Why is “MINGW64” appearing on my Git bash?

Question

I had to format my laptop, and so I had to install Git again. However it is quite different from the one I had yesterday, the icon is not the default orange one anymore, it looks more like Chrome now.

The bash is quite different, including a purple "MINGW64" in every line. Why is it there?

Is this the new final version? Or did I download something different?

I downloaded https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/download/v2.5.1.windows.1/Git-2.5.1-64-bit.exe from https://git-scm.com/downloads .

Thanks!

Answer 1

This is the new icon being used with Git for Windows 2.x. The website needs an update for that I guess but there are not many volunteers typically.

The MINGW64 is the value from the MSYSTEM environment variable. This has been included in the bash prompt by setting PS1 in the /etc/bash.bashrc file. You can either override this in your own $HOME/.profile or edit the distributed one to remove that if you prefer.

Answer 2

Easiest way to remove 'MINGW64' is to comment two lines in file:

\Git\etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh
...
# PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[35m\]'       # change to purple
# PS1="$PS1"'$MSYSTEM '          # show MSYSTEM

Answer 3

"Git for windows" includes git plus a variety of additional software, which you may already have on your machine. This includes:

• bash (which already comes with Windows 10)
• ssh (which is also now included in Windows 10)
• 'git bash' which includes a preferences for a PS1, a shortcut file, and some other tools.

As PS1 tastes are generally personal you may prefer your existing setup.

If you want git, but don't want all the extra software, you can get a minimal build from nuget.

However if you use a GUI that may also include an embedded git - personally I use the one included with Sourcetree. In my powershell profile:

 Add-PathVariable "${env:UserProfile}\AppData\Local\Atlassian\SourceTree\git_local\bin"

This provides git without any additional changes to your system or extra copies of other software.

(Add-Pathvariable comes from PSCX by the way)

Answer 4

I just noticed this on my machine as well. The orange icon you're referring to is probably the Ubuntu icon you would normally get while running the "Bash on Ubuntu on Windows" app. However, when you installed GIT, it also uses a version of bash. The app is called "Git Bash" in the start menu.

When I simply typed "Bash" in the search box and then and pressed enter, Windows opened the "best match", which happens (in my case) to be GIT installation with MINGW64. If you type "Ubuntu" instead, or if you look at the start menu's choices, you should see the other bash.

This is important to know that the two environments are separate, since programs from one environment may not be installed in the other.

Answer 5

export PS1="${PS1/\$TITLEPREFIX:}"; export PS1="${PS1/\$MSYSTEM }" >> ~/.bashrc

Answer 6

It's a little different in the new git versions.

• copy the line below in /etc/bash.bashrc: export PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[35m\]$MSYSTEM\[\e[0m\] \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n'"${_ps1_symbol}"' '

• add it to ~/.bashrc and do some custom edit: export PS1='\[\e]0;\w\a\]\n\[\e[32m\]\u@\h \[\e[33m\]\w\[\e[0m\]\n '

  If you do not like the additional blank line when press Enter, just remove the \n above.

• source the ~/.bashrc file: source ~/.bashrc

• my terminal example: