Installing Cygwin with MinGW in windows

Question

I wanted to install Cygwin in the C:\Cygwin (which is shown by default during installation). I have the C:\MinGW installed in that directory too(I mean C:\)

Will this cause any problem when I install packages.

Next, will setting the path variable in the system variables for Cygwin cause any problem as I have these two included in my System variables :

C:\MinGW\bin;C:\MinGW\MSYS\1.0\bin

Should I add the path variable here? ^^

Sorry if the question is senseless, but I am new to these things. Thanks

Answer 1

First, Cygwin is basically a Linux/Unix variant and NOT a windows variant. Thus your path within a cygwin shell would not work. You would have to change '\' to '/' AND instead of C: use /cygdrive/c/.....Also the path would change ';' to ':'. I am hoping you realize that the commands are different, but yes you can execute windows programs under cygwin if they are NOT internal Windows commands as in either cmd or powershell.

As for running CYGWIN programs under windows, I believe you can do this as long as the cygwin dll is in the same directory as the program you wish to execute. Thus cygwin programs could be in your windows path but you'd have to test to be sure.

Good Luck.