# Installing WeeChat on windows using CygWin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420 "2015-05-20T13:30:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/1 "2015-05-20T13:30:45Z")
I’ve been crawling the internet for HOURS looking for a solution for this, but maybe someone here can help. Basically I want to install WeeChat on my windows computer, and doing so requires me to use CygWin. I downloaded the most recent and stable version of WeeChat, and also downloaded CygWin. To install CygWin I added all of the necessary dependencies for running WeeChat,the only problem is I have no idea where to continue from here. I’m not too knowledgable about programing and compiling, and only got this far by reading the few helpful things I came across online. Could anyone give me a (preferably) detailed step by step walkthrough on how to proceed from here? ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/2 "2015-05-20T17:30:40Z")
bump ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/3 "2015-05-20T19:32:25Z")
Did you try opening a cygwin terminal window and typing weechat? It works on my system. weechat is installed by default by the cygwin installer. If it isn’t installed try this: [https://distanthought.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/enjoy-weechat-on-windows/](https://distanthought.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/enjoy-weechat-on-windows/) ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2015, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/4 "2015-05-20T23:46:27Z")
Hi Tatterdemalion, I tried inputting weechat into the terminal directly and it gave me the output “-bash: WeeChat: command not found” On the subject of your link, I actually was originally following those instructions, but at the " ./configure --prefix=/path/to/directory" input I used two different inputs. The first was the input of the folder in which the WeeChat files were (my downloads folder) and was the command " ./configure --prefix= C:\Users\Wyatt\Downloads" which gave me the output “-bash: ./configure: No such file or directory” The second input was to the ACTUAL WeeChat files which had the command “$ ./configure --prefix=C:\Users\Wyatt\Downloads\weechat-1.2” likewise this input gave me the same output as before which was “-bash: ./configure: No such file or directory”. I’m not too sure on where to go from there, as it seems I have been halted at the very first step of the instructions :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/5 "2015-05-21T01:52:02Z")
When you downloaded the weechat source, did you untar the download file? tar -zxvf weechat-1.2.tar.gz then cd to the weechat-1.2 directory then do: $ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/bin --disable-gnutls --disable-tcl make make install You can also just omit the --prefix option. ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/6 "2015-05-21T03:13:37Z")
When I tried to do the “tar -zxvf weechat-1.2.tar.gz” command I got: tar (child): weechat-1.2.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory tar (child): Error is not recoverable: exiting now tar: Child returned status 2 tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now As the output. From there I couldn’t move on to do any of the other inputs and commands ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/7 "2015-05-21T04:17:57Z")
You downloaded the weechat source file correct? Open a cygwin terminal window. cd to where you downloaded the file to type: ls Do you see the weechat-1.2.tar.gz file? un tar it with the tar -zxvf \ command cd to the source directory then do the ./configure, make, install commands ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/8 "2015-05-21T12:55:10Z")
Firstly I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH Tatterdemalion!! I’m all the way at the step for the ./ configure, but am still having an issue. By now my command input is stuck in the directory “Wyatt@Laptop /cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads” I ran the command “$ ./configure --prefix=/cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads/weechat-1.2” and received the output “-bash: ./configure: No such file or directory” I tried tweaking the input directory to various things but still received the same “-bash: ./configure: No such file or directory” output. I feel certain we are on the right track, and this is just a matter of inputting the correct path, but I dont know for sure what that is exactly. Again thank you so much for all of your help! ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/9 "2015-05-21T15:49:28Z")
I also found a weechat-1.2.tar folder, that is seperate from the weechat-1.2.tar.gz , was that created from one of the command inputs? And if so is there any specific purpose that it serves that the .tar.gz folder does not? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/10 "2015-05-21T15:57:34Z")
> [@Char\_Aznable](#): > > I also found a weechat-1.2.tar folder, that is seperate from the weechat-1.2.tar.gz , was that created from one of the command inputs? And if so is there any specific purpose that it serves that the .tar.gz folder does not? You need to cd into that directory. The tar.gz file is a compressed file with the weechat source code. The configure script is in that directory. cd to that directory and run the configure, make and install commands from the instructions. If you have all the proper dependencies installed it should compile without error. ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/11 "2015-05-21T16:03:32Z")
I input " cd /cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads/weechat-1.2.tar" and got the output “-bash: cd: /cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads/weechat-1.2.tar: Not a directory” I’m not too sure what I’m doing wrong 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/12 "2015-05-21T16:11:38Z")
It seems the furthest I can cd is to “$ cd /cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads”, anything higher than that always gives the output that it isint a directory. I’m sure I have all the correct dependencies installed, because I have yet to receive an error when the correct input command goes through ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/13 "2015-05-21T16:13:43Z")
The .tar is a file not a directory you need to untar that. If you ran the tar -zxvf command there is probably a directory named weechat-1.2 where you ran the command. ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/14 "2015-05-21T16:20:47Z")
I ran the -zxvf command successfully only on the .tar.gz file and ended up receiving a large text output (which I wont post here because it would take up far too much space), I _thought_ that I had ran the cd to the right directory which was “$ cd /cygdrive/c/Users/Wyatt/Downloads” since that was where both the .tar and .tar.gz files were located. I tried to run the cd command into a more specific location but alway got the output that the location was not a directory. I just re-ran the -zxf command on the .tar.gz folder which would put me at the step now of having to cd to the correct source directory ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/15 "2015-05-21T17:30:24Z")
Update: I opened another terminal and put the initial cd command input as “$ cd C:/Users/Wyatt/Downloads/weechat-1.2” this is neither the .tar or .tar.gz file, but just a regular folder holding the weechat files. I ran the ls command on it and got AUTHORS.asciidoc Contributing.asciidoc ReleaseNotes.asciidoc autogen.sh COPYING scripts ChangeLog.asciidoc doc src cmake makedist.sh tests CMakeLists.txt Makefile.am weechat.cygport.in config.h.cmake po weechat.pc.in configure.ac README.asciidoc weechat.png Do I need to do anything to one of these files perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/16 "2015-05-21T21:40:00Z")
Good. You’re getting closer. Now run the configure.ac script with the ./configure \ command. Then make make install. ---
**Author:** ![Char\_Aznable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d07c76/32.png) [@Char\_Aznable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Char_Aznable)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2015, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installing-weechat-on-windows-using-cygwin/720420/17 "2015-05-21T21:47:35Z")
For the ./configure \ command what goes in the \ section? The configure.ac script?