Reputation: 239

Adding MSYS to windows terminal

I added bash on windows to windows terminal by editing the settings.json file, when I try to compile a simple hello world written in c++ it throws an error that gcc or g++ is not detected How to properly add MSYS bash terminal so that I can compile file from windows terminal

In settings.json I added the path to the bash shell like so :

{
  "commandline": "powershell.exe",
  "guid": "{61c54bbd-c2c6-5271-96e7-009a87ff44bf}",
  "hidden": false,
  "name": "Windows PowerShell"
},
{
  "guid": "{b453ae62-4e3d-5e58-b989-0a998ec441b8}",
  "hidden": false,
  "name": "Azure Cloud Shell",
  "source": "Windows.Terminal.Azure"
},
{
  "commandline": "C:\\msys64\\usr\\bin\\bash.exe -i -l",
  "guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
  "hidden": false,
  "name": "msys2"
},
{
  "guid": "{495d29da-4bfb-4956-abd8-ed1760703232}",
  "commandline": "cmd.exe",
  "hidden": false,
  "name": "cmd.exe"
}

Upvotes: 16

Answers (3)

Gabriel Staples

Reputation: 53025

Part 2 of 2. (I had to split this answer into two parts because it's too long, > 30k characters).

Jump to Part 1 of 2.

Installing & setting up MSYS2 from scratch, including adding all 7 profiles to Windows Terminal...

...so you can build native Windows applications with gcc on Windows.

Building with gcc via the MSYS2 UCRT64 or other MSYS2 environments inside the Git Bash terminal

Since your custom MSYS2 terminals don't properly run git, and the Git for Windows Git Bash terminal doesn't properly run gcc, my recommendation is that you use the Git Bash terminal for everything.

To get gcc to run inside of it, we will use a custom msys2_terminal wrapper function from my answer here: How to specify in which of the 7 MSYS2 terminals to run a command in Windows from Bash, Command Prompt, & PowerShell. See the section of this answer titled "Final answer: a better Bash wrapper function to rule them all!"

So, go to that answer and copy my entire msys2_terminal function definition and the alias ucrt64="msys2_terminal ucrt64" convenience alias underneath it into your ~/.bashrc file. Then, close and re-open all terminals, or call . ~/.bashrc within each one, to cause them to re-source this file.

Usage: you can now run the msys2_terminal wrapper function from within Git Bash or any other MSYS2 terminal to run a command in any of the 7 MSYS2 environments:

# General usage:
msys2_terminal <terminal> <command> [<args>...]
 
# Example: show which terminal is running this command
# Example output: UCRT64
msys2_terminal ucrt64 echo '$MSYSTEM'

Now, inside the Git Bash terminal, you have access to gcc from the UCRT64 terminal!

Example run and output, showing that gcc is available from the UCRT64 terminal while you are operating inside the Git Bash or any other MSYS2 terminal:

$ msys2_terminal ucrt64 gcc --version
--Running in MSYS2 ucrt64 terminal...START--
gcc.exe (Rev2, Built by MSYS2 project) 14.2.0
Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

--Running in MSYS2 ucrt64 terminal...END--

Or, even easier, using the ucrt64 alias, simply call:

ucrt64 gcc --version

Pretty cool, huh? You now can use the Git Bash terminal for everything, including building and running and testing with the gcc compiler and other tools!

Additional MSYS2 configuration notes

The answer by @Weed Cookie helped me. It shows me how to use PowerShell to generate GUIDs, and how to specify the shell with -shall bash.

This MSYS2 documentation was the most useful: https://www.msys2.org/docs/terminals/. It showed me how to specify the commandline, icon, font, starting directory, and "shell type" with -ucrt64, -msys2, etc.

There are 3 places I am aware of to see that all of these 7 MSYS2 environments exist. This was not easy for me to track down. Here they are:

[The most definitive, perhaps] Open up the "C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd" Windows batch file in a text editor, and look for these lines:

rem Shell types
if "x%~1" == "x-msys" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=MSYS& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-msys2" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=MSYS& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-mingw32" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=MINGW32& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-mingw64" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=MINGW64& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-ucrt64" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=UCRT64& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-clang64" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=CLANG64& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-clang32" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=CLANG32& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-clangarm64" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& set MSYSTEM=CLANGARM64& goto :checkparams
if "x%~1" == "x-mingw" shift& set /a msys2_shiftCounter+=1& (if exist "%WD%..\..\mingw64" (set MSYSTEM=MINGW64) else (set MSYSTEM=MINGW32))& goto :checkparams

In those lines, we see the 7 shell types listed above. You can see that x-msys and x-msys2 are the same thing, because they both call set MSYSTEM=MSYS. x-mingw is a special case, because it checks for the existence of the mingw64 directory, and if it exists, it sets MSYSTEM=MINGW64; otherwise it sets MSYSTEM=MINGW32.

