ConCygSys is a lightweight tool that installs portable Cygwin Unix-like environment and connects to portable ConEmu console emulator, with self-update feature.
This is an independent fork of amazing cygwin-portable-installer project. At first minimally modified for sysadmin purposes, later on filled with improvements and new features.
- Downloads and installs the latest Cygwin and makes it fully portable, so you can:
- move it to a different directory at any time
- replicate it by copying its folder
- rename the folder
- run from USB or network drive
- use it in folders with spaces
- Downloads and installs the latest portable ConEmu
- WSL support via WSLtty
- Only pure base with a couple of config files to make the installtion portable, no hacks with Cygwin/ConEmu code
- The installer is flexible, you can customize the installation process per your requirements
- You can add your own scripts to execute during installation/update (from URL or locally)
- Being portable, the script can also upgrade itself and its components
- Windows 7+ supported
Optional: Disable antivirus software on your PC during installation. Why it is recommended
- Download the latest ConCygSys release, extract the archive and go to the extracted folder
Optional: Edit
ConCygSys-installer.cmdto customize the installation per your requirements
- Launch
ConCygSys-installer.cmd
If Windows complains with a Windows protected your PC popup, you may need to click Run anyway to proceed with the installation.
- Once the installation is finished, use
Launch-*.cmdto run Cygwin/WSL.
Default behaviour of Cygwin console:
- Select by Left Click and release - copy
- Right click - paste
Shortcuts if using Cygwin via ConEmu console:
- Ctrl+` - open/hide console (quake style)
- Double click on Tab - rename a tab
- Double click on Tab Panel - open a new tab
- Win+X - open a new tab with standard Windows console
Use update.cmd launcher in the root of your ConCygSys directory to update the installation.
You will be able either to update Cygwin only or to perform a full update: Cygwin + ConCygSys core making the installation protable. ConEmu is already set to check its updates on startup and can update itself independently.
If you cannot find
updatelauncher or something goes wrong:
- Download
ConCygSys-installer.cmd(right click > save link as) to existing ConCygSys directory- Launch
ConCygSys-installer.cmd
Open ConCygSys-installer.cmd with text editor on your PC before installation to get a control over the installation process. Available options will be in SCRIPT SETTINGS section. All settings are accompanied with description.
After the installation, in order to change settings / add components, edit :cygwinsettings and :installoptions sections of update.cmd launcher (Right click > Edit).
If installed with default settings: 205M zip: 70.3M 7z: 40.3M
/cygdrive/DRIVE
BTW, different Windows files are symlinked in Cygwin environment. For instance, /etc/hosts file in Cygwin is linked to %WINDIR%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts. If you go to /proc/registry folder, you will see Windows registry structure. Many Windows programs can be executed from Cygwin as well, for instance:
ipconfig /flushdns - to flush your local DNS cache
cygstart "notepad" - open Windows Notepad
If you've chosen to install apt-cyg (enabled by default in installer), you can istall packages from command line, for instance:
apt-cyg install nano
More info about apt-cyg usage | Available packages
This can happen. Fortunately, the packages can still be built from source. Below are some examples for the reference:
Pre-built packages:
- change
CYGWIN_HOMEto/%%H/SOMEFOLDERinConCygSys-installer.cmd(% must be escaped) - install with admin rights to shared location, like C:\Program Files\cygwin
In this example every user who launched Cygwin will have own home folder in C:\Users\USER\SOMEFOLDER
For existing installation you can change home folder in /etc/nsswitch.conf. % sign does not need to be escaped in this case.
The version can be found at the beginning of:
- README.txt file
- any launcher file
