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<qandadiv id="faq.about">
<title>About Cygwin</title>

<!-- faq-what.xml -->
<qandaentry id="faq.what.what">
<question><para>What is it?</para></question>
<answer>

<para>Cygwin is a distribution of popular GNU and other Open Source tools
running on Microsoft Windows.  The core part is the Cygwin library which
provides the POSIX system calls and environment these programs expect.
</para>
<para>The Cygwin distribution contains thousands of packages from the Open
Source world including most GNU tools, many BSD tools, an X server and a full
set of X applications.  If you're a developer you will find tools, headers
and libraries allowing to write Windows console or GUI applications that make
use of significant parts of the POSIX API.  Cygwin allows easy porting of many
Unix programs without the need for extensive changes to the source code.  This
includes configuring and building most of the available GNU or BSD software,
including the packages included with the Cygwin distribution themselves.
They can be used from one of the provided Unix shells like bash, tcsh or zsh.
</para>
</answer></qandaentry>

<qandaentry id="faq.what.supported">
<question><para>What versions of Windows are supported?</para></question>
<answer>

<para>Cygwin can be expected to run on all modern, released versions of Windows.
This includes Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and all later versions of
Windows, except Windows S mode due to its limitations, on 64 bit AMD/Intel
compatible PCs, and under x64 emulation on ARM PCs running Windows 11.</para>

<para>Keep in mind that Cygwin can only do as much as the underlying OS
supports.  Because of this, Cygwin will behave differently, and
exhibit different limitations, on the various versions of Windows.
</para>
</answer></qandaentry>

<qandaentry id="faq.what.where">
<question><para>Where can I get it?</para></question>
<answer>

<para>The home page for the Cygwin project is
<ulink url="https://cygwin.com/"/>.
There you should find everything you need for Cygwin, including links
for download and setup, a current list of mirror sites, a User's
Guide, an API Reference, mailing lists and archives.
</para>
<para>You can find documentation for the individual GNU tools typically
as man pages or info pages as part of the Cygwin net distribution.
Additionally you can get the latest docs at
<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/manual"/>.
</para>
</answer></qandaentry>

<qandaentry id="faq.what.free">
<question><para>Is it free software?</para></question>
<answer>

<para>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 Red Hat (or the former Cygnus Solutions) 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 for more
information on how the GNU General Public License may affect your use of
these tools.
</para>
<para>Note that when we say "free" we mean freedom, not price.  The goal of
such freedom is that the people who use a given piece of software
should be able to change it to fit their needs, learn from it, share
it with their friends, etc.  The GPL or LGPL licenses allows you those
freedoms, so it is free software.
</para>
</answer></qandaentry>

<qandaentry id="faq.what.version">
<question><para>What version of Cygwin <emphasis>is</emphasis> this, anyway?</para></question>
<answer>

<para>To find the version of the Cygwin DLL installed, you can use
<filename>uname</filename> <literal>-r</literal> as you would for a Unix kernel.
As the Cygwin DLL takes the place of a Unix kernel,
you can also use the Unix compatible command:
<filename>head</filename> <filename>/proc/version</filename>,
or the Cygwin specific command:
<filename>cygcheck</filename> <literal>-V</literal>.
Refer to each command's
<literal>--help</literal> output and the
<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/'>Cygwin User's Guide</ulink>
for more information.
</para>
<para>If you are looking for the version number for the whole Cygwin
release, there is none.
Each package in the Cygwin release has its own version, and the
<literal>cygwin</literal> package containing the Cygwin DLL and Cygwin
system specific utilities is just another (but very important!) package.
The packages in Cygwin are continually improving, thanks to
the efforts of volunteers who maintain the Cygwin ports.
Each package has its own version numbers and its own release process.
</para>
<para>So, how do you get the most up-to-date version of Cygwin?  Easy.  Just
download the Cygwin Setup program by following the
<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/install.html'>installation instructions</ulink>.
The Setup program will handle the task of updating the packages on your system
to the latest version.
For more information about using Cygwin's Setup program, see
<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-ug-net/setup-net.html'>Setting Up Cygwin</ulink>
in the Cygwin User's Guide.
</para></answer></qandaentry>

<qandaentry id="faq.what.who">
<question><para>Who's behind the project?</para></question>
<answer>

<para><emphasis role='bold'>(Please note that if you have cygwin-specific
questions, all of these people will appreciate it if you use the cygwin
mailing lists rather than sending personal email.)</emphasis>
</para>
<para>
Corinna Vinschen is the current project lead,
responsible for the Cygwin library and a lot more.
</para>
<para>
Yaakov Selkowitz is the guy behind the current build and packaging system
and maintained by far the most packages in the Cygwin distribution.
</para>
<para>
Jon Turney is maintainer of the Cygwin X server and related packages.
</para>
<para>
The packages are maintained by a large group of
<ulink url='https://cygwin.com/cygwin-pkg-maint'>volunteers</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
Please note that all of us volunteering on Cygwin try to be as responsive as
possible and deal with patches and questions as we get them, but
realistically we don't have time to answer all of the email that is sent to
the main mailing list.
Making releases of the tools and packages is an activity in our spare time,
helping people out is not our primary focus, so some email will have to go
unanswered.
</para>
<para>Many thanks to everyone using the tools for their many contributions in
the form of advice, bug reports, and code fixes.  Keep them coming!
</para></answer></qandaentry>
</qandadiv>