If you check the help menu for this batch file by running C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd --help in a Command Prompt, you'll see the following:

C:\>.\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd --help
Usage:
    msys2_shell.cmd [options] [login shell parameters]

Options:
    -mingw32 | -mingw64 | -ucrt64 | -clang64 | -msys[2]   Set shell type
    -defterm | -mintty | -conemu                            Set terminal type
    -here                            Use current directory as working
                                    directory
    -where DIRECTORY                 Use specified DIRECTORY as working
                                    directory
    -[use-]full-path                 Use full current PATH variable
                                    instead of trimming to minimal
    -no-start                        Do not use "start" command and
                                    return login shell resulting
                                    errorcode as this batch file
                                    resulting errorcode
    -shell SHELL                     Set login shell
    -help | --help | -? | /?         Display this help and exit

Any parameter that cannot be treated as valid option and all
following parameters are passed as login shell command parameters.

Notice that the "shell type" options are -mingw32, -mingw64, -ucrt64, -clang64, -msys[2]. The -msys[2] part means that you can use either -msys or -msys2 to specify the MSYS2 shell type. But, they are missing two of the types!: -clang32 and -clangarm64! So, the only way to see those is to look inside the C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd batch file itself, rather than looking at its help menu.

If you look inside C:\Users\my_username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\MSYS2, you'll see these 6 start menu entries:

'MSYS2 CLANG64.lnk'
'MSYS2 CLANGARM64.lnk'
'MSYS2 MINGW32.lnk'
'MSYS2 MINGW64.lnk'
'MSYS2 MSYS.lnk'
'MSYS2 UCRT64.lnk'

Again, they are missing one!--this time: clang32.

You can see all 7 .exe executables here: C:\msys64.

Here is what that looks like from the MSYS2: ucrt64 command line. You can see all 7 here:

ls -1 /c/msys64/*.exe

Output:

/c/msys64/clang32.exe
/c/msys64/clang64.exe
/c/msys64/clangarm64.exe
/c/msys64/mingw32.exe
/c/msys64/mingw64.exe
/c/msys64/msys2.exe
/c/msys64/ucrt64.exe
/c/msys64/uninstall.exe

You can also look online and see all 7 in the table here: https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/:

Other references

What is the alternative for ~ (user's home directory) on Windows command prompt? - answer: %USERPROFILE% or %HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH% (see my comment)
Oddly enough: even though Git Bash is based on MSYS2, you can't easily install git into MSYS2. MSYS2 actually recommends you install Git for Windows and use Git Bash: https://www.msys2.org/docs/git/

TODO

[ ] Add chocolatey/ripgrep (/c/ProgramData/chocolatey/bin) bin dir to MSYS PATH. This will give me access to rg.
[ ] Add meld (/c/Program Files/Meld/meld) to MSYS PATH.

Installing & setting up MSYS2 from scratch, including adding all 7 profiles to Windows Terminal...

...so you can build native Windows applications with gcc on Windows.

Tested on the latest version of MSYS2, msys2-x86_64-20231026.exe, from https://www.msys2.org/, on Windows 11, on 31 Oct. 2023, as a spooky treat.

As a more beginner-friendly, thorough, and customized version of @Weed Cookie's answer, here are additional details I and other beginners are sure to need.

Note that MSYS2 includes MinGW-w64 and the Pacman package manager, and is a powerful, Linux-like terminal and GCC and LLVM (clang) build environment for Windows. It is akin to Cygwin, and Git Bash from Git for Windows uses the MSYS2 mingw64 environment. However, MSYS2 is optimized for building software, so for using Git they recommend you also install and use Git for Windows's Git Bash separately. So, you can think of regular MSYS2 as a native Windows build environment, and Git Bash as a native Windows git and developer environment based on MSYS2.

