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Coreutils for Windows vs Cygwin: catalog facts
Coreutils for Windows	Cygwin
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Free Free and open source.
Windows, Command line	Windows, Command line
Native Windows builds of familiar UNIX commands Same commands and pipelines as on Linux, macOS and WSL	Large package collection of GNU and Unix tools POSIX API layer for porting Unix software to Windows
Some command names clash with built-in shell commands Windows-specific caveats affect some behaviour	Cannot run native Linux binaries; software must be rebuilt Requires Windows 8.1 or later for current versions
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: GPL and LGPL (varies by package)
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 1, 2026

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