Chapter 1. Cygwin Overview
1.1. What is it?
The Cygwin tools are ports of the popular GNU development tools and utilities for
Windows NT and 9x. They function through the use of the Cygwin library which provides the UNIX system calls and environment that these programs require.
With the tools installed, programmers may write Win32 console or GUI applications that make use of the standard Microsoft Win32 API and/or the Cygwin API. As a result, it is possible to easily port many significant UNIX programs without the need for extensive changes to the source code. This includes configuring and building most of the available GNU software (including the development tools included with the
Cygwin distributions). Even if the compiler tools are of little to no use to you, you may have interest in the many standard UNIX utilities. They can be used both from the bash shell (provided) or from the command.com.
1.2. Are the Cygwin tools free software?
Yes. Parts are GNU software (gcc, gas, ld, etc...), parts are covered by the standard X11 license, some of it is public domain, some of it was written by Cygnus and placed under the GPL. None of it is shareware. You don’t have to pay anyone to use it but you should be sure to read the copyright section of the FAQ more more information on how the GNU General Public License may affect your use of these tools. If you intend to port a proprietary application using the Cygwin library, you may want the Cygwin proprietary-use license. For more information about the proprietary-use license, please contact [email protected]. Customers of the native Win32 GNUPro should feel free to submit bug reports and ask questions through the normal channels. All other questions should be sent to the project mailing list [email protected].
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