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### Calling Linux Application From a Windows Application

Rennie Johnson [renniejohnson at adelphia.net]

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 09:34:34 -0700

Oh great Linux Gurus:

I read your article on VMWare about running Linux apps in windows.

[[[ He probably means Jimmy O'Regan's article, here: http://linuxgazette.net/106/oregan.html -- Kat ]]]

I'm writing a monster OpenGL application on Windows. I want to be able to call a Linux shell application from within my program, is it is not available on Windows. I use Visual C++ 2008.net.

Any ideas?

Best regards,

Rennie Johnson

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Mulyadi Santosa [mulyadi.santosa at gmail.com]

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 23:48:48 +0700

On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 11:34 PM, Rennie Johnson<renniejohnson@adelphia.net> wrote:

    > Oh great Linux Gurus:
    >
    >
    >
    > I read your article on VMWare about running Linux apps in windows.
    >
    >
    >
    > I'm writing a monster OpenGL application on Windows. I want to be able to
    > call a Linux shell application from within my program, is it is not
    > available on Windows. I use Visual C++ 2008.net.
    >
    >
    >
    > Any ideas?
    >

you probably need to install Cygwin and your Linux shell application inside that Cygwin installation. Cygwin, FYI, is kinda "emulation layer" that allows Linux application to run on Windows by doing somekind of syscall translation. So, it's like WINE but it works the other way around.

    --
    regards,

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Jimmy O'Regan [joregan at gmail.com]

Sat, 5 Sep 2009 18:02:03 +0100

2009/9/5 Mulyadi Santosa <mulyadi.santosa@gmail.com>:

    > On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 11:34 PM, Rennie
    > Johnson<renniejohnson@adelphia.net> wrote:
    >> Oh great Linux Gurus:
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> I read your article on VMWare about running Linux apps in windows.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> I’m writing a monster OpenGL application on Windows.  I want to be able to
    >> call a Linux shell application from within my program, is it is not
    >> available on Windows.  I use Visual C++ 2008.net.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Any ideas?
    >>
    >
    > you probably need to install Cygwin and your Linux shell application
    > inside that Cygwin installation. Cygwin, FYI, is kinda "emulation
    > layer" that allows Linux application to run on Windows by doing
    > somekind of syscall translation. So, it's like WINE but it works the
    > other way around.

Not quite; Cygwin is not 'emulation' of that kind, it is an implementation of POSIX APIs on Windows and a collection of tools that use those APIs. It is not a Linux emulator, but as most of the tools and libraries it uses are GNU tools, they are the same as on Linux (this is the bit that the FSF throw a hissy fit about

It's only like Wine in that Wine is mainly an implementation of Win32 APIs on POSIX -- it happens to also include an emulator.

That said, Cygwin is a good option; many Unix tools compile and run with few or no changes on Cygwin. If the tool in question really is Linux specific, then there's always the option of using coLinux, which is a version of Linux built to run as an NT Service, or andlinux, which is a slightly more user friendly version of coLinux.

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Mulyadi Santosa [mulyadi.santosa at gmail.com]

Sun, 6 Sep 2009 00:08:47 +0700

On Sun, Sep 6, 2009 at 12:02 AM, Jimmy O'Regan<joregan@gmail.com> wrote:

    > 2009/9/5 Mulyadi Santosa <mulyadi.santosa@gmail.com>:
    >> On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 11:34 PM, Rennie
    >> Johnson<renniejohnson@adelphia.net> wrote:
    >>> Oh great Linux Gurus:
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>> I read your article on VMWare about running Linux apps in windows.
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>> I'm writing a monster OpenGL application on Windows.  I want to be able to
    >>> call a Linux shell application from within my program, is it is not
    >>> available on Windows.  I use Visual C++ 2008.net.
    >>>
    >>>
    >>>
    >>> Any ideas?
    >>>
    >>
    >> you probably need to install Cygwin and your Linux shell application
    >> inside that Cygwin installation. Cygwin, FYI, is kinda "emulation
    >> layer" that allows Linux application to run on Windows by doing
    >> somekind of syscall translation. So, it's like WINE but it works the
    >> other way around.
    >
    > Not quite; Cygwin is not 'emulation' of that kind, it is an
    > implementation of POSIX APIs on Windows and a collection of tools that
    > use those APIs. It is not a Linux emulator, but as most of the tools
    > and libraries it uses are GNU tools, they are the same as on Linux
    > (this is the bit that the FSF throw a hissy fit about
    >
    > It's only like Wine in that Wine is mainly an implementation of Win32
    > APIs on POSIX -- it happens to also include an emulator.

Oh, thanks for the correction. Well, I am not so familiar with Cygwin actually, so the word "emulation" was my way to express my understanding.

    --
    regards,

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