MSYS2 is kind of like a light version of Linux running inside Windows. As compared to WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), which is Linux on Windows, MSYS2 has this huge caveat: from https://www.msys2.org/docs/what-is-msys2/ (emphasis added):

MSYS2 allows you to build native Windows programs, while with WSL you can only cross compile them which makes things more complicated.

So:

From Git Bash, you can run git commands in native Windows.
From the MSYS2 UCRT64 (or similar) terminal, you can run gcc build commands in native Windows. Ex: like this from my eRCaGuy_hello_world repo: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_hello_world/blob/master/c/hello_world_extra_basic.c#L24:
```
gcc -Wall -Wextra -Werror -O3 -std=gnu17 hello_world_extra_basic.c -o bin/a -lm && bin/a
```
From WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), you can have a true Linux environment within Windows. The previous two are Linux-like environments in Windows. WSL is truly Linux within Windows.

Description of all 7 MSYS2 profiles to add to Windows Terminal

Here are the 7 MSYS2 shell/environment types:

msys and msys2 (same thing now) - the base MSYS2 tool; all other environments below inherit from this one; contains the GCC 64-bit compiler and Cygwin C library
mingw32 - Minimalist GNU for Windows 32-bit; contains GCC 32-bit compiler
mingw64 - Minimalist GNU for Windows 64-bit; contains GCC 64-bit compiler
ucrt64 - UCRT (Universal C Runtime) 64-bit; contains GCC 64-bit compiler; MSYS2 says: "If you are unsure, go with UCRT64 [this one]." See this comment too. Works by default only on Windows 10 or later.
clang64 - contains the LLVM/Clang 64-bit compiler
clang32 - contains the LLVM/Clang 32-bit compiler
clangarm64 - contains the LLVM/Clang 64-bit ARM (AArch64) compiler

From: https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/:

Also from https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/ (emphasis added):

MSYS2 comes with different environments and the first thing you have to decide is which one to use. The differences among the environments are mainly environment variables, default compilers/linkers, architecture, system libraries used etc. If you are unsure, go with UCRT64.

The MSYS environment...is always active. All the other environments inherit from the MSYS environment and add various things on top of it.

For example, in the UCRT64 environment the $PATH variable starts with /ucrt64/bin:/usr/bin so you get all ucrt64 based tools as well as all msys tools.

The active environment is selected via the MSYSTEM environment variable. Setting MSYSTEM to UCRT64 and starting a login shell will put you in that environment.

For details on GCC vs LLVM/Clang and MSVCRT vs UCRT, see here: https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/.

UCRT (Universal C Runtime) is a newer version which is also used by Microsoft Visual Studio by default. It should work and behave as if the code was compiled with MSVC.

It only ships by default on Windows 10 [or later]

Main references:

https://www.msys2.org/docs/what-is-msys2/

MSYS2 vs WSL

MSYS2 allows you to build native Windows programs, while with WSL you can only cross compile them which makes things more complicated.
https://www.msys2.org/docs/environments/ - very useful!
https://www.msys2.org/docs/who-is-using-msys2/

Git for Windows is based on MSYS2

Setting up all 7 MSYS2 shells/environments to run in Windows Terminal

Download and install the latest version of MSYS2.
1. You can get it here: https://www.msys2.org/.
Ensure Windows Terminal is installed. If you have Windows 11 or later, it's already installed. If you have Windows 10 or older, you'll need to manually install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store, here: https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N0DX20HK701?hl=en-zm&gl=ZM

Open Windows PowerShell and run New-Guid 7 times, one for each MSYS2 profile entry we will create below. Copy and paste the numbers out into a text editor. You'll need these numbers later. Example: here are my generated GUID numbers:

6f0ee3d1-ac4f-48ca-bcf5-a9795f9942d2
80414396-5ef4-490b-af88-29600c19ca4a
aef16ae0-7dd1-4ac7-abd8-60a646abb9ca
a718a3d5-9e77-4d0d-b7b6-69ec3d190206
1f2869c0-1310-403b-93a7-9227f42eeb24
10c96d8f-9e6b-48f6-8f59-034c586d7e57
ada1f939-0f7b-400c-b755-8cbff4fd40a8

Open Windows Terminal, and add 7 new MSYS2 profile entries:

Open Windows Terminal.

