How to stop git add -patch not displaying prompt in mintty

Question

When using git add --patch somefile.txt in cygwin I get a bizarre response.

After first typing the command it waits for me to hit enter without displaying anything. Once I press enter I get the following output

--- a/somefile.txt
+++ b/somefile.txt  
@@ -m,n +m,n @@
-Aple
+Apple
 Bear
 Cat
 Dog

Stage this hunk [y,n,q,a,d,/,j,J,g,e,?]? y - stage this hunk
n - do not stage this hunk
q - quit; do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining ones
a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
d - do not stage this hunk nor any of the later hunks in the file
g - select a hunk to go to
/ - search for a hunk matching the given regex
j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
J - leave this hunk un

And leaves the carat after un

After making a selection , in this case n I get the rest

J - leave this hunk unn
decided, see next hunk
k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
e - manually edit the current hunk
? - print help
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Lne 1
+Line 1
 Line 2
 Line 3
 Line 4
Stage this hunk [y,n,q,a,d,/,j,J,g,e,?]? @@ -289,6 +289,8 @@
 Line 289
 Line 290
 Line 291
+Line 292
+Line 293
 Line 294
 Line 295
 Line 296

The pattern continues for the rest of the file leaving me unable to tell which hunk I am being prompted on.

Answer 1

Given the number of votes, this has received it looks like I am not the only one with this problem.

It would seem that the default install of Cygwin does not include git. However, if you have installed git separately, it will have been added to your windows path and will appear to work in every other regard.

i.e.

> which git
c:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\git

Once I installed git through Cygwin and used that version the problem was solved

i.e.

> which git
/usr/bin/git

Answer 2

I usually see two settings when using git with Cygwin.

The first one (if your git config -l don't already include it) is about the pager (as in this gitconfig file)

git config core.pager C:/cygwin/root/bin/less.exe

[core]
        # we want to use cygwin's less, because msys's doesn't play well
        # with i/o via cygwin bash. This would be the default, but for the fact
        # that msysgit prepends `dirname argv[0]` to $PATH.
        pager = C:/cygwin/root/bin/less.exe

The other are about the TTY, as in this blog post:

export TERM=cygwin
export LESS=FRSX

One of those settings should make your git add -p runs more smoothly.