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diff --git a/winsup/doc/overview.sgml b/winsup/doc/overview.sgml deleted file mode 100644 index 6e38832e8..000000000 --- a/winsup/doc/overview.sgml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,115 +0,0 @@ -<chapter id="overview"><title>Cygwin Overview</title> - -<sect1 id="what-is-it"><title>What is it?</title> - -<para> -Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of a DLL -(<filename>cygwin1.dll</filename>), which acts as an emulation layer -providing substantial <ulink -url="http://www.pasc.org/#POSIX">POSIX</ulink> (Portable Operating -System Interface) system call functionality, and a collection of tools, -which provide a Linux look and feel. The Cygwin DLL works with all x86 -versions of Windows since Windows 95. The API follows the <ulink -url="http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/nfindex.html">Single -Unix Specification</ulink> as much as possible, and then Linux practice. -Two other major differences between Cygwin and Linux are the C library -(<literal>newlib</literal> instead of <literal>glibc</literal>) and -default <command>/bin/sh</command>, which is <command>ash</command> on -Cygwin but <command>bash</command> on most Linux distributions. -</para> -<para> -With Cygwin installed, users have access to many standard UNIX -utilities. They can be used from one of the provided shells such -as <command>bash</command> or from the Windows Command Prompt. -Additionally, programmers may write Win32 console or GUI applications -that make use of the standard Microsoft Win32 API and/or the Cygwin API. -As a result, it is possible to easily port many significant UNIX -programs without the need for extensive changes to the source code. -This includes configuring and building most of the available GNU -software (including the development tools included with the Cygwin -distribution). -</para> -</sect1> - -DOCTOOL-INSERT-ov-ex-win -DOCTOOL-INSERT-ov-ex-unix - -<sect1 id="are-free"><title>Are the Cygwin tools free software?</title> - -<para>Yes. Parts are <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/">GNU</ulink> software -(<command>gcc</command>, <command>gas</command>, <command>ld</command>, etc.), -parts are covered by the standard -<ulink url="http://www.x.org/Downloads_terms.html">X11 license</ulink>, -some of it is public domain, some of it was written by Red Hat and placed under -the <ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html">GNU General Public -License</ulink> (GPL). None of it is shareware. You don't have to pay anyone to -use it but you should be sure to read the copyright section of the FAQ for more -information on how the GNU GPL may affect your use of these -tools. If you intend to port a proprietary application using the Cygwin -library, you may want the Cygwin proprietary-use license. -For more information about the proprietary-use license, please go to -<ulink url="http://www.redhat.com/software/tools/cygwin/">http://www.redhat.com/software/tools/cygwin/ -</ulink>. Customers of the native Win32 GNUPro should feel free to submit bug -reports and ask questions through the normal channels. All other -questions should be sent to the project mailing list -<email>cygwin@cygwin.com</email>.</para> - -</sect1> - -<sect1 id="brief-history"><title>A brief history of the Cygwin project</title> - -<note> -<para> -A more complete historical look Cygwin is Geoffrey J. Noer's 1998 paper, -"Cygwin32: A Free Win32 Porting Layer for UNIX® Applications" which can be -found at the <ulink -url="http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/usenix-nt98/technical.html"> -2nd USENIX Windows NT Symposium Online Proceedings</ulink>. -</para> -</note> -<para> -Cygwin began development in 1995 at Cygnus Solutions (now part of Red Hat -Software). The first thing done was to enhance the development tools -(<command>gcc</command>, <command>gdb</command>, <command>gas</command>, -etc.) so that they could generate and interpret Win32 native -object files. -The next task was to port the tools to Win NT/9x. We could have -done this by rewriting large portions of the source to work within the -context of the Win32 API. But this would have meant spending a huge -amount of time on each and every tool. Instead, we took a -substantially different approach by writing a shared library -(the Cygwin DLL) that adds the necessary UNIX-like functionality -missing from the Win32 API (<function>fork</function>, -<function>spawn</function>, <function>signals</function>, -<function>select</function>, <function>sockets</function>, etc.). We call this -new interface the Cygwin API. Once written, it was possible to build working -Win32 tools using UNIX-hosted cross-compilers, linking against this -library.</para> - -<para>From this point, we pursued the goal of producing native tools -capable of rebuilding themselves under Windows 9x and NT (this is -often called self-hosting). Since neither OS ships with standard UNIX -user tools (fileutils, textutils, bash, etc...), we had to get the GNU -equivalents working with the Cygwin API. Most of these tools were -previously only built natively so we had to modify their configure -scripts to be compatible with cross-compilation. Other than the -configuration changes, very few source-level changes had to be -made. Running bash with the development tools and user tools in place, -Windows 9x and NT look like a flavor of UNIX from the perspective of -the GNU configure mechanism. Self hosting was achieved as of the beta -17.1 release in October 1996.</para> - -<para> -The entire Cygwin toolset was available as a monolithic install. In -April 2000, the project announced a -<ulink url="http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2000-04/msg00269.html"> -New Cygwin Net Release</ulink> which provided the native Win32 program -<command>setup.exe</command> to install and upgrade each package -separately. Since then, the Cygwin DLL and <command>setup.exe</command> -have seen continuous development. -</para> -</sect1> - -DOCTOOL-INSERT-highlights - -</chapter> |