Invoke MSYS2 Shell from Command Prompt or PowerShell
Starting from Command Prompt or PowerShell (either is fine; I can figure out how to do the other given one), how can I invoke the MSYS2 shell to run a command?
More specific issue
I'm including this information to avoid an XY problem, but I strongly believe this is best solved by the answer to the above (more general) question.
In particular, I'm hoping to write a shell script to update the packages listed in Part III, Step 3 here. So I need something like:
[invoke msys2 bash] -c "pacman -Sy --needed msys2-runtime"
Calling the bash executable directly doesn't work:
C:\>C:\msys64\usr\bin\bash.exe -c "pacman -Sy --needed msys2-runtime"
/usr/bin/bash: pacman: command not found
I assume it's an environment problem. Changing PATH to include the path to MSYS2's bin directory doesn't fix the problem either. When it tries to install a package, bad things happens (nano is just an example):
C:\>bash -c "pacman -Sy --needed --noconfirm nano"
:: Synchronizing package databases...
mingw32 is up to date
mingw64 is up to date
msys is up to date
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...
Packages (1) nano-2.3.6-2
Total Installed Size: 1.81 MiB
Net Upgrade Size: 0.17 MiB
:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n]
(1/1) checking keys in keyring [########################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity [########################################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files [########################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts [########################################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space [########################################################] 100%
(1/1) upgrading nano [########################################################] 100%
error: command (/usr/bin/bash /usr/bin/bash -c . /tmp/alpm_shqjUE/.INSTALL; post_upgrade 2.3.6-2 2.3.2-1 ) failed to execute correctly
Trying to invoke the batch file (C:\msys64\msys2_shell.bat) opens a new shell in a new window, which leaves me not knowing whether it failed or succeeded.
So how can I get the shell into MSYS2's normal state?
Answer
We're working hard to fix our messy update procedure, we want it to be trouble-free.
You can see some examples of how we invoke MSYS2 from a batch file when we create a new installer in:
https://github.com/Alexpux/MSYS2-packages/blob/master/msys2-installer/make-msys2-installer.bat
But as @StevenPenny suggests,
bash -l -c "pacman ..."
is the correct way.