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!

Solution 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.

Solution 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

Solution 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)

Solution 4

As stated by @patthoyts

MINGW64 is the new icon being used with Git for Windows 2.x. 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.

MINGW64 and the name of the system is something that we don't want to or need to see always and sometimes may want to remove them for effective use of display space. To do that, we just need to comment out 4 lines in \Git\etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh which is typically inside your program files.

PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[32m\]'       # change to green
PS1="$PS1"'\u@\h '             # user@host<space>
PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[35m\]'       # change to purple
PS1="$PS1"'$MSYSTEM '          # show MSYSTEM

These are the 4 lines in git-prompt.sh, typically line number 14 to 17, that can be commented out by placing # at the start of each line to remove computer name shown in green and MSYSTEM shown in purple. If you just want to remove one of these, you can comment lines accordingly. It should look similar to this

# PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[32m\]'       # change to green
# PS1="$PS1"'\u@\h '             # user@host<space>
# PS1="$PS1"'\[\033[35m\]'       # change to purple
# PS1="$PS1"'$MSYSTEM '          # show MSYSTEM

Solution 5

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:

  

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Comments

[Etan Reisner]

There was just a release on Aug 31st. So you likely had an older version before that. This version clearly has a newer icon and newer shell configuration than the one you had before. We don't know what you downloaded though (since you didn't tell us) so can't say much about whether it was the right one.

[FelipeKunzler]

Hi, I put the link on the question, the strange thing about the icon is that I couldn't find it anywhere else. Any clue about the "MINGW64" in every line or why is that there? Thanks!

[Etan Reisner]

That's the new build. MINGW64 is likely the platform. What does declare -p PS1 say? It should have something for that bit in there (possibly a function call). If you don't like it you can change it.

[Etan Reisner]

Yeah, I don't know why that new icon isn't on the site under Logos or whatever. Maybe it snuck into the Windows build by accident or maybe the site is just lagging or maybe something else entirely. You could contact the git people if you directly if you want a more official answer.

[FelipeKunzler]

When I type this line "declare -p PS1" I get the following: declare -x PS1="\[\\033]0;\$MSYSTEM:\${PWD//[^[:ascii:]]/?}\\007\&#‌​93;\\n\[\\033[ 32m\]\\u@\\h \[\\033[35m\]\$MSYSTEM \[\\033[33m\]\\w\[\\033[36m\]`__git_ ps1`\[\\033[0m\]\\n\$ "

[aliopi]

Everytime I install Git I have to search for this question

[Damon]

navigating in the bash terminal, this will be at /etc/profile.d/git-prompt.sh

[Sonic Soul]

on windows this can be in C:\Program Files\Git\etc\profile.d

[Sonic Soul]

there is also TITLEPREFIX where you can remove it from the window title "TITLEPREFIX=SDK #-${MSYSTEM#MINGW}"

[Dylan Hildenbrand]

$HOME/.profile didn't exist for me, so I created it, copied the contents of /etc/git-prompt.sh, and modified it around the line #show MSYSTEM

[KyleMit]

If you're terminal is from an Atlassian Install of Source Tree, then this file is in %LOCALAPPDATA% \Atlassian\SourceTree\git_local\etc\profile.d

[ctrueden]

Downvoted due to the editorializing. Good info, though.

[ctrueden]

1) The phrase "whole bunch of unnecessary stuff" conveys your personal opinion about it. It would be more neutral and more technically accurate to describe what is included and why. Be respectful of the fact that people have put a lot of time into Git for Windows, it is a large community, and things are structured the way they are for good reasons. 2) Saying Git Bash "isn't actually a thing" is dismissive. It is a thing: it's the prompt that ships with Git for Windows, built on MinGW. Saying it's "just someone's preferred PS1" implies a personal mandate rather than community-driven OSS.

[ctrueden]

I still think the language is a bit unfair—e.g., bash does not come with versions of Windows before recent Windows 10 updates; in general it would be fairer to state something like "includes git plus a variety of additional software intended to make Git work out of the box regardless of your existing Windows configuration." But I do really appreciate the effort, so I switched to an upvote.

[mikemaccana]

@ctrueden Thanks, adjusted to specify Windows 10.

[Quang Van]

nice! I had to copy the contents in my \etc\profile.d\git-prompt.sh into ~\.bash_profile and then commented out those two lines. Works!

[aliopi]

The answer how to get rid of the pink MINGW64 is here stackoverflow.com/a/32912485/332788

[f4d0]

Does this have anything to do with having MINGW64 installed?

[Maciej Bledkowski]

It would be on probably line 16 and 17 ;)

[sfscs]

Thanks! I needed admin privileges to be able to modify the file. Just open you text editor as admin and then manually open the file.

[Jan Kyu Peblik]

This works to override PS1 utterly, but eliminates the git (branch) information from the prompt, which might make one wonder why a person is even using Git Bash as opposed to something less specific, like Cygwin with git installed and git-completion.bash in place (which in fairness one might wonder anyway).

[Jan Kyu Peblik]

Doesn't really answer question.

[ggorlen]

Thanks for your answer. Can you explain how this works to solve the problem?

[Jan Kyu Peblik]

@ggorlen It overrides (progressively enhances) PS1 by substituting out the variables (and singular characters following them) with nothing at all. Nothing is required but running that command (and re-sourc'ing ~/.bashrc or re-running Git Bash).

[ggorlen]

Nice, thanks. I recommend that you edit your post to include that information for future readers.

[Jan Kyu Peblik]

@ggorlen Pass. There are already enough essays here posing as answers. Plus it's right there in a comment that bored bureaucrats can merely not delete pointlessly. (I like your website.)

[user2023370]

I rather see this as the only one attempting to answer the real question. Who really cares about the pink glyphs of "MINGW".

[Evan M]

great answer, easy to follow- many thanks