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Atratus is a Windows program that can run unmodified Linux binaries, eliminating the need to port Linux software to Windows.
Atratus is Windows software, that provides similar functionality to Cygwin using Linux binaries. Atratus can load ELF format executables created with gcc under Linux and run them on a Windows system without a CPU emulator or virtual machine. Atratus emulates the Linux system call interface, and works in a similar way to User Mode Linux.
Atratus maybe be useful to you if:
- you have software written for Linux and you want to run it on Windows. Atratus can help you to avoid wasting time on a Windows port, and concentrate on adding features to your Linux software.
- you need to use Windows in your workplace, and want to work with a Unix-like environment. Atratus is an alternative to Cygwin.
Applications that work reasonably in v0.12 include:
- Most busybox utilities (vi, ash, etc)
- vitetris
- dash
- robotfindskitten
- Greed
- The dropbear ssh client (dbclient).
To try it out, download the Atratus v0.12 Windows installer, extract to your desktop and run one of the batch files (e.g. vitetris.bat) under the atratus-v0.12 folder. 64-bit Windows is now supported.
Releases are made monthly around the middle of the month, and are announced on the mailing list and Freecode.
| Date | Version | Source | Windows Binary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Aug 2013 | 0.12 | On github atratus-0.12.tar.gz | On github atratus-v0.12-install.exe |
| 19 July 2013 | 0.11 | Not available atratus-0.11.tar.gz | On github atratus-v0.11-install.exe |
| 16 Jun 2013 | 0.10 | On github atratus-0.10.tar.gz | On github atratus-v0.10-install.exe |
| 16 May 2013 | 0.9 | On github atratus-0.9.tar.gz | On github atratus-v0.9-install.exe |
| 18 Apr 2013 | 0.8 | On github atratus-0.8.tar.gz | On github atratus-v0.8-install.exe |
| 14 Mar 2013 | 0.7 | On github atratus-0.7.tar.gz | On github atratus-0.7-bin.zip |
| 12 Feb 2013 | 0.6 | On github atratus-0.6.tar.gz | On github atratus-0.6-bin.zip |
| 18 Jan 2013 | 0.5 | On github atratus-0.5.tar.gz | |
| 14 Dec 2012 | 0.4 | On github atratus-0.4.tar.gz | |
| 18 Nov 2012 | 0.3 | On github atratus-0.3.tar.gz | |
| 16 Oct 2012 | 0.2 | On github atratus-0.2.tar.gz | |
| 15 Aug 2012 | 0.1 | On github atratus-0.1.tar.gz |
Source code is also available via git at git://atratus.org/git/atratus and browsable via github OR here is a link to the old gitweb and web.archive.
Source code for the binary package (busybox, vitetris and robotfindskitten) is available here. The build script is available as a separate git repository.
Atratus source code is licenced under the LGPL v2
If you don't wish to compile atratus yourself, use the self-extracting installer.
- Correct fork() and exec(), which have been a stubling block of previous Linux-binary-on-Windows work.
- Supports interprocess pipes.
- VT100 terminal emulation in the Windows console.
- Supports both dynamically and staticly linked executables.
- Supports glibc 2.15
- "userspace" is isolated in a separate address space, and cannot corrupt "kernel" state.
- The filesystem supports Cygwin style symbolic links on top of NTFS
- TCP and UDP sockets
- Compatibility:
OS Version 32-bit 64-bit Windows 2000 no n/a Windows XP yes ? Windows Vista ? ? Windows 7 yes yes Windows 8 ? ? Vista and Windows 8 may work, but are untested.
There are a number of projects that run Posix source or Linux binaries on Windows with various features and limitations:
- lbw depends on Microsoft's Interix.
- lxrun for SCO
- Cygwin, provides POSIX source code compatibility only.
- LINE is no longer actively developed
- UMLWIN32 was a usermode port of the Linux kernel.
- KEOW Kernel emulator on Windows, appears to be no longer developed
- Cooperative Linux is Linux running a driver/service in the Windows kernel. Requires Admin privilege to install.
- andLinux is Ubuntu + colinux
atratus is the Latin word for darkened or black.
cygnus atratus is the scientific name for the Black Swan, an Australian bird. The Black Swan is a book written by Nassim Taleb about improbably events.
atratus-devel - patches, feedback and other discussion about the atratus project
For issues with the website/mailing list, please mail me directly.