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lazka merged 3 commits into from
Mar 1, 2026
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NEWS: mingw git #425

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NEWS: mingw git
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Expand Up @@ -5,6 +5,38 @@ summary: Important events happening.

This page lists important changes or issues affecting MSYS2 users. You can [:material-rss: subscribe via RSS](../news.xml). We also post them to [Mastodon](https://fosstodon.org/@msys2org) / [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/msys2org.bsky.social), including some not-so-important things :)

### 2026-02-28 - Native Git Now Available in MSYS2

We are pleased to announce that MSYS2 now includes a [native MinGW build of
Git](https://packages.msys2.org/base/mingw-w64-git) alongside the existing
Cygwin-based version.

This is made possible thanks to the hard work of the ['Git for Windows'
team](https://github.com/orgs/git-for-windows/people), who made various changes
in both projects, to make it possible to package their MinGW port of git and
easily keep it in sync going forward. If you encounter any issues, please report
them to us first before contacting the 'Git for Windows' team.

For comparison, some quick and unscientific benchmarks for a local clone of the
[GCC repo](https://gcc.gnu.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=gcc.git):

| Operation | Cygwin Git | MinGW Git |
|--------------------------|------------|-----------|
| `git status` | ~1 s | ~0.5 s |
| `git switch` (gcc 14↔15) | ~14.0 s | ~10.0 s |
| `git clone` (local) | ~45 s | ~22 s |
| `git grep` | ~2.6 s | ~0.55 s |

If you were using the [hack to make 'Git for Windows' work in
MSYS2](https://gitforwindows.org/install-inside-msys2-proper.html), which
involves adding 'Git for Windows' repositories to pacman, you might now be able
to switch to just installing git from MSYS2's own repositories instead. This
also allows you to install native git into environments other than MINGW64, such
as UCRT64 or CLANG64. Please note that our package is not as fully integrated
with Windows like the Git for Windows installer version, and lacks some features
such as the credential manager. It's also not as widely tested yet. Please give
it a try and let us know if you encounter any issues or missing features.

### 2026-02-28 - Dropping support for Windows 8.1

As Windows 8.1 has been end-of-life (EOL) for three years, Firefox has stopped
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