Import MSVC environment variables into MSYS2

Summary

A simple Bash wrapper for the MSVC vcvarsall.bat and MSYS2 msys2_shell.cmd scripts.

Usage

1. launch a MSYS2 Environment terminal from a shortcut in the Windows Start Menu (MSYS2 folder) or run C:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd from a Command Prompt window or File Explorer
2. source msys2-vcvars.sh from the terminal or the shell script requiring the vcvars
3. call vcvarsall with the same arguments you would pass to vcvarsall.bat (see here)
   vcvarsall returns 0 on success
4. optionally call vcvarsall /clean_env to restore the original environment
   (/clean_env is an undocumented option of vcvarsall.bat)

Any MSYS2 environment will work. There is no need to edit the msys2_shell.cmd MSYS2_PATH_TYPE setting or -use-full-path because the full Windows %PATH% is inherited explicitly.

Note: source msys2-vcvars.sh, don't exec it; its shebang is only for stand-alone testing. Similarly, call function vcvarsall inline, as command substitution will import nothing.

Details

This script simplifies importing MSVC and ClangCL path and environment variables into the current MSYS2 process or shell.

The normal steps to set up a MSYS2 MSVC environment are:

1. launch a Developer Command Prompt window from a Windows Start menu shortcut, or run the vcvarsall.bat script from a normal Command Prompt window, then
2. run the msys2_shell.cmd script in full-path inherit mode to launch a MSYS2 Environment terminal

Instead, function vcvarsall delegates to the Visual Studio vcvarsall.bat (front end to VsDevCmd.bat) and MSYS2 msys2_shell.cmd scripts to do the same task but in-process.

It uses find to locate vcvarsall.bat, not the complex vswhere.exe tool. Alternatively, set VCVARSALL_PATH to the absolute path of vcvarsall.bat (Unix or Windows format).

See also

• vcvarsall syntax – vcvarsall.bat parameters
• extractvcvars.sh – the inspiration
• vcvars-bash – a similar tool
• ffmpeg-makexe.sh – example usage (search for vcvars)