Win-win with Cygwin

Mind the Gap

Article from ADMIN 08/2012

By Ken Hess

Windows administrators: Expand your horizons and opportunities with Unix commands via Cygwin. We show how to use Cygwin's extensive list of Unix utilities for scripts, maintenance, compatibility, and automation.

If you work in a larger computing environment, you likely have to deal with Windows systems, Linux systems, and commercial Unix systems, and some of those heterogeneous systems might be under your direct administrative jurisdiction. If you're using virtualization technology as a Windows administrator, you're likely using Linux whether you know it or not. The exception would be Hyper-V: It's possible, although not likely, that you work in an all-Windows shop.

If, like 99% of people, you work in a heterogeneous environment, at some point you probably will want to expand your skills to include Linux or Unix. Cygwin is the answer to bridging that gap painlessly.

Cygwin is a powerful set of Linux and Unix (*nix) tools, but its real power comes from being able to turn your heterogeneous environment into a more homogeneous one. Although tools are available that you can add to *nix systems to make them more compatible with Windows, Cygwin creates a true hybrid Windows/*nix system. For scripted solutions, Cygwin includes a rich set of command-line tools, but it also has the ability to use graphical ones through its X Window utilities.

In this article, I will guide you through the installation and introduce you to the use of Cygwin, so you can hone your Linux- and Unix-related skills and expand your capability and knowledge in the *nix world. In one of my online articles [1], I provide an overview of Cygwin, but here, I give you a start-to-finish look at Cygwin and its features.

Although I can't teach you Linux commands in a single article, the intent is to give you access to this very powerful toolkit as a starting point for further study.

Preparing for Cygwin

Before you download and install Cygwin, I suggest you check the available space on your C: drive (or system drive), because a full installation of Cygwin

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