MinGW - Minimalist GNU for Windows

A UNIX-like working environments for M$-Windows.

MinWG Homepage – MinGW: A native Windows port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), with freely distributable import libraries and header files for building native Windows applications.

MSYS is a collection of GNU utilities such as bash, make, gawk and grep to allow building of applications and programs which depend on traditionally UNIX tools to be present. It is intended to supplement MinGW and the deficiencies of the cmd shell.

pro:

Unix like directory tree
Full GCC development environment
Native Windows™ executable linked to common Windows™ libraries (nothing like cygwin.dll).

cons:

Requires more Linux/Unix skills (probably too much for those who just want to profit from the power of some few Unix commands.
No (out of the box) explorer integration
Some tools need to be selected manually (selecting full package may be too much for those who just want to profit from the power of some few Unix commands).

Installation

Read "Getting Started" advise.
Download the MinGW Installer
Run the installer and follow the instructions.
Note: You may accept the defaults, however be sure to select MSYS Basic System in the component selection dialog in order to create a user's home directory.

Install mintty for MSYS ¹⁾ ²⁾

mingw-get install mintty

C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\msys.bat --mintty

Install some very basic utilities from MinGW shell.

postinstall.sh

#!/bin/sh
 
# Get latest package list from server
#mingw-get update
 
# Upgrade already installed packages
#mingw-get upgrade
 
# Install important software packages from MinGW archives
#mingw-get install msys-wget
#mingw-get install msys-zip
#mingw-get install msys-unzip
#mingw-get install msys-man
#mingw-get install msys-perl
#mingw-get install msys-vim
#mingw-get install mintty
 
# Install optional extra software tools
OPT=`pwd -W | sed -e 's/\([A-Z]:\).*/\1\\opt/'`

For your convenience setup the Windows Explorer integration.

¹⁾ https://sites.google.com/site/axusdev/tutorials/installminttyformsys

²⁾ https://superuser.com/questions/955424/how-can-i-use-mintty-as-the-terminal-emulator-for-mingw-msys

Tutorials

Building a custom MinGW/MSYS development environment

More UNIX tools

GnuWin Packages

gnuplot

Windows Explorer Integration

In order to get an Open MinGW Bash here… item in the windows explorer's context menu add one the below to your registry ¹⁾ ²⁾:

MinGW_Open_Bash_here.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\MinGW_Here]
@="&MinGW: Open Bash here..."
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\MinGW_Here\command]
@="C:\\MinGW\\msys\\1.0\\bin\\bash.exe --login -c \"cd '%1' ; exec /bin/bash -rcfile ~/.bashrc\""
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\MinGW_Here]
@="&MinGW: Open Bash here..."
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\MinGW_Here\command]
@="C:\\MinGW\\msys\\1.0\\bin\\bash.exe --login -c \"cd '%1' ; exec /bin/bash -rcfile ~/.bashrc\""

If you like to cut&paste from/to windows applications you may prefer MinTTY as console replacement:

MinGW_Open_Bash_here.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\MinGW_Here]
@="&MinGW: Open Bash here..."
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\MinGW_Here\command]
@="C:\\MinGW\\msys\\1.0\\bin\\mintty.exe /bin/bash --login -c \"cd '%1' ; exec /bin/bash -rcfile ~/.bashrc\""
 
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\MinGW_Here]
@="&MinGW: Open Bash here..."
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shell\MinGW_Here\command]
@="C:\\MinGW\\msys\\1.0\\bin\\mintty.exe /bin/bash --login -c \"cd '%1' ; exec /bin/bash -rcfile ~/.bashrc\""

References:

¹⁾ Open Command Window Here

²⁾ Open Cygwin Bash Shell Here

Troubleshooting

Fixing the missing German umlauts – This also applies to MinGW.
MinGW-users - Portable MSYS ?