alacritty.md

Alacritty

Alacritty on Windows 11 with MSYS2 UCRT64 bash with custom home directory

Install

1. Install Alacrity for Windows from https://alacritty.org/
2. Install MSYS2 for Windows from https://www.msys2.org/
3. Create minimal TOML configuration file for Alacritty

alacritty.toml in %APPDATA%\alacritty

[window]
opacity = 1.0
startup_mode = "Windowed"
padding.x = 10
padding.y = 10
decorations = "Full"

[window.dimensions]
columns = 128
lines = 48

[font]
size = 13.0

4. Launch Alacritty on Windows to make sure it works.

Integrate with MSYS2 UCRT64 and Bash

1. Add [shell] section in your TOML configuration file. Update according to your installation of MSYS2.

[shell]
program = 'c:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd'
args = [ "-defterm", "-here", "-no-start", "-ucrt64", "-shell", "bash" ]

Set your own custom home directory (e.g. network drive)

1. Modify [shell] section to below

[shell]
program = 'c:\msys64\msys2_shell.cmd'
args = [ "-defterm", "-no-start", "-ucrt64", "-shell", "bash" ]

2. Edit /etc/nsswitch.conf in MSYS2 (e.g. c:\msys64\etc\nsswitch.conf)

# Begin /etc/nsswitch.conf

passwd: files db
group: files db

db_enum: cache builtin

db_home: cygwin desc
db_shell: cygwin desc
db_gecos: cygwin desc

# End /etc/nsswitch.conf

3. Add a path to db_home

e.g. c:\temp

db_home: /c/temp cygwin desc

e.g. H:\

db_home: /h cygwin desc

e.g. Windows home directory

db_home: windows cygwin desc