Runtime for Windows 7: 3.3 vs 3.4

[sergeevabc]

Problem

Some app, let's say it's Sublime Merge, uses Git with Cygwin-based utils.
At present they no longer work on Windows 7 out of the box, they throw an error.

The stumbling block here is msys-2.0.dll 3.5 (incompatible with Windows 7) supplied with that app.

$ exiftool -machine* -product* -build* msys-2.0.dll
Machine Type                    : AMD AMD64
Product Version Number          : 3005.6.0.0
Product Name                    : MSYS2
Product Version                 : 3.5.7-882031da88370a60b08649bd808c49ebc2065a3e
Build Date                      : 2025-01-30 11:14

Solution

Get compatible msys-2.0.dll.

Question

Which version of msys-2.0.dll to choose:

• 3.3 https://repo.msys2.org/msys/x86_64/msys2-runtime-3.3-3.3.6-14-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
• 3.4 https://repo.msys2.org/msys/x86_64/msys2-runtime-3.4-3.4.10-3-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Both of them work on Windows 7, but surprisingly 3.3 is much more recent (Feb 2025 vs Jul 2024):

$ exiftool -machine* -product* -build* msys-win7-*.dll
======== msys-win7-3-3-6-14.dll
Machine Type                    : AMD AMD64
Product Version Number          : 3005.7.0.0
Product Name                    : MSYS2
Product Version                 : 3.3.6
Build Date                      : 2025-02-07 06:18
======== msys-win7-3-4-10-3.dll
Machine Type                    : AMD AMD64
Product Version Number          : 3005.3.0.0
Product Name                    : MSYS2
Product Version                 : 3.4.10-89a1e4a573d40b233011402f42630b970ff71291
Build Date                      : 2024-07-09 18:52

I would appreciate a response from someone who is privy to the development of this project and is familiar with these runtimes functional differences, not a quote from the release notes or a call to upgrade the OS.

[Biswa96]

At present they no longer work on Windows 7 out of the box, they throw an error.

Windows 7 is not supported since 2 years ago https://www.msys2.org/news/#2023-01-15-dropping-support-for-windows-7-and-80

[dscho]

It's really funny: Your reply looks to me as if it should be rephrased in order to make this world a better place. @Biswa96 probably expected you to read through that post which would have explained to you that Windows 7 is no longer supported in v3.4.* of the MSYS2 runtime (or for that matter, the Cygwin runtime). Your answer is therefore: use v3.3.*.

[sergeevabc]

The question is about functional differences (you see, that part of the question is even emphasized with italics) between two msys2-runtimes that officially RECOMMENDED (here and here), HOSTED (here) and WORK on Windows 7 x64 (I have tested them both for a month before coming here).

I'm not asking about the support, the future, or the color of your eyes, I ask about the difference between two working official files. All I've realized on my own is that 3.4 runs on Windows 7 x64, whereas 3.3 may run even on older OSes. But what are the functional differences? New functions could have been added/backported between Jul 2024 (3.4 build date) and Feb 2025 (3.3 build date).

[lazka]

Windows 7 64bit is supported by 3.4, 32bit by 3.3. The functional differences are basically https://github.com/cygwin/cygwin/blob/main/winsup/cygwin/release/3.4.0

[lazka]

Please ignore the build date, it's just a side effect of the recent 32bit msys sync and some package adjustments.

[rimrul]

Functional differences will mostly be listed in the Cygwin 3.4 announcement email. Feel free to read it.

The biggest one is probably that 3.3 runs on 32 bit systems, while 3.4 doesn't.

[jeremyd2019]

I have backported things to msys2-runtime-3.3 because it is the last version that supported 32-bit, and there are still 32-bit OS versions that are supported (Windows 10 until October). I was not interested in Windows 7. This is why 3.3 is newer than 3.4.

If you do downgrade msys2-runtime, expect issues. Things built against newer runtimes may use new functions which are not present in older runtimes, and thus fail to start. If you need an (unsupported) consistent snapshot you may try msys2/msys2-archive#2 (comment)

[sergeevabc]

Backported things… Jeremy, are you saying that mentioned runtimes 3.3 and 3.4 are functionally identical at the moment and the only difference is that 3.3 runs on 32-bit whereas 3.4 does not?

[jeremyd2019]

No. I backported things that I cared about (generally having to do with ARM64 host support), not everything

[sergeevabc]

If you do downgrade msys2-runtime, expect issues.

Indeed, one day something like this may happen. But for now apps that depend on msys-2.0.dll continue to work by simply replacing that file. However, I wonder if such a replacement is always enough. For example, there is a fresh version of socat, a prominent network utility, compiled by @jingjingxyk. It does not work out of the box on Windows 7 and consists of the following files:

$ tree .
.
├── cacert.pem
├── msys-2.0.dll
├── msys-crypto-3.dll
├── msys-ncursesw6.dll
├── msys-readline8.dll
├── msys-ssl-3.dll
└── socat.exe

$ exiftool -machine* -product* -build* msys-2.0.dll
Machine Type                    : AMD AMD64
Product Version Number          : 3005.7.0.0
Product Name                    : MSYS2
Product Version                 : 3.5.7-2644508ff8144e534dfcd2c7d1aef38c4eacadf8
Build Date                      : 2025-02-06 19:32

$ copy c:\win7\msys-2.0.dll .
1 file(s) copied.

$ exiftool -machine* -product* -build* msys-2.0.dll
Machine Type                    : AMD AMD64
Product Version Number          : 3005.3.0.0
Product Name                    : MSYS2
Product Version                 : 3.4.10-89a1e4a573d40b233011402f42630b970ff71291
Build Date                      : 2024-07-09 18:52

$ socat -V
socat by Gerhard Rieger and contributors - see www.dest-unreach.org
socat version 1.8.0.3 on Apr 29 2025 08:37:07
running on MSYS_NT-6.1-7601 version 2024-07-09 18:52 UTC, release 3.4.10-89a1e4a5.x86_64, machine x86_64

By replacing msys-2.0.dll 3.5.7 with 3.4.10 from my first post, I get socat that works on Windows 7 x64. So far so good. But what about other DLLs that we see here, do we ever need to replace them?

[jeremyd2019]

possibly. you're doing unsupported things, so they may or may not work, or continue to work.

[sergeevabc]

I finally came across an app that does not work with older msys-2.0.dll (3005.3.0.0). It is OpenSSH 9.9p2 supplied with Git 2.49. Unlike OpenSSH 9.9p1 in Git 2.48.1 package, it throws an error, as do all subsequent versions (up to 10.0p1-2) from packages.msys2.org. It makes me sad.