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So,I came across Cygwin the other day.From what I understand,it basically adds linux system calls and libraries functionality to Windows.My question is whether it does this by creating a thin virtual machine & then acting as hypervisor between linux and windows interface like most vm softwares.
sum1
Posted 2017-04-18T11:55:54.523
Reputation: 11
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No. It does not. As reported on the main page https://www.cygwin.com/ :
What... ...is it?
Cygwin is:
a large collection of GNU and Open Source tools which provide functionality similar to a Linux distribution on Windows. a DLL (cygwin1.dll) which provides substantial POSIX API functionality.
...isn't it?
Cygwin is not:
a way to run native Linux apps on Windows. You must rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows. a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX® functionality like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality
There is no virtualization. You need to compile the programs for cygwin to run them.
matzeri
Posted 2017-04-18T11:55:54.523
Reputation: 1 662
You did read the FAQ, right?
– Daniel B – 2017-04-18T12:01:26.450Yes, I did @DanielB . So it basically it creates a DLL file with all the necessary system calls so no virtualization involved ,is that correct? – sum1 – 2017-04-18T12:06:42.137