Determine if executable is native windows or with cygwin1.dll

Question

How can I determine(in a python script or any other scripting environment) if a program that I have to call is a native windows executable or compiled with cygwin1.dll. I am inside the cygwin environment for this.

Answer 1

If you are inside cygwin environment, you can use ldd command, it will return the dependences of a executable, see:

• Dependences of ls.exe, cygwin1.dll is a dependence

    $ ldd /bin/ls.exe
            ntdll.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/ntdll.dll (0x7ffd413d0000)
            KERNEL32.DLL => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNEL32.DLL (0x7ffd40af0000)
            KERNELBASE.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNELBASE.dll (0x7ffd3e570000)
            cygintl-8.dll => /usr/bin/cygintl-8.dll (0x3e8b40000)
            cygwin1.dll => /usr/bin/cygwin1.dll (0x180040000)
            cygiconv-2.dll => /usr/bin/cygiconv-2.dll (0x3f2300000)

• Dependences of C:/Windows/System32/control.exe, cygwin1.dll is not a dependence

    $ ldd c:/Windows/System32/control.exe
            ntdll.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/SYSTEM32/ntdll.dll (0x7ffd413d0000)
            KERNEL32.DLL => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNEL32.DLL (0x7ffd40af0000)
            KERNELBASE.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/KERNELBASE.dll (0x7ffd3e570000)
            ADVAPI32.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/ADVAPI32.dll (0x7ffd40d30000)
            msvcrt.dll => /mnt/c/WINDOWS/System32/msvcrt.dll (0x7ffd40520000)
[...]

You can also execute following line:

ldd $PROGRAM | grep cygwin1.dll | wc -l

It will return 1 in case of $PROGRAM contains a dependence with cygwin1.dll

Answer 2

Use the 'cygpath' shell tool to find the FULL cygwin-style path of your executable. Then detect what that path begins with.

I have no cygwin to test this out; therefore no example.