Install xfig 3.2.2 on Windows with Cygwin B20

If you have any problems when following the following steps, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions. You can also ask me if your question is not listed in FAQ.

1. Install cygwin B20 user tools.
   • Get the file user.exe
   • Run this file and install it. Then you will get a shell bash, which is the icon created by cygwin.
   • Define the variable HOME in c:\autoexec.bat (c:\home in the following command is just an example. You can use any directory under any drive). If you are using Windows NT/2000/XP, you cannot define HOME in autoexec.bat. Please refer the FAQ for how to define environment variables in these systems
     set HOME=c:\home
   • Create .bashrc file in your home directory, and copy the following lines into it:
     

     export PS1=`whoami`@`hostname`':$PWD>' export PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6.4/bin:${PATH}:. export DISPLAY=localhost:0 set completion-ignore-case on xhost + localhost set -o emacs function xfig () { command xfig -pwidth 8 -pheight 7 -but_per_row 3 -startgridmode 1 -startposnmode 1 $* & }

2. Install X11R6.4 binary for Windows (if you are using cygwin 1.3.x, you should install the new version of XFree86 coming with cygwin, thus skip this step)
   • Download the file B20_X11R6_4.tar.gz from one of the following sites to /usr (which is c:\usr for cygwin B20):
     • Cygwin Porting Project. Thanks to Tanguy Risset.
     • Germany (Nuernberg). Thanks to Michael Hirmke
     • my local copy
   • In bash, goto /usr (must be here) and unzip the file by:
     • tar xvfz B20_X11R6_4.tar.gz
   • You can remove B20_X11R6_4.tar.gz to save disk space
3. Install an X server for Windows (See more X servers here)
   • Download a fully functional demo (no time limit in the first 30 days, 2 hour limit after 30 days) from Starnet which is quite nice:
     http://www.starnet.com/products/downloads.php
   • Install X-Win32. It will remind you to have a break every 2 hours. Don't work too hard. ;-)
4. Install xfig binary for cygwin
   • Download the file xfig-3.2.2-cygwin-b20.1-bin.tar.gz to the root directory / (which is c:\ for cygwin B20)
   • In bash, goto / and unzip the file by
     tar xvfz xfig-3.2.2-cygwin-b20.1-bin.tar.gz
   • You can remove the file xfig-3.2.2-cygwin-b20.1-bin.tar.gz to save disk space
5. Now the xfig has been installed. This is how to run xfig:
   • Start X-Win32
   • Start bash
   • Type the command xfig in the bash window