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| 修订版 | 346e50fd696d650a2aa27c0499dac9407602ae18 (tree) |
|---|---|
| 时间 | 2022-01-08 23:59:52 |
| 作者 |  Keith Marshall <keith@user...> |
| Commiter | Keith Marshall |
Add "What is Cygwin?" reference to FAQ.
* faq.html (General Enquiries): Add question, and answer incorporating
JonY's original MinGWiki description of Cygwin.
| @@ -110,6 +110,50 @@ of native MS‑Windows applications, with no implicit dependency on any | ||
| 110 | 110 | 3rd‑party C‑Runtime DLL. |
| 111 | 111 | </p> |
| 112 | 112 | </div><!-- answer --> |
| 113 | +<button>What is Cygwin, and how does it differ from MinGW?</button> | |
| 114 | +<div class="answer"> | |
| 115 | +<p>Originated by Steve Chamberlain, in 1995, like MinGW, | |
| 116 | +Cygwin is a system which aims to make (primarily) GNU tools | |
| 117 | +available on the MS‑Windows platform; | |
| 118 | +however, the two systems adopt <em>entirely different</em>  | |
| 119 | +methodologies to achieve this objective. | |
| 120 | +</p> | |
| 121 | +<p>Both systems are based on GNU tooling, | |
| 122 | +and both use the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) as the means | |
| 123 | +of production for their respective application suites. | |
| 124 | +Since GNU is fundamentally a POSIX system, | |
| 125 | +both MinGW and Cygwin tools exhibit a POSIX feel; | |
| 126 | +however, whereas MinGW strives to minimize its POSIX influence, | |
| 127 | +using the MS‑Windows API <em>directly</em>,  | |
| 128 | +and thus, | |
| 129 | +MinGW applications may be classified as <em>native</em>  | |
| 130 | +MS‑Windows applications, | |
| 131 | +Cygwin has a much loftier objective ... it aims to provide a complete | |
| 132 | +emulation of the <em>entire</em>  POSIX.1 API! | |
| 133 | +This emulation is encapsulated within a single <code>cygwin1.dll</code> | |
| 134 | +shared object library, which serves as a bridge between the POSIX.1 API | |
| 135 | +and the MS‑Windows API, and upon which <em>all</em>  | |
| 136 | +Cygwin applications are dependent; consequently, | |
| 137 | +Cygwin applications are <em>not</em>  classified | |
| 138 | +as <em>native</em>  MS‑Windows applications. | |
| 139 | +</p> | |
| 140 | +<p>The availability of the POSIX.1 API, | |
| 141 | +furnished by <code>cygwin1.dll</code>, does generally reduce | |
| 142 | +the effort required to port GNU applications to Cygwin, | |
| 143 | +(for example, POSIX functions such as <code>fork()</code>, | |
| 144 | +<code>mmap()</code>, and <code>ioctl()</code> may not be | |
| 145 | +<em>readily</em>  implemented in terms of the MS‑Windows API, | |
| 146 | +and would require <em>significant</em>  porting | |
| 147 | +effort — if indeed it is even | |
| 148 | +feasible — to | |
| 149 | +support them in MinGW applications); | |
| 150 | +however, the reduced porting burden of Cygwin <em>does</em>  | |
| 151 | +incur the cost of the dependency on <code>cygwin1.dll</code>, | |
| 152 | +and its attendant commercial, | |
| 153 | +or strict “<em>copyleft</em> ” (GPL), | |
| 154 | +licensing requirement. | |
| 155 | +</p> | |
| 156 | +</div><!-- answer --> | |
| 113 | 157 | <button>What is MSYS?</button> |
| 114 | 158 | <div class="answer"> |
| 115 | 159 | <p>A contraction of “Minimal SYStem”, |
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