Mail Archives: cygwin/2005/08/02/22:19:30
Jonathan Turkanis wrote:
> ... Therefore I'd like to know if there are plans to change the installation
process in the near future. For example, it would be very helpful to know how
stable the following features of the current installation process are:
Thanks for all the responses to my initial inquiry!
Here's what I've written so far; I'd like to know if there are any errors and
how it might be improved. I discuss Cygwin in two places, which I've labelled
"Installing Cygwin" and "Discussion of Cygwin and MinGW."
Best Regards,
Jonathan Turkanis
**** Installing Cygwin ****
To install Cygwin, go to the Cygwin homepage, www.cygwin.com, and follow the
link "Install Cygwin Now" to download the Cygwin installation program setup.exe.
Next, run setup.exe. It will ask you to make a series of choices, such as where
Cygwin should be installed.
---------------------------
I'm explaining the Cygwin installation process in detail because it's a bit
confusing. The process may have changed by the time you read this, but if it
has, it will probably have been made easier.
---------------------------
The most important choice you must make is the selection of packages. If you
have enough disk space and a high-speed internet connection, I recommend that
you install all of the packages. To do this, click once on the word Default next
to the word All at the top of the hierarchical display of packages. After a
possibly long pause, the word Default should change to Install. Now press Finish
to begin the automatic installation of packages.
If you are short on disk space, or if you have a slow internet connection, you
can choose a smaller collection of packages. To select all of the development
tools, click once on the word Default next to the word Devel. Wait for the word
Default to change to Install, then press Finish. For an even smaller collection
of packages, expand the list of development packages by clicking on the + icon
next to the word Devel. Select the packages gcc-core, gcc-g++, and make by
clicking on the word Skip, opposite each package, causing it to change to
Install, and by checking the box under the column labeled Bin? Now press Finish.
When setup.exe completes, the Cygwin installation directory should contain a
file named cygwin.bat. Running this script will display the Cygwin shell, a
command-line environment from which you can run gcc, g++, ar, ranlib, dlltool,
make, and any other utilities you chose to install. The installation process
adds the bin subdirectory of the Cygwin installation to your PATH environment
variable, so you can also run these utilities from the Windows shell cmd.exe.
You will find, however, that the Cygwin shell - a port of the bash shell - is a
much friendlier environment for running GNU utilities.
**** Discussion of Cygwin and MinGW ****
Cygwin and MinGW represent very different approaches to porting the GNU tools to
Windows. Cygwin is an ambitious project to produce a Linux-like environment
hosted by Windows; a remarkable assortment of GNU utilities are available as
part of the Cygwin distribution. While one of the main goals of Cygwin is to
facilitate porting GNU applications to Windows, even if you are not UNIX
developer you may soon come to regard the Cygwin tools as indispensable.
MinGW, which stands for "Minimalist GNU for Windows," is an attempt to provide a
minimal environment for porting GNU applications to Windows. While the full
Cygwin installation occupies several Gigabytes, the MinGW distribution is
relatively small. Among other things, MinGW includes a runtime environment, a
port of GCC, a port of the GNU archiver and linker — part of the GNU binutils
package — and a port of the GNU debugger, GDB. It also includes MSYS, a
command-line environment capable of executing GNU makefiles and configure
scripts. MSYS will be discussed in "Obtaining GNU make."
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