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I'd like to download the basic stuff like 'rm -rf'.

I used to just download cygwin, but are binutils or some other alternative better (if all I need are the truely basic stuff ... I'm trying to think of anything I'm missing beyond 'rm -rf' and rather failling at it a.t.m)

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    Short note: rd /s /q is the Windows variant of rm -rf.
    – Joey
    Commented Aug 18, 2009 at 21:28
  • gnuwin32, cygwin, mingw, windows SUA, gow
    – barlop
    Commented Jul 16, 2015 at 0:36

4 Answers 4

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I'm a big fan of GnuWin32.

You can download just the packages you need; each stands alone so you don't need to install any core Unix emulation layer like with Cygwin.

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    I think that GnuWin32 is the best answer for the question asked. I would also suggest looking at Powershell if you anticipate working at the command line a lot in windows.
    – EBGreen
    Commented Aug 17, 2009 at 14:09
  • Well, I'll go with the majority vote here, even though when I left work it was still downloading so I don't really know.
    – ripper234
    Commented Aug 17, 2009 at 18:15
  • I use both. There are some good *nix commands or apps that aren't GNU. Many neither cygwin nor of course gnuwin32 has(I notice neither has "rename".. But, others like Apache.. is not GNU, so hence I suppose maybe why gnuwin32 doesn't have it. But cygwin has it.
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 22:56
  • These are great for doing a lot of things on a windows system without having to figure out windows equivalents - just put it all in a directory and add that directory to your path. If you are going to be administrating a Windows system, it would pay to get familiar with powershell.
    – MaQleod
    Commented May 16, 2014 at 17:53
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    @GuitarPicker turned out gnuwin32 does have rename - in the linux-utils-ng package, which has various non-gnu stuff. There is also a google search box (as in site:gnuwin32.sour.. + whatever you search for ) on the gnuwin32 site gnuwin32.sourceforge.net that shows it there if you enter rename. Also and that aside, maybe a rename command (whether in windows or linux) is superfluous as there is a move command that can be used to rename.
    – barlop
    Commented May 13, 2015 at 0:29
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I much prefer GnuWin32, especially if you only want a small subset of the linux toolset. The installation process is much easier than cygwin, especially if you don't care about a BASH shell.

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Stupid Idea I just had: Build a busybox binary. It should have just the bare essentials.

You could, perhaps, easily build a standalone, portable, minimalistic cygwin distro (with just the registry entries and the .dll files).

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UnxUtils is another alternative to consider, though I prefer GnuWin32 myself.

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  • unxutils the programs are old versions.. and probably all within gnuwin32 anyway..the website unxutils.sourceforge.net says last updated in 2003.And I think all the unxutils are gnu anyway.. the website says so.so it looks like maybe it's effectively superceded by gnuwin32. I don't know if it has any advantages at all.though it does have things like wget and grep automatically.. gnuwin32 has them but you download them individually.not them all. gnu coreutils has many in one,but wget and grep and others are individuals.just reality.not a good reason 2use unxutils with its old versions.
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 22:48
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    Just noticed.. gnuwin32 also has non-gnu software. there's a package linux-utils-ng That has the rename command.
    – barlop
    Commented Sep 5, 2010 at 23:00

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