CygwinPortable

Configuration files to make Cygwin portable on a USB flash drive.

Setup

Let's assume that your USB flash drive is on E:.

1. Install the PortableApps platform to your flash drive.

2. Create a folder at E:\PortableApps\CygwinPortable.

3. Download Cygwin and place setup.exe in the directory you just created. Rename it to cygwinConfig.exe (this allows you to run it without administrator privileges).

4. Install Cygwin.

   • Set the root directory to E:\PortableApps\CygwinPortable.
   • Install for "Just me".
   • Set the local package directory to E:\PortableApps\CygwinPortable\packages.
   • Besides the defaults, install git, vim, source-highlight and the entire X11 category.
   • Do not create shortcuts when you get to the last screen of the install.

5. Launch Cygwin-Terminal. Clone this repo into the root Cygwin directory:

    $ cd /
    $ git init
    $ git remote add origin git://github.com/ntmoe/CygwinPortable.git
    $ git pull origin master
   

6. Link the portable-ized configuration files (and some handy scripts that I use) to their proper locations:

    $ cd ~
    $ rm .bashrc .minttyrc /etc/profile
    $ ln -s /Other/bashrc ~/.bashrc
    $ ln -s /Other/dircolors ~/.dircolors
    $ ln -s /Other/minttyrc ~/.minttyrc
    $ ln -s /Other/profile /etc/profile
    $ ln -s /Other/cyg-wrapper.sh /bin/cyg-wrapper.sh
    $ ln -s /Other/startSumatra.sh /bin/startSumatra.sh
   

7. Now if you go to the PortableApps menu and refresh it, three Cygwin utilities should show up, those being:

   • Cygwin Setup
   • Cygwin Terminal
   • Start XWin Server

8. If you want to set your USERNAME:

• Go to App/CygwinPortable
• Change line 23 in CygwinTerminal.bat and XWinServer.bat to your username.