| Developer(s) | Andy Koppe |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 2008 |
| Stable release | 1.0.2 / November 19, 2011 |
| Written in | C |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Platform | Cygwin |
| Type | Terminal emulator |
| License | GPLv3+ |
| Website | mintty.googlecode.com |
In computing, mintty is a free and open source terminal emulator for Cygwin, the Unix-like environment for Windows. It features a native Windows user interface and does not require an X server.[1] Its terminal emulation is aimed to be compatible with xterm.[2]
Mintty is based on the terminal emulation and Windows frontend parts of PuTTY, but improves on them in a number of ways, particularly regarding xterm compatibility.[3] It is written in C. The POSIX API provided by Cygwin is used to communicate with processes running within mintty, while its user interface is implemented using the Windows API. The program icon comes from KDE's Konsole.[4]
Advantages over Cygwin's default console include a more flexible user interface and closer adherence to Unix standards and conventions. Since it is not based on the standard Windows console, however, programs written specifically for that do not work correctly in mintty.
Originally the project's name was styled "MinTTY", following the example of PuTTY, but it was later restyled to "mintty", which was felt to better suit the project's minimalist approach.[5]
Mintty packages are shipped with the Cygwin distribution[6] and also with MSYS[7] (a more minimal Unix environment based on Cygwin).