GitForWindows vs. Cygwin

[R0b0t1]

Hello list, I think there is information the OP can use, but no one
has apparently experienced it. Also, it's not likely he'd have gotten
good information from the other respective mailing lists, so I think
it is fine he asked here.

However, I am not very smart and my opinion does not matter, so I
apologize for the noise on the list.

On Tue, Mar 20, 2018 at 5:52 PM, KARL BOTTS <kdbotts@usa.net> wrote:
>
> Can anyone enlighten me about the relationship of "Git for Windows" to
> Cygwin?
>
> I have no intention to use GFW myself: I use Cygwin git.  But now other people
> around here are discovering GitHub, MSysGit and or GitForWindows.  Pretty
> soon, we are going to wind up with multiple git flavors installed on the same
> host, which worries me.
>
> I know that MSysGit is basically a stale fork of Cygwin.  I tried it a long
> time ago (during a period when the git in Cygwin was not getting updated
> often), and it caused me trouble.  As I recall, the bash in it was only v3,
> and I was used to v4, and some of my scripts didn't run right, and MSysGit
> messed up my HOME dir.  Anyhow, I got rid of MSysGit.  And now that the git in
> Cygwin is keeping current, I am quite content.
>
> But now I hear of this GitForWindows thing.  Which seems to have replaced
> MSysGit, with a GUI thrown in.  But is it _still_ a stale fork of Cygwin, or a
> fork at all?  Is it descended from MSysGit?  I have been googling all over,
> but not finding good answers.
>
> I just want to watch out for the damn thing, and try to keep it away...
>

What you need to watch out for is having a cluttered PATH. If you
install, say, the WinAVR toolchain, it includes either an MSYS
distribution or select pieces of Cygwin (bundling MSYS[2] is more
popular, from memory). These old tools will cause problems if you try
to run autotools for a native project from within Cygwin. Other
distributions, like the Haskell Stack, have the same problem.

If you install MSYS2 and Cygwin and both are in your path but you keep
both up to date, you won't have this problem.

Cheers,
     R0b0t1

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