Can we build any latest python version on cygwin using the source? Does it require some level of porting or is it supported by default from the open source?
Looks like cygwin stopped updating python a long tine a go.
Can you use WSL (windows subsystem for linux)as a replacement for cygwin?
Thank you, Barry, the thing is I am cross compiling. Cross compilation from windows to Nonstop platform. WSL is out of picture as my cross compilers are windows based if I understand it correctly. Cross compiling any python say Python-3.13 would require build platform to support the same, in my case cygwin which seems to be stuck at 3.9 and I need 3.13 in cygwin.
Is there any way to alleviate the dependency of requiring same major python version required for cross compilation? This is not seen when normally building from source due to bootstrap python right?
Can we build Python for cygwin from source without any issues? Although there is no official support of python for cygwin, basic core functionalities should work right?
I guess you just have to try doing tne build.
I tried it, was able to build with minimal changes, however it doesn’t load modules from lib-dynload like _posixsubprocess, tried setting path variable but it doesn’t seem to work. Then found a thread to correct the same,
Problem with _socket und pyexpat on Cygwin - Python Help - Discussions on Python.org
Basically,
>>> import importlib.machinery
>>> print(importlib.machinery.EXTENSION_SUFFIXES)
['.dll']
>>> import sysconfig
>>> sysconfig.get_config_var("SOABI")
'cpython-311'
importlib.machinery.EXTENSION_SUFFIXES is not correct and needs manual renaming of lib-dynload dlls. If this can be done in automated way during build itself please let me know.
Well done. Is there a hard requirement for Cygwin? I have a lot more luck in general with MSYS2. In that, I used pacman to install Ansible (which needs some kind of posix compatibility layer on Windows) which happened to pull in a Python 3.12 build.
It’s possible to run an MSYS2 app from a normal (cmd) windows terminal, with a small incantation:
C:\Users\...>C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -msys -defterm -no-start -here -c python
Python 3.12.12 (main, Nov 23 2025, 14:30:39) [GCC 15.2.0] on cygwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>
Quote the Python command to run scripts:
C:\Users\drjam>C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -no-start -c "python --version"
Python 3.12.12
Python 3.12.12
MSYS2 is based on Cygwin
Since you (Mohammed Zuhaib) mentioned my post from October last year (2025), I finally uploaded the summary of all my efforts getting CPython compiled on Cygwin from that time:
It does not solve all the problems, but strives to be helpful for a successful compilation.
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Msys supports 3.12.12 I think and there is no support for 3.13 still in msys shell of msys2, my requirements are for building Python-3.13.
This should be helpful, thank you. But every new release of python will require such patches I believe.
Is the tool chain for that 3.12.12 build really so different for 3.13?
While cross compiling Python of a specific version say 3.13.x the host platform python should be of 3.13.x, this is done to alleviate bootstrap python requirement for cross compiling.
Yes thankyou - I know that very well. My point is, surely it’s a lot easier to work out how to compile 3.13, starting from a known build chain that successfully compiles 3.12.
In any case I’ve not tried this specific version, but there is already a build of 3.13 available:
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Oh ok, I understand now. Thank you @JamesParrott.
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Is It Possible to Build Python 3.13 on Cygwin?
yes, you may refer to the thread above by @friedrichromstedt .