git-annex now does Windows!

* First, [install git for Windows](http://git-scm.com/downloads)  
  Important: **Get the 32 bit version not the 64 bit version.**  
  (Note that msysgit is no longer supported.)
* Then, [install git-annex](https://downloads.kitenet.net/git-annex/windows/current/)

This port is now in reasonably good shape for command-line use of
git-annex. The assistant and webapp are also usable. There are some known
problems and parts that don't work. See [[todo/windows_support]] for
current status.

To verify that the build of git-annex works in your Windows system, you are
encouraged to run the test suite before using git-annex on real data. After
installation, run `git annex test`. There will be a lot of output; the
important thing is that it should end with "All tests passed".

## autobuilds

A daily build is also available, thanks to Yury V. Zaytsev and
[NEST](http://nest-initiative.org/).

* [download](https://downloads.kitenet.net/git-annex/autobuild/windows/) ([build logs](https://qa.nest-initiative.org/view/msysGit/job/msysgit-git-annex-assistant-test/))

## building it yourself

To build git-annex from source on Windows, you need to install
the Haskell Platform and Cygwin. Use Cygwin to install these packages:
gcc rsync git wget ssh gnupg

Once the prerequisites are installed, run:

	cabal update
	git clone git://git-annex.branchable.com/ gitannex
	cd gitannex
	build

Note that git from Cygwin is able to clone git-annex's git repository;
Regular git for Windows cannot due to some characters in filenames.

(To build the git-annex installer, you also need to install the NullSoft
installer system.)