Git for Windows v2.53, iconv.exe is missing from the distribution.

[aaxyonov]

Existing issues matching what you're seeing

• I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Git for Windows version

git version 2.53.0.windows.1
cpu: x86_64
built from commit: a5512bdee37ed7142c233d21e2d347ffc4860ff3
sizeof-long: 4
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: D:/git-sdk-64-build-installers/usr/bin/sh
rust: disabled
feature: fsmonitor--daemon
gettext: enabled
libcurl: 8.18.0
OpenSSL: OpenSSL 3.5.5 27 Jan 2026
zlib: 1.3.1
SHA-1: SHA1_DC
SHA-256: SHA256_BLK
default-ref-format: files
default-hash: sha1

Windows version

Windows 11

Windows CPU architecture

x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional Windows version information

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26100.7623]

Options set during installation

Editor Option: VIM
Custom Editor Path:
Default Branch Option: main
Path Option: BashOnly
SSH Option: ExternalOpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: WinSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFAlways
Bash Terminal Option: ConHost
Git Pull Behavior Option: Merge
Use Credential Manager: Enabled
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Disabled
Enable FSMonitor: Disabled

Other interesting things

.gitconfig

[diff "utf16"]
textconv = "iconv -f utf-16 -t utf-8"

.gitattributes

*.reg diff=utf16
*.rdp diff=utf16

Terminal/shell

Bash

Commands that trigger the issue

git diff Documents/Default.rdp

Expected behaviour

Should properly display diff like in v2.52:

Actual behaviour

Displays errro:

iconv -f utf-16 -t utf-8: line 1: iconv: command not found
fatal: unable to read files to diff

Repository

No response

[dscho]

Which part of Git is calling iconv -f utf-16 -t utf-8? Is this a scripted Git command?

[aaxyonov]

A custom diff driver is configured in .gitconfig:

[diff "utf16"]
textconv = "iconv -f utf-16 -t utf-8"

This diff driver is associated with *.reg and *.rdp files via .gitattributes:

*.reg diff=utf16
*.rdp diff=utf16

When files of these types are modified, git diff is expected to apply the specified text conversion (using iconv) during the comparison process.

However, since iconv.exe is not present in the C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin directory in version 2.53, an error occurs during git diff execution

[tboegi]

I wonder if it makes sense that you use the working tree encoding
feature of Git:
https://git-scm.com/docs/gitattributes

[aaxyonov]

@tboegi I have found a working solution using .gitattributes and working-tree-encoding. Thank you for your advice.

[rimrul]

Looks like msys2/MSYS2-packages#5925 might be part of the reason whe're no longer shipping iconv.exe

[Aerocatia]

given the "pitfalls" section it might be better to put iconv.exe back in, also the git documentation says to run iconv --list to list available encodings.

[scara]

it might be better to put iconv.exe back in

+1

iconv in Git For Windows is part of many CI/CD automations, given it was there since ages.

Thanks in advance,
Matteo

[dscho]

Okay, it looks as if iconv.exe weighs only around 30kB... Which means that it would be okay to add it back, from an installer size point of view.

I am not necessarily a fan of guaranteeing to include things in Git for Windows that are not required for Git itself to work. It might set a really unfortunate precedent.

On the other hand, if Git for Windows users feel strong enough to open a Pull Request that adds iconv as a dependency both of the git-extra package and of make-file-list.sh, I guess in this instance I'd be okay with the change because it won't contribute meaningfully to the installer size.

[bricss]

This should help 🛟 with missing iconv:

echo "command -v iconv >/dev/null 2>&1 || alias iconv='wsl iconv'" >> ~/.bash_profile

Reload shell 🐚 and verify with: type iconv

[dscho]

@bricss I fear you overestimate the number of developers who are allowed to use WSL...

[rimrul]

Apparently this also broke git.git CI on GitLab. That seems to be in part due to a misconfigured $PATH, though, because git-sdk-x86_64-minimal.zip from https://github.com/git-for-windows/git-sdk-64/releases/download/ci-artifacts/ still contains /usr/bin/iconv.exe.

[scara]

HI @dscho,

if Git for Windows users feel strong enough to open a Pull Request...

