msys2dl

This tool is designed for downloading, extracting MSYS2 packages and converting them to Debian packages for use in cross-compiling. While you won't be able to run executable files, you'll have access to includes and libraries to link against.

How to install

Option 1 (recommended): pipx creates a virtual environment for the installed application, ensuring that the application and its dependencies do not conflict with system Python packages.

pipx install msys2dl

Option 2:

pip install --user msys2dl

How to use

Conversion to Debian packages.

Note: Dependencies are processed by default. Use the --no-deps flag to opt-out.

$ msys2dl make-deb --output /tmp/deb --env mingw64 wxwidgets3.2-msw
Downloading packages...
Downloaded mingw-w64-x86_64-mpdecimal-4.0.0-1
Downloaded mingw-w64-x86_64-wxwidgets3.2-msw-3.2.4-1
...
Generated wxwidgets3.2-msw-libs-msys2-mingw64_3.2.4.1_all.deb
Generated wxwidgets3.2-msw-msys2-mingw64_3.2.4.1_all.deb
...
Done!
$ ls /tmp/deb
 bzip2-msys2-mingw64_1.0.8-3_all.deb
 expat-msys2-mingw64_2.6.2-1_all.deb
 gcc-libs-msys2-mingw64_13.2.0-5_all.deb
...
 wxwidgets3.2-msw-msys2-mingw64_3.2.4-1_all.deb
...
$ sudo dpkg -i /tmp/deb/*
...
Setting up wxwidgets3.2-msw-msys2-mingw64 (3.2.4-1) ...
...
$ ls -1 /mingw64/lib/
...
libwx_mswu_gl-3.2.a
libwx_mswu_gl-3.2.dll.a
...

Extracting.

Note: Dependencies are processed by default. Use the --no-deps flag to opt-out.

$ msys2dl extract --output /tmp/sysroot --env mingw64 curl
Alternatives: selecting mingw-w64-x86_64-libssh2 from providers for mingw-w64-x86_64-libssh2 (mingw-w64-x86_64-libssh2, mingw-w64-x86_64-libssh2-wincng)
Downloaded mingw-w64-x86_64-openssl-3.2.1-1
Downloaded mingw-w64-x86_64-curl-8.6.0-1
...
Extracted mingw-w64-x86_64-curl-8.6.0-1
...
$ tree -L 2 /tmp/sysroot
/tmp/sysroot
└── mingw64
    ├── bin
    ├── etc
    ├── include
    ├── lib
    ├── libexec
    └── share

Options

Basic

Option	Description
--env ENV	Optional. Specifies the MSYS2 environment to search for packages. Choose from clangarm64, clang32, clang64, mingw32, mingw64, ucrt64. This option enables the use of short package names like curl instead of mingw-w64-x86_64-curl.
--no-deps	Download only the specified packages without their dependencies.
--ignore-conflicts	By default, msys2dl stops if conflicting packages are in the set. Use this flag to opt-out.
--output PATH	Optional. Debian packages generated or extracted files will be located in this directory. By default, the current directory will be used.
--exclude PACKAGE [PACKAGE ...]	Optional. Ignores these packages. When resolving dependencies, excluded packages' dependencies are excluded as well. Useful if you want to bypass libraries installed from other sources.
--download-threads N	Optional. Download packages in parallel. Default is 5.

To combine --exclude with the list of included packages, use the following syntax:

$ msys2dl extract --exclude zlib -- curl 

Advanced

Option	Description
--base-url URL	Specifies the URL to download packages from. The default is https://mirror.msys2.org.
--keys-url URL	Specifies the URL to download public keys used to verify downloaded packages. The default is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/msys2/MSYS2-keyring/master/msys2.gpg.

Environment variables

Name	Description
MSYS2DL_HOME	Location where msys2dl stores the database and the packages. Default is ~/.local/share/msys2dl.