rsync for git windows

[hochl]

I'm regularly working on several Windows systems across locations. I'm pretty happy with git for Windows so far, but I regularly miss one utility that would ease my workflow: rsync.

I am mirroring filesystem trees on several machines, and having rsync out of the box would be a great addition to the git for Windows installer. Has that idea already been floated? Would it be possible to include rsync?

[dscho]

The purpose of Git for Windows is really to bring Git to Windows.

While that implies that we have to ship quite a few Unix-like tools, it does not mean that we will include such tools unless they are needed for Git's own operations, or at least for historical reasons (needs of active contributors are sometimes a factor in deciding whether to include a tool or not).

Having said that, what you really are looking for is MSYS2. Git for Windows leverages MSYS2 and ships with a subset of its files. MSYS2 even sports a package management system called "pacman" to install more tools (including Git...), so why don't you give it a whirl?

[hochl]

Oh well, I know that, but it's really just rsync I need and I figure it's quite useful in connection with git, and since you also include ViM I thought rsync can't be such an additional hurdle.

I'll just get the SDK and roll my own version of git for Windows with rsync, no problem.

[dscho]

It's "really just XYZ" in every single case...

vim is required by Git for Windows due to historically being the default Git editor, with plenty of existing documentation on the web. That's in no way similar to rsync.