Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for use with the Windows operating system.

Some would say that Cygwin is a pretend Linux that one can use instead of a real Linux system (virtual machine or physical machine). But there are times when one might need a Linux-like environment on Windows.

Below are some notes on using Cygwin in a Windows environment. General comments that apply to any Linux environment are not covered here unless necessary.

Cygwin in the lab is on the C: drive in KEC 119. Every computer in the lab has a different C: drive. When you move to another computer, your work is on the other computer you were using.

Any portable hard drive or flash drive connected to the computers in KEC 119 show up as drive D:.

The network drive that follows you around campus (on wired Windows computers, not wireless) is drive H:.

Your Google drive also can be used to transfer files.

After opening a Cygwin terminal session, use the pwd command to "print working directory" to see the path to your home directory.

On my computer, I installed Cygwin to D:\cygwin64. For my user, ROBIN, the home directory is as follows.

Remember, upper and lower case differences are important in Linux but not in Windows.

One way to make the CS101 folder in the home directory is as follows. Type each command and press Enter.

The CS101 folder is then as follows, using back slashes for Windows paths.

But in Cygwin, the path appears as follows, using forward slashes for Linux (and Cygwin) paths.

The Windows and Linux (Cygwin) paths become important when one downloads zip files for class, since they need to be unzipped to the CS101 folder for everything to work properly.

For example, if one uses Notepad++ to edit program text files, one must know the Windows path to the folder and files.

Note that Linux is case sensitive for file names, etc. However, Cygwin, as it runs under Windows, may or may not be case sensitive for file names, etc., depending on how Cygwin and Windows is set up.

If Cygwin is installed to D:\cygwin64 and the user is ROBIN then the following is the home directory.

From the Cygwin prompt:

From the Windows prompt: