4 ms·

What is the use case for Cygwin vs. WSL at this point?

by neonscribe 8y ago

ash 8y ago
Need to support Windows 7, for example.
ronsor 8y ago
Supporting Windows <10
meditate 8y ago
You may consider that WSL is to Cygwin as Wine is to Winelib.
kazinator 8y ago
Cygwin programs are (almost) native Windows programs. You can compile a POSIX-y program under Cygwin and it becomes a Windows program; you can ship it to a user if you just include a few DLL's that it needs. I forked Cygwin's main DLL (cygwin1.dll) to create "Cygnal": an drop-in alternative that provides more Windows-like behaviors in various areas. Programs built under Cygwin can be bundled with Cygnal. Then (for instance) they have path handling that is familiar to Windows users.
ksherlock 8y ago
Inertia Access to Win32 APIs. Static link and distribute to any windows user. Better interoperability with Windows/cmd/powershell
op00to 8y ago
WSL is great for when you can tolerate's WSL's incorrect, broken floating point math. [1] If you need your math to be correct, use Cygwin. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/830 https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/830
- NuSkooler 8y ago
  Or pressure MS to fix it. They are rolling updates to WSL quite fast.
  - op00to 8y ago
    There's been pressure, it's not a priority.
    - 13of40 8y ago
      It does seem a little niche, to be honest.
- mattnewport 8y ago
  What's broken is code that relies on long double offering more precision than double and expects to be portable. That's not guaranteed by the standard and isn't going to be true on all architectures.
  - lmz 8y ago
    To be fair, WSL claims to be (x86) Linux binary compatible. It's giving different results from actual Linux for the same binary.
chapium 8y ago
Its nice to have alternatives.
kevin_thibedeau 8y ago
There's also Msys/gnuwin32 which has some advantages over cygwin.
shawxe 8y ago
WSL filesystem performance is garbage, for one thing. Chances are good that if you're using Windows but you want to be using a Unix OS, it's your work that's forcing you to use Windows. And, if that's the case, chances are also good that the reason for that has something to do with a slew of legacy software that only runs on Windows. If both of those things are the case and you're trying desperately to develop a Unixy workflow, very clean integration with native Windows binaries is an unfortunate must. Cygwin delivers in that area much more effectively than WSL. Obviously Unix is my preference, but if I can't have Unix than I'd rather have Unix tools on the OS I'm being forced to use than a Unix sandbox will always be less than a real Linux/BSD install but fails to integrate properly with the OS I'm using by necessity. The funny thing about both Cygwin and WSL is that, in my experience, many of the people who make use of them wish that they didn't have to make use of them. For me, Cygwin makes it a little easier for me to forget I'm not where I want to be (especially with things like winpty and apt-cyg). In Cygwin I can run URxvt just like at home, and run all the nonsense legacy software I need to for work, just like it were actually reasonable. In WSL, I can do none of that. It just doesn't work. I have a few co-workers who run WSL alongside cmd.exe. If I'm going to have to do that, I'd rather just stick to Cygwin.

What is the use case for Cygwin vs. WSL at this point?

ash 8y ago

Need to support Windows 7, for example.

ronsor 8y ago

Supporting Windows <10

meditate 8y ago

You may consider that WSL is to Cygwin as Wine is to Winelib.

kazinator 8y ago

Cygwin programs are (almost) native Windows programs. You can compile a POSIX-y program under Cygwin and it becomes a Windows program; you can ship it to a user if you just include a few DLL's that it needs. I forked Cygwin's main DLL (cygwin1.dll) to create "Cygnal": an drop-in alternative that provides more Windows-like behaviors in various areas. Programs built under Cygwin can be bundled with Cygnal. Then (for instance) they have path handling that is familiar to Windows users.

ksherlock 8y ago

Inertia Access to Win32 APIs. Static link and distribute to any windows user. Better interoperability with Windows/cmd/powershell

op00to 8y ago

WSL is great for when you can tolerate's WSL's incorrect, broken floating point math. [1] If you need your math to be correct, use Cygwin. [1] https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/830 https://github.com/Microsoft/WSL/issues/830

NuSkooler 8y ago
Or pressure MS to fix it. They are rolling updates to WSL quite fast.
- op00to 8y ago
  There's been pressure, it's not a priority.
  - 13of40 8y ago
    It does seem a little niche, to be honest.
mattnewport 8y ago
What's broken is code that relies on long double offering more precision than double and expects to be portable. That's not guaranteed by the standard and isn't going to be true on all architectures.
- lmz 8y ago
  To be fair, WSL claims to be (x86) Linux binary compatible. It's giving different results from actual Linux for the same binary.

chapium 8y ago

Its nice to have alternatives.

kevin_thibedeau 8y ago

There's also Msys/gnuwin32 which has some advantages over cygwin.

shawxe 8y ago

WSL filesystem performance is garbage, for one thing. Chances are good that if you're using Windows but you want to be using a Unix OS, it's your work that's forcing you to use Windows. And, if that's the case, chances are also good that the reason for that has something to do with a slew of legacy software that only runs on Windows. If both of those things are the case and you're trying desperately to develop a Unixy workflow, very clean integration with native Windows binaries is an unfortunate must. Cygwin delivers in that area much more effectively than WSL. Obviously Unix is my preference, but if I can't have Unix than I'd rather have Unix tools on the OS I'm being forced to use than a Unix sandbox will always be less than a real Linux/BSD install but fails to integrate properly with the OS I'm using by necessity. The funny thing about both Cygwin and WSL is that, in my experience, many of the people who make use of them wish that they didn't have to make use of them. For me, Cygwin makes it a little easier for me to forget I'm not where I want to be (especially with things like winpty and apt-cyg). In Cygwin I can run URxvt just like at home, and run all the nonsense legacy software I need to for work, just like it were actually reasonable. In WSL, I can do none of that. It just doesn't work. I have a few co-workers who run WSL alongside cmd.exe. If I'm going to have to do that, I'd rather just stick to Cygwin.