Then, click the little drop-down arrow at the top-right of the open tab, and select "Settings" --> in the Settings tab that opens up, click "Open JSON file" in the bottom-left, as shown here:

In the JSON settings file that opens up, look for the "profiles" section in the JSON file:

"profiles":
{
    "defaults": {},
    "list":
    [
        // ...
        {
            "guid": "{b453ae62-4e3d-5e58-b989-0a998ec441b8}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "Azure Cloud Shell",
            "source": "Windows.Terminal.Azure"
        },  // <=== add this comma here!

        // new profile entries go here! <=====
    ]
},

Here, we will add 7 new MSYS2 profiles. Use a unique GUID from your previously-generated list above for each entry. Be sure to add a comma at the end of the last pre-existing profile entry above.

Here are my new entries in the JSON "profiles" list above. Your GUIDs should be different, based on what you generated above (I actually don't know if yours need to be different from mine; I just know each entry needs a unique GUID one from another). Ensure you put a comma after each entry, including adding a comma after the ending } of the last entry just above. Notice the Linux-like forward slashes in the paths.

My 7 new MSYS2 profiles:

"profiles":
{
    "defaults": {},
    "list":
    [
        // ============================
        // previous profiles above here
        // ============================

        // -msys and -msys2 (same thing now: both options run msys2)
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -msys2 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{6f0ee3d1-ac4f-48ca-bcf5-a9795f9942d2}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: msys2",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/msys2.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -mingw32
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -mingw32 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{80414396-5ef4-490b-af88-29600c19ca4a}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: mingw32",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/mingw32.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -mingw64
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -mingw64 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{aef16ae0-7dd1-4ac7-abd8-60a646abb9ca}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: mingw64",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/mingw64.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -ucrt64 (recommended default)
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -ucrt64 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{a718a3d5-9e77-4d0d-b7b6-69ec3d190206}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: ucrt64 (recommended default)",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/ucrt64.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -clang64
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -clang64 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{1f2869c0-1310-403b-93a7-9227f42eeb24}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: clang64",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/clang64.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -clang32
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -clang32 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{10c96d8f-9e6b-48f6-8f59-034c586d7e57}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: clang32",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/clang32.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

        // -clangarm64
        {
            "commandline": "C:/msys64/msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -clangarm64 -shell bash",
            "guid": "{ada1f939-0f7b-400c-b755-8cbff4fd40a8}",
            "hidden": false,
            "name": "MSYS2: clangarm64",
            // "startingDirectory": "C:/msys64/home/%USERNAME%", // alternative
            "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", // ie: C:\Users\my_username
            "icon": "C:/msys64/clangarm64.ico",
            "font": 
            {
                "size": 10
            }
        },

Copy and paste those 7 new profiles above into the correct location in your Windows Terminal JSON settings file.

Save the JSON file, and close it.

How to change your default shell:

Note that if you want to use another shell, such as fish or zsh, you can use -shell fish or -shell zsh instead of -shell bash in the profile commands above. See here: https://www.msys2.org/docs/terminals/. If you aren't sure, stick with -shell bash.
Back in Windows Terminal, click the little drop-down arrow at the top right of your tabs at the top. You'll now see these 7 new MSYS2 entries you just added!:
Click each one to test it, and ensure they all run.

To see which terminal you are in you can run echo $MSYSTEM in the terminal.

Example outputs:
```
MSYS
MINGW32
MINGW64
UCRT64
CLANG64
CLANG32
CLANGARM64
```
See also my answer here: How to specify in which of the 7 MSYS2 terminals to run a command in Windows from Bash, Command Prompt, & PowerShell
Choose an MSYS2 environment as your default Windows Terminal profile:

Click the little drop-down arrow to the right of the tabs at the top, and go to "Settings" again --> choose the "Startup" tab on the left.

Change the "Default profile" --> "MSYS2: ucrt64 (recommended default)".

Turn "Launch on machine startup" to "On".

Change "When Terminal starts" to "Open windows from a previous session".

Click "Save".

Here are what my Windows Terminal "Startup" settings looks like:
Change your HOME (~) dir from MSYS2's default of C:\msys64\home\my_username to your regular Windows home dir of C:\Users\my_username:

Open up C:\msys64\home\my_username\.bash_profile in a text editor, such as VSCode. Modify it so that it looks like this. Note: you can just comment everything out with # and add this to the top:
```
# Change your home (`~`) dir to `C:\Users\my_username`
HOME="/c/Users/$(whoami)"

# Source your `C:\Users\my_username\.profile` file, if it exists
if [ -f "$HOME/.profile" ]; then
    . "$HOME/.profile"
fi
```
Close and re-open Windows Terminal. Run echo ~ and echo "$HOME" and ensure they now both show /c/Users/my_username. Run ls -a and ensure you see the contents of your normal Windows home directory for your user. pwd should show that you are currently in that directory too, since we set this via "startingDirectory": "%USERPROFILE%", in the JSON file above.