I'm quite new to Git For Windows both source code and build mechanism.
First, I created the environment following Installing the SDK, issueing an skd init git then I followed Building an installer to create a baseline to see the actual missing iconv file from e.g. the portable installer:

cd /usr/src/build-extra
git fetch
git checkout main
./portable/release.sh 2026021501-test
7z l /c/Users/matteo/PortableGit-2026021501-test-64-bit.7z.exe | grep -i 'usr\\bin\\iconv.exe'

I forked the build-extra repo and applied the suggestions:

diff --git a/git-extra/PKGBUILD b/git-extra/PKGBUILD
index 559f0f3f..5c4d039c 100644
--- a/git-extra/PKGBUILD
+++ b/git-extra/PKGBUILD
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ mingw_arch=('mingw32' 'mingw64' 'clangarm64')
 url="https://github.com/git-for-windows/build-extra"
 license=('GPL')
 groups=('VCS')
-depends=('git-for-windows-keyring' 'diffutils')
+depends=('git-for-windows-keyring' 'diffutils' 'iconv')
 optdepends=('vim' 'filesystem')
 install='git-extra.install'
 pkgver() {
diff --git a/make-file-list.sh b/make-file-list.sh
index 9386ea6f..d5fce62b 100755
--- a/make-file-list.sh
+++ b/make-file-list.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ UTIL_PACKAGES="sed awk grep findutils coreutils"
 if test -n "$MINIMAL_GIT_WITH_BUSYBOX"
 then
        PACKAGE_EXCLUDES="$PACKAGE_EXCLUDES bash sh coreutils mingw-w64-busybox
-               libiconv libintl libreadline ncurses openssl
+               libiconv iconv libintl libreadline ncurses openssl
                mingw-w64-libmetalink mingw-w64-spdylay diffutils"

        EXTRA_FILE_EXCLUDES="/etc/post-install/.* /usr/bin/getfacl.exe

and built another portable version to verify the expected result:

./portable/release.sh 2026021501-test-fixes-6083
7z l /c/Users/matteo/PortableGit-2026021501-test-fixes-6083-64-bit.7z.exe | grep -i 'usr\\bin\\iconv.exe'

but it didn't work as expected.

The only way is IMHO to force the executable to be in the list, picking it from the actual SDK env and not via iconv package dependency:

diff --git a/git-extra/PKGBUILD b/git-extra/PKGBUILD
index 559f0f3f..5c4d039c 100644
--- a/git-extra/PKGBUILD
+++ b/git-extra/PKGBUILD
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ mingw_arch=('mingw32' 'mingw64' 'clangarm64')
 url="https://github.com/git-for-windows/build-extra"
 license=('GPL')
 groups=('VCS')
-depends=('git-for-windows-keyring' 'diffutils')
+depends=('git-for-windows-keyring' 'diffutils' 'iconv')
 optdepends=('vim' 'filesystem')
 install='git-extra.install'
 pkgver() {
diff --git a/make-file-list.sh b/make-file-list.sh
index 9386ea6f..c066681b 100755
--- a/make-file-list.sh
+++ b/make-file-list.sh
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ UTIL_PACKAGES="sed awk grep findutils coreutils"
 if test -n "$MINIMAL_GIT_WITH_BUSYBOX"
 then
        PACKAGE_EXCLUDES="$PACKAGE_EXCLUDES bash sh coreutils mingw-w64-busybox
-               libiconv libintl libreadline ncurses openssl
+               libiconv iconv libintl libreadline ncurses openssl
                mingw-w64-libmetalink mingw-w64-spdylay diffutils"

        EXTRA_FILE_EXCLUDES="/etc/post-install/.* /usr/bin/getfacl.exe
@@ -205,6 +205,10 @@ then
        ASSUAN_0_EXCLUDE='\|assuan-0'
 fi

+cat <<EOF
+usr/bin/iconv.exe
+EOF
+
 pacman_list $packages "$@" |

 grep -v -e '\.[acho]$' -e '\.l[ao]$' -e '/aclocal/' \

$ 7z l /c/Users/matteo/PortableGit-2026021501-test-fixes-6083-64-bit.7z.exe | grep -i 'usr\\bin\\iconv.exe'
2026-01-15 08:15:25 ....A        33549               usr\bin\iconv.exe

I feel I'm missing something about "forcing" that dep: any further advice?

Thanks in advance,
Matteo