path: root/winsup/doc/cygwinenv.sgml

<sect1 id="using-cygwinenv"><title>The <EnVar>CYGWIN</EnVar> environment
variable</title>

<para>The <EnVar>CYGWIN</EnVar> environment variable is used to configure
many global settings for the Cygwin runtime system. It contains the options
listed below, separated by blank characters. Many options can be turned off
by prefixing with <literal>no </literal>.</para>

<itemizedlist Mark="bullet">
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)binmode</FirstTerm> - if set, non-disk 
(e.g. pipe and COM ports) file opens default to binary mode 
(no CR/LF/Ctrl-Z translations) instead of text mode.
Defaults to set (binary mode). This option must be set
before starting a Cygwin shell to have an effect on redirection.
</para>
<warning><title>Warning!</title><para>If set in 12/98 b20.1, all files 
always open in binary mode.</para></warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>check_case:level</FirstTerm> - Controls the behaviour of
Cygwin when a user tries to open or create a file using a case different from
the case of the path as asved on the disk.
<literal>level</literal> is one of <literal>relaxed</literal>,
<literal>adjust</literal> and <literal>strict</literal>.</para>
<itemizedlist Mark="bullet">
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>relaxed</FirstTerm> which is the default behaviour simply
ignores case. That's the default for native Windows applications as well.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>adjust</FirstTerm> behaves mostly invisible. The POSIX input
path is internally adjusted in case, so that the resulting DOS path uses the
correct case throughout. You can see the result when changing the directory
using a wrong case and calling <command>/bin/pwd</command> afterwards.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>strict</FirstTerm> results in a error message if the case
isn't correct. Trying to open a file <filename>Foo</filename> while a file
<filename>fOo</filename> exists results in a "no such file or directory"
error. Trying to create a file <filename>BAR</filename> while a file
<filename>Bar</filename> exists results in a "Filename exists with different
case" error.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)envcache</FirstTerm> - If set, environment variable
conversions (between Win32 and POSIX) are cached.  Note that this is may
cause problems if the mount table changes, as the cache is not invalidated
and may contain values that depend on the previous mount table
contents. Defaults to set.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)export</FirstTerm> - if set, the final values of these
settings are re-exported to the environment as $CYGWIN again.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>error_start:filepath</FirstTerm> - if set, runs <filename>filepath</filename>
when cygwin encounters a fatal error.  This is useful for debugging.
<filename>filepath</filename> is usually set to the path to the <filename>gdb</filename>
program.</para>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)glob[:ignorecase]</FirstTerm> - if set, command line arguments
containing UNIX-style file wildcard characters (brackets, question mark,
asterisk, escaped with \) are expanded into lists of files that match 
those wildcards.
This is applicable only to programs running from a DOS command line prompt.
Default is set.</para>
<para>This option also accepts an optional <literal>[no]ignorecase</literal> modifer.
If supplied, wildcard matching is case insensitive.  The default is <literal>noignorecase</literal></para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)ntea</FirstTerm> - if set, use the full NT Extended
Attributes to store UNIX-like inode information.
This option only operates under Windows NT. Defaults to not set. </para>
<Warning><Title>Warning!</Title> <para>This may create additional
<emphasis>large</emphasis> files on non-NTFS partitions.</para></Warning>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)ntsec</FirstTerm> - if set, use the NT security
model to set UNIX-like permissions on files and processes. The
file permissions can only be set on NTFS partitions. FAT doesn't
support the NT file security. For more information, read the documentation
in <citation>ntsec.sgml</citation>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)smbntsec</FirstTerm> - if set, use `ntsec' on remote
drives as well (this is the default). If you encounter problems with NT shares
or Samba drives, setting this to `nosmbntsec' could help. In that case the
permission and owner/group information is faked as on FAT partitions.
A reason for a non working ntsec on remote drives could be insufficient
permissions of the users. Since the needed user rights are somewhat dangerous
(SeRestorePrivilege) it's not always an option to grant that rights to users.
However, this shouldn't be a problem in NT domain environments.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)reset_com</FirstTerm> - if set, serial ports are reset
to 9600-8-N-1 with no flow control when used. This is done at open
time and when handles are inherited.  Defaults to set.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)strip_title</FirstTerm> - if set, strips the directory
part off the window title, if any.  Default is not set.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)title</FirstTerm> - if set, the title bar
reflects the name of the program currently running.  Default is not
set.  Note that under Win9x the title bar is always enabled and it is
stripped by default, but this is because of the way Win9x works.  In
order not to strip, specify <literal>title</literal> or <literal>title
nostrip_title</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)tty</FirstTerm> - if set, Cygwin enables extra support
(i.e., termios) for UNIX-like ttys. 
It is not compatible with some Windows programs.
Defaults to not set, in which case the tty is opened in text mode 
with ^Z as EOF. Note that this has been changed such that ^D works as
expected instead of ^Z, and is settable via stty.
This option must be specified before starting a Cygwin shell 
and it cannot be changed in the shell.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><FirstTerm>(no)winsymlinks</FirstTerm> - if set, Cygwin creates
symlinks as Windows shortcuts with a special header and the R/O attribute
set. If not set, Cygwin creates symlinks as plain files with a magic number,
a path and the system attribute set. Defaults to set.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>