See also my answer here: Change the location of the ~ directory in a Windows install of Git Bash
Install Ubuntu's default ~/.profile and ~/.bashrc files:

Now, create a C:\Users\my_username\.profile file, if you don't already have one, and put the entire contents of this default Ubuntu ~/.profile file into it, from my repo: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/blob/master/etc/skel/.profile

If you don't have ~/.profile file yet, the easiest way to do that is to open up your MSYS2: ucrt64 terminal and run the following:
```
cd ~

# download Ubuntu's default ~/.profile file
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/master/etc/skel/.profile

# we might as well get the ~/.bash_logout file too
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/master/etc/skel/.bash_logout
```
Now, go here for Ubuntu's default ~/.bashrc file: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/blob/master/etc/skel/.bashrc. Copy and paste the entire contents of this file into the top of your ~/.bashrc file.

Put a nice # ================== END OF UBUNTU'S DEFAULT ~/.bashrc FILE ==================== marker into the end of your ~/.bashrc file, and add any custom entries you want below that.

IMPORTANT: we do not want to remove the UCRT64 and MINGW64 type entries from our PS1 Prompt String 1 variables (which appear in the terminal before each line where you type), because we like seeing these important markers in our prompt, to remind us which MSYS2 shell we are in. So, go into your ~/.bashrc file and comment out all changes that Ubuntu does to the PS1 variable, like this:

Change this:

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
unset color_prompt force_color_prompt

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
    PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
    ;;
*)
    ;;
esac

...to this. Notice that the PS1= changes are all commented out by doing this:

# if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
#     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
# else
#     PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
# fi
unset color_prompt force_color_prompt

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
    # PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
    ;;
*)
    ;;
esac

Configure your PS1 prompt 1 string variable to show the git repo, branch, commit hash, and tags you are in/checked-out on:

# download this prompt string magic from my repo
curl -L https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/refs/heads/master/home/.bash_prompt_str > ~/.bash_prompt_str

# add a command to automatically source it in the bottom of your .bashrc file
echo -e "\n. ~/.bash_prompt_str" >> ~/.bashrc

References:

My article on my personal website: git submodule “Quick Start” guide
...and in my repo: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/blob/master/README_git_submodules.md

IMPORTANT: we do not want to accidentally override any really important system calls or build commands, such as make.

Go into your ~/.bashrc and ~/.profile files and search for anything silly, like overriding the make command. I had this in my ~/.bashrc file from some earlier hacks:
```
alias make="'/c/Program Files/Microchip/MPLABX/v6.10/gnuBins/GnuWin32/bin/make.exe'"
```
Don't do that! That could mess up everything when trying to build software in your MSYS2 terminals! Delete or comment out such nonsense, like this:
```
# alias make="'/c/Program Files/Microchip/MPLABX/v6.10/gnuBins/GnuWin32/bin/make.exe'"
```
Now, close and re-open all Windows terminal windows, or run . ~/.profile in each one to re-source your ~/.profile file.

If you don't know what "re-sourcing" means, read my answer here: source (.) vs export (and also some file lock [flock] stuff at the end).

Run alias to see all of your aliases. Look for any silly aliases you don't want, and delete or comment them out from your ~/.bashrc or ~/.profile files if necessary. Again, I had a ridiculous make alias (see above) ruining everything!

Also run echo "$PATH" to look for any silliness in your PATH that shouldn't be there. If you haven't been modifying your PATH before, it should be fine.
Test your new, beautiful Ubuntu settings: run ll and you'll see this alias now works! It is an alias for ls -alF, and comes from your ~/.bashrc file now.

Update MSYS2:

# Upgrade all packages; whenever it asks you to continue, just press 
# Enter to say yes. This could take a long time (tens of minutes) if
# you haven't updated in a while.
pacman -Suy
# Run it again to make sure everything is up to date. Keep running it 
# again and again until it finally says `there is nothing to do` on the
# last line.

