and subdirectories.  The solution is again the
 | 
						|
same:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  $ setfacl -b .
 | 
						|
  $ touch bar
 | 
						|
  $ ls -l bar
 | 
						|
  -rw-r--r--  1 user group 42 Nov 12  2010 bar
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.tcl-tk">
 | 
						|
<question><para>Why do my Tk programs not work anymore?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Previous versions of Tcl/Tk distributed with Cygwin (e.g. tclsh84.exe,
 | 
						|
wish84.exe) were not actually "Cygwin versions" of those tools.
 | 
						|
They were built as native libraries, which means they did not understand
 | 
						|
Cygwin mounts or symbolic links. This lead to all sorts of problems interacting
 | 
						|
with true Cygwin programs.</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>As of February 2012, this was replaced with a version of Tcl/Tk which
 | 
						|
uses Cygwin's POSIX APIs and X11 for GUI functionality.  If you get a message
 | 
						|
such as this when trying to start a Tk app:</para>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<screen>
 | 
						|
  Application initialization failed: couldn't connect to display ""
 | 
						|
</screen>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>Then you need to start an X server, or if one is already running, set the
 | 
						|
<literal>DISPLAY</literal> variable to the proper value.  The Cygwin distribution
 | 
						|
includes an X server; please see the <ulink url="https://x.cygwin.com/docs/ug/cygwin-x-ug.html">Cygwin/X User Guide</ulink>
 | 
						|
for installation and startup instructions.
 | 
						|
</para></answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id="faq.using.bloda" xreflabel="BLODA">
 | 
						|
<question><para>What applications have been found to interfere with Cygwin?</para></question>
 | 
						|
<answer>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<para>From time to time, people have reported strange failures and problems in
 | 
						|
Cygwin and Cygwin packages that seem to have no rational explanation.  Among
 | 
						|
the most common symptoms they report are fork failures, memory leaks, and file
 | 
						|
access denied problems.  These problems, when they have been traced, often appear
 | 
						|
to be caused by interference from other software installed on the same PC.  Security
 | 
						|
software, in particular, such as anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall applications,
 | 
						|
often implements its functions by installing hooks into various parts of the system,
 | 
						|
including both the Explorer shell and the underlying kernel.  Sometimes these hooks
 | 
						|
are not implemented in an entirely transparent fashion, and cause changes in the
 | 
						|
behaviour which affect the operation of other programs, such as Cygwin.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Among the software that has been found to cause difficulties are:</para>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>AR Soft RAM Disk</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>ATI Catalyst (some versions)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>AVAST (disable FILESYSTEM and BEHAVIOR realtime shields)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Avira AntiVir</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>BitDefender</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Bufferzone from Trustware</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>ByteMobile laptop optimization client</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>COMODO Firewall Pro</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>COMODO Internet Security</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>ConEmu (try disabling "Inject ConEmuHk" or see <ulink url="https://conemu.github.io/en/ConEmuHk.html#Third_party_problems">ConEmuHk documentation</ulink>)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Citrix Metaframe Presentation Server/XenApp (see <ulink url="http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX107825">Citrix Support page</ulink>)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Credant Guardian Shield</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Earthlink Total-Access</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Forefront TMG</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Google Desktop</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Iolo System Mechanic/AntiVirus/Firewall</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Kerio, Agnitum or ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>LanDesk</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Lavasoft Web Companion</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Lenovo IPS Core Service (ipssvc)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Lenovo RapidBoot Shield</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Logitech webcam software with "Logitech process monitor" service</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>MacType</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>NOD32 Antivirus</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>NVIDIA GeForce (some versions)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Norton/McAfee/Symantec antivirus or antispyware</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>PC Tools Spyware Doctor</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Panda Internet Security</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Sonic Solutions burning software containing DLA component (when DLA disabled)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Sophos Anti-Virus 7</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Spybot S&D TeaTimer</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Various programs by Wave Systems Corp using wxvault.dll, including Embassy Trust Suite and Embassy Security Center</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Webroot Spy Sweeper with Antivirus</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Windows Defender </para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>Windows LiveOneCare</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem><para>IBM Security Trusteer Rapport (see <ulink url="http://www-03.ibm.com/software/products/en/trusteer-rapport">its home page</ulink>)</para></listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
<para>Sometimes these problems can be worked around, by temporarily or partially
 | 
						|
disabling the offending software.  For instance, it may be possible to disable
 | 
						|
on-access scanning in your antivirus, or configure it to ignore files under the
 | 
						|
Cygwin installation root.  Often, unfortunately, this is not possible; even disabling
 | 
						|
the software may not work, since many applications that hook the operating system
 | 
						|
leave their hooks installed when disabled, and simply set them into what is intended
 | 
						|
to be a completely transparent pass-through mode.  Sometimes this pass-through is not
 | 
						|
as transparent as all that, and the hooks still interfere with Cygwin; in these cases,
 | 
						|
it may be necessary to uninstall the software altogether to restore normal operation.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Some of the symptoms you may experience are:</para>
 | 
						|
<para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
<listitem>
 | 
						|
<para>Random fork() failures</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Caused by hook DLLs that load themselves into every process in the
 | 
						|
system.  POSIX fork() semantics require that the memory map of the child process
 | 
						|
must be an exact duplicate of the parent process' layout.  If one of these DLLs
 | 
						|
loads itself at a different base address in the child's memory space as compared
 | 
						|
to the address it was loaded at in the parent, it can end up taking the space that
 | 
						|
belonged to a different DLL in the parent.  When Cygwin can't load the original
 | 
						|
DLL at that same address in the child, the fork() call has to fail.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem>
 | 
						|
<para>File access problems</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Some programs (e.g., virus scanners with on-access scanning) scan or
 | 
						|
otherwise operate on every file accessed by all the other software running on
 | 
						|
your computer.  In some cases they may retain an open handle on the file even
 | 
						|
after the software that is really using the file has closed it.  This has been
 | 
						|
known to cause operations such as deletes, renames and moves to fail with
 | 
						|
access denied errors.  In extreme cases it has been known for scanners to leak
 | 
						|
file handles, leading to kernel memory starvation.
