MSYS2 - Stupid-Git/MyWiki GitHub Wiki

MSYS2 is the "upgraded" version of mingw/msys-1.0 and can be downloaded from
https://msys2.github.io/
The installer comes in "x86_64" for 64-bit, "i686" for 32-bit Windows flavours, and they say that if you have a 64bit machine, there is no reason to install the 32bit version, because you can make 32bit code with the 64bit tools. I'm not too sure about that so far.

At the end of the installer process, at step 4, press the finish button with the [Run MSYS2 Now.] box checked.
Make sure you carry out step 5.
5. Update the system packages with

pacman --needed -Sy bash pacman pacman-mirrors msys2-runtime

then
6. Close MSYS2, run it again from Start menu and update the rest with

pacman -Su

There is a step 8
Step 8. Take look at Detailed MSYS2 install guide for troubleshooting and additional details on how to keep your MSYS2 up-to-date.
It talks about

Update-core
but don't assume that that works properly.

I recommend

  1. launch msys2_shell.bat
  2. pacman --needed -Sy bash pacman pacman-mirrors msys2-runtime
  3. exit
  4. re-launch msys2_shell.bat
  5. pacman -Sy
  6. pacman -Su

and then search, install as you see fit

pacman -Ss vim  
pacman -S msys/vim