References:

https://www.msys2.org/docs/updating/
man pacman; online here: https://man.archlinux.org/man/pacman.8.en
My own experimentation

Install the GCC compiler and other build and test tools into the MSYS2 UCRT64 environment:

# Install the GCC compiler
pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc
# Press Enter or type Y then Enter to continue

# Check the gcc version to ensure it installed correctly
# Example output: `gcc.exe (Rev2, Built by MSYS2 project) 13.2.0`
gcc --version

# Install ccache
pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-ccache

# Check your ccache version to ensure it installed successfully
# - I have `ccache version 4.10.2`
ccache --version

# Install gtest
# - As it installs, pay attention to what version it gave you. Mine shows
#   1.15.2-1:
#
#   Packages (1) mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gtest-1.15.2-1
#
pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gtest

References:

I learned this from the "Getting Started" content right on the home page of the MSYS2 project, here: https://www.msys2.org/.
Chats with GitHub Copilot, and personal experimentation
My Q&A: How do I build and use googletest (gtest) and googlemock (gmock) with gcc/g++ or clang?

Install VSCode and add the code executable into your PATH:

Install VSCode from here, if you don't already have it: https://code.visualstudio.com/

The code executable is found in the "$HOME/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin" dir.

Add it to your PATH by adding this line to the bottom of your ~/.bashrc file:
```
DIR="$HOME/AppData/Local/Programs/Microsoft VS Code/bin"
if [ -d "$DIR" ] ; then
    PATH="$DIR:$PATH"
fi
```
Close and re-open all terminals, or run . ~/.profile in each one to re-source your ~/.profile and ~/.bashrc files.

Now run code . in a terminal and it will open up a new instance of VSCode in your current directory. Now we're rockin'.
Install and configure git:

This is beyond the scope of this answer, but oddly enough, MSYS2 currently recommends you install and use Git For Windows and Git Bash (based on MSYS2) instead of trying to install git within MSYS2: https://www.msys2.org/docs/git/

So, here are some links to resources I've created to help you install Git for Windows / Git Bash:
1. Installing Git For Windows: https://github.com/ElectricRCAircraftGuy/eRCaGuy_dotfiles/issues/27#issue-1950880578
2. Adding Git-Bash to the new Windows Terminal
3. Running SSH Agent when starting Git Bash on Windows
4. Python not working in the command line of git bash
At a minimum: install Git for Windows. Then, add this to the bottom of your ~/.bashrc file to give your MSYS2 environments the most basic of git usage and access:
```
alias git="$HOME/AppData/Local/Programs/Git/bin/git.exe"
```
Close and re-open all terminals, or run . ~/.profile to re-source your ~/.profile and ~/.bashrc files, and your MSYS2 environments can now run this:
```
git --version
# I see: `git version 2.42.0.windows.2`
```
Now that you have MSYS2 installed and working, your Windows computer is much more useful and functional!

But, since you can't easily install git into MSYS2, you may still want to use separate terminals: MSYS2 terminals for building with gcc/g++ and testing with gtest, and the Git Bash terminal for git operations.

What a pain Windows is. Just wipe it and install Linux Ubuntu. Linux Ubuntu is the only OS installed on most of my computers, including for my kids. :)

Continue reading in Part 2 of 2...

Upvotes: 33

Weed Cookie

Reputation: 804

I would recommend checking the docs for that but here is my own MSYS edit

{
    "commandline": "C:\\msys64\\msys2_shell.cmd -defterm -here -no-start -mingw64 -shell bash",
    "guid": "{0caa0dad-35be-5f56-a8ff-afceeeaa6101}",
    "hidden": false,
    "name": "msys2"
}

Use New-Guid in powershell to create a new guid

Upvotes: 11

Adding MSYS to windows terminal

Answers (3)

Installing & setting up MSYS2 from scratch, including adding all 7 profiles to Windows Terminal...

Building with gcc via the MSYS2 UCRT64 or other MSYS2 environments inside the Git Bash terminal

Additional MSYS2 configuration notes

Other references

TODO

See also

Return to Part 1 of 2...

Installing & setting up MSYS2 from scratch, including adding all 7 profiles to Windows Terminal...

Description of all 7 MSYS2 profiles to add to Windows Terminal

Setting up all 7 MSYS2 shells/environments to run in Windows Terminal

Continue reading in Part 2 of 2...

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