 | 
						|
</para>
 | 
						|
</listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem>
 | 
						|
<para>Networking issues</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Firewall software sometimes gets a bit funny about Cygwin.  It's not
 | 
						|
currently understood why; Cygwin only uses the standard Winsock2 API, but
 | 
						|
perhaps in some less-commonly used fashion that doesn't get as well tested
 | 
						|
by the publishers of firewalls.  Symptoms include mysterious failures to
 | 
						|
connect, or corruption of network data being sent or received.</para>
 | 
						|
</listitem>
 | 
						|
<listitem>
 | 
						|
<para>Memory and/or handle leaks</para>
 | 
						|
<para>Some applications that hook into the Windows operating system exhibit
 | 
						|
bugs when interacting with Cygwin that cause them to leak allocated memory
 | 
						|
or other system resources.  Symptoms include complaints about out-of-memory
 | 
						|
errors and even virtual memory exhaustion dialog boxes from the O/S; it is
 | 
						|
often possible to see the excess memory allocation using a tool such as
 | 
						|
Task Manager or Sysinternals' Process Explorer, although interpreting the
 | 
						|
statistics they present is not always straightforward owing to complications
 | 
						|
such as virtual memory paging and file caching.</para>
 | 
						|
</listitem>
 | 
						|
</itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
</answer></qandaentry>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<qandaentry id='faq.using.fixing-fork-failures'>
 | 
						|
  <question><para>How do I fix <literal>fork()</literal> failures?</para></question>
 | 
						|
  <answer>
 | 
						|
  <para>Unfortunately, Windows does not use the fork/exec model of process creation
 | 
						|
  found in UNIX-like OSes, so it is difficult for Cygwin to implement a reliable and
 | 
						|
  correct <literal>fork()</literal>, which can lead to error messages such as:</para>
 | 
						|
  <para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>unable to remap <emphasis>somedll</emphasis> to same address as parent</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>couldn't allocate heap</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>died waiting for dll loading</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>child -1 - died waiting for longjmp before initialization</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>resource temporarily unavailable</listitem>
 | 
						|
  </itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
  <para>Potential solutions for the above errors:</para>
 | 
						|
  <para><itemizedlist>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>Restart whatever process is trying (and failing) to use
 | 
						|
    <literal>fork()</literal>. Sometimes Windows sets up a process
 | 
						|
    environment that is even more hostile to <literal>fork()</literal> than usual.</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>Ensure that you have eliminated (not just disabled) all
 | 
						|
    software on the <xref linkend="faq.using.bloda"/>.
 | 
						|
    </listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>Switch from 32-bit Cygwin to 64-bit Cygwin, if your OS and CPU support that.
 | 
						|
    With the bigger address space <literal>fork()</literal> is less likely to fail.</listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>
 | 
						|
      <para>
 | 
						|
      Try setting the environment variable CYGWIN to "detect_bloda", which
 | 
						|
      enables some extra debugging, which may indicate what other software is
 | 
						|
      causing the problem.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
      <para>
 | 
						|
      See <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2012-02/msg00797.html">this
 | 
						|
      mail</ulink> for more information.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
    </listitem>
 | 
						|
    <listitem>
 | 
						|
      <para>
 | 
						|
	Force a full rebase: Run <command>rebase-trigger fullrebase</command>,
 | 
						|
	exit all Cygwin programs and run Cygwin setup.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
      <para>
 | 
						|
	By default, Cygwin's setup program automatically performs an incremental
 | 
						|
	rebase of newly installed files.  Forcing a full rebase causes the
 | 
						|
	rebase map to be cleared before doing the rebase.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
      <para>
 | 
						|
	See <literal>/usr/share/doc/rebase/README</literal> and
 | 
						|
	<literal>/usr/share/doc/Cygwin/_autorebase.README</literal> for more
 | 
						|
	details.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
      <para>Please note that installing new packages or updating existing
 | 
						|
      ones undoes the effects of rebase and often causes fork() failures to
 | 
						|
      reappear.
 | 
						|
      </para>
 | 
						|
    </listitem>
 | 
						|
    </itemizedlist></para>
 | 
						|
  <para>See the <ulink url="https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/highlights.html#ov-hi-process">
 | 
						|
  process creation</ulink> section of the User's Guide for the technical reasons it is so
 | 
						|
  difficult to make <literal>fork()</literal> work reliably.</para>
 | 
						|
</answer>
 | 
						|
</qandaentry>
 | 
						|
</qandadiv>
 |