GRASS GIS on Windows/Cygwin

$Date$

This directory contains the latest Win32 binary distribution of GRASS 5.0 as a gzipped tape archive (grass5.0beta12_CYGWIN_NT-4.0_bin.tar.gz or newer). The script grass5install.sh should be run from within the cygwin shell to install the binary package. Please read the detailed installation instruction. If you want to compile yourself, you can get the latest GRASS source code from the CVS-Server and follow the compiling instruction.

The port is compiled with the Cygnus compiler (gcc) from the same source code as the UNIX version. The port was done by John Huddleston.

GRASS on Windows is still experimental. Please expect some functionality missing or not working. Please assist us to identify and fix bugs and help us to improve the Windows port.

If you need a stable version of GRASS for production use consider installing Linux in an additional partition of your computer (dual boot setup) or dedicate a computer to linux. The Linux/Unix version of GRASS will be more stable and get better support due to the greater number of users.

For general information about running GRASS the first time read here.

Prerequisites:

You need three major requirements to run GRASS 5 on Windows:

Windows NT 4.0 (SP3 or higher) or Windows 2000 Professional with NTFS

(Windows 9x and Windows ME are unsupported),

Cygwin installation (Cygnus tools for Windows),
X Window Server.

Status of GRASS 5.0:

Working:

GRASS libraries and modules, commandline input/output and data manipulation,
shell scripting within GRASS.

All the GRASS modules work from within the cygwin shell (UNIX shell).

Partly working/functional:

X Window display system

tcltkgrass menu system

The X Window display system (GRASS monitors) and the tcltkgrass menue system/graphical user interface work, but are not very well tested.
You can use the GRASS monitors only from within the X Window system on top of cygwin.

Not working:

tcl/tk scripts (could be ported with minor effort)
nviz (togl needs to be ported, must be linked with the cygwin wish)
    [src.contrib/GMSL/NVIZ2.2]
GRID3D raster volume support (needs to be ported)
    [src.contrib/GMSL/g3d]
PostgreSQL-Interface (not tested)
    [src.garden/grass.postgresql]
ODBC-Interface (compiles with unixODBC-2.0.5, but not tested)
    [src/libes/dbmi/drivers/odbc]
R-interface (not tested)
r.in.gdal (requires external gdal library, compiles, but produces stackdump)
    [src/raster/r.in.gdal]
PNGdriver (problems compiling the gd library, not tested)
    [src/display/devices/PNGdriver]

These parts do currently not work and require some work and user feedback.

We are searching for developers to assist in finalizing the Windows port: If you are (somewhat) experienced, join the development team to speed up the port!

Installation instruction

Compiling instruction

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Andreas Lange, andreas.lange@rhein-main.de, $Date$