# [ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.56.0-rc2

1 messages from 2026-09-22 to 2026-09-22. Participants: Johannes Schindelin.
Thread: https://gitlist.dev/t/66373

## Johannes Schindelin, 2026-09-22 21:40

Subject: [ANNOUNCE] Git for Windows 2.56.0-rc2
Message-ID: <1MRCK6-1xNLA12nEy-00MMUj@mail.gmx.net>

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Dear Git users,

I hereby announce that Git for Windows 2.56.0-rc2 is available from:

    https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/releases/tag/v2.56.0-rc2.windows.1

Changes since Git for Windows v2.55.0(5) (August 20th 2026)

Following the MSYS2 project, on which Git for Windows is based, Windows
8.1 support was dropped; In doing so, internal paths changed (/mingw64/
bin/git.exe does not exist anymore, /ucrt64/bin/git.exe takes its role;
if this breaks your setups, consider switching to /cmd/git.exe instead,
which is guaranteed to stay stable).

An issue with the installer for the previous version
(v2.55.0.windows.5) caused the "Use external OpenSSH" option to be
disabled for some users. This caused the bundled version of OpenSSH to
be installed and overwrote any previously-saved choice of external
OpenSSH. If you rely on an external OpenSSH installation, and you
updated to v2.55.0(5), you should consider re-running the latest
installer with "Only show new options" unchecked so that you can
re-enable the external OpenSSH option. The bundled version of OpenSSH
will be uninstalled automatically. If you do not rely on an external
OpenSSH installation, or you did not install v2.55.0(5) specifically,
you can safely ignore this notice.

New Features

  * Comes with Git v2.56.0-rc2.
  * Comes with Git LFS v3.8.0.
  * Comes with cURL v8.22.0.
  * Comes with OpenSSL v3.5.8.

Bug Fixes

  * The installer is now actually a 64-bit one, which fixes the problem
    that the external OpenSSH option was broken in Git for Windows
    v2.55.0(5) (see notice above).
  * It is now finally possible to commit 4GB objects or larger in Git
    for Windows.
  * Fixes a bug where parallel checkouts could abort with "* stack
    smashing detected *: terminated".
  * A bug introduced in Git for Windows v2.55.0(5), which caused vim to
    often open existing files with the first line missing, was fixed.

Git-2.56.0-rc2-64-bit.exe | 8e281eca0b4d911903ae6545016aa248d6a8322f0f794303d54039cfbe1707a2
Git-2.56.0-rc2-arm64.exe | ee47e6b1706554c574875ab143584e323971ae6a2c2089fc0ecf14b679b30d5c
PortableGit-2.56.0-rc2-64-bit.7z.exe | 81f2718f7110bafefaaa8a996ae2236115ab20eaca86e3b00688981f967b1d59
PortableGit-2.56.0-rc2-arm64.7z.exe | b2ee9d4c4ebc260f798e40f02beaf9e0513675a10c97cd6f9470e53e73d41229
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-64-bit.zip | 30fb85a3fbdca441bbe9ec330f4ff0fa7a946f4ef6ade28ff8075ee16d584d47
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-arm64.zip | 3ad9ca61b8d69a4dd1e0e2abfce0f98dc261b0325038734d94997faa5af27f3d
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-32-bit.zip | 27d1e333008eb57b863a3b83f7f4f915397a52642d224faae658b109451ba698
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-busybox-64-bit.zip | d90c636e0665ecbc5efef8aee9b0c6981c495b41f543a51d40eb7a3882a8fb40
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-busybox-arm64.zip | f33b8f0603bf2f629eefa62bc8ed89490766f7a93946d62eebb84d38e1811716
MinGit-2.56.0-rc2-busybox-32-bit.zip | ca6fe419616abdc3c6d0758f11eba1afdf57e10194f76d5171309f802273463c
Git-2.56.0-rc2-64-bit.tar.bz2 | 1cf1e95599ff3534ae39bdb60d4fda2384382696148785b3c5e807ce0600b19d
Git-2.56.0-rc2-arm64.tar.bz2 | 1b07b5e7fb3f57de51e076984933480fda23243b060ed6afa5f74b12bbc22683

Ciao,
Johannes

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