regression: bundled less-691: Negative number not allowed in -z

[austindonnelly]

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
MSRC-LOMOND$

Windows version

Windows 11

Windows CPU architecture

x86_64 (64-bit)

Additional Windows version information

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.26220.7752]

Options set during installation

C:\Users\austind>type "c:\Program Files\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
Editor Option: VIM
Custom Editor Path:
Default Branch Option:
Path Option: Cmd
SSH Option: OpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: OpenSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFAlways
Bash Terminal Option: MinTTY
Git Pull Behavior Option: Merge
Use Credential Manager: Enabled
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Disabled
Enable FSMonitor: Disabled

Other interesting things

This is a known regression in less-691
gwsw/less#709
My core.pager config includes -z-2 to get two lines of overlap on each page. This broke in less-691, and is fixed in less-692.
Please update the version of less included in the Git for Windows release.

My .gitconfig includes:

file:C:/Users/austind/cygwin-home/.gitconfig    core.pager=less -e -M -X -z-2 -i -R -e -F

and my LESS environment variable is set to -M -X -z-2 -i -R -e -F
If I remove both the core.pager and the environment variable, the bug goes away.

Terminal/shell

Git bash in mintty

Commands that trigger the issue

git branch

Expected behaviour

I expect a listing of the local branches:

MSRC-LOMOND$ git branch
  austind/enable-broker
* main

Actual behaviour

I get two error messages, and once I hit return, I get the correct output:

MSRC-LOMOND$ git branch
Negative number not allowed in -z  <-- BUG
Negative number not allowed in -z  <-- BUG
Press RETURN to continue           <-- BUG
  austind/enable-broker
* main

Repository

Not repo-specific

[dscho]

This broke in less-691, and is fixed in less-692.

Unfortunately, less v692 was not yet released for general use:

29 Jan 2026

less-692 has been released for beta testing.

You can download it here.
The release notes are here.
This release fixes some bugs found in less-691 ( github #707, github #708, github #709, and github #710 ), reverts the HOME and END keys to their pre-691 behavior ( github #658 ) and allows lesskey assignment of separate functions to carriage return and newline ( github #703 ).

20 Jan 2026

less-691 has been released for general use.

You can download it here.
The release notes are here.

Since we inherit less.exe from MSYS2, and historically MSYS2 rarely deviated from the recommendation of the less maintainer to update only to versions that are released for general use, I don't think that we will update to v692.

[austindonnelly]

Oh, I see. Let's hope a "general use" release happens soon, as this is a quite a speedbump on most git interactions.

[dscho]

[...] this is a quite a speedbump on most git interactions.

Given that...

My .gitconfig includes:

file:C:/Users/austind/cygwin-home/.gitconfig    core.pager=less -e -M -X -z-2 -i -R -e -F

I understand that you meant "most of my Git interactions". In that case, I would propose to simply downgrade to the previous Git for Windows version, until a fixed less version becomes ready for general use and then a new Git for Windows version is published.

[dscho]

msys2/MSYS2-packages#6031 has been merged and is currently awaiting deployment in MSYS2. Which means that the next Git for Windows snapshot will likely have the fix.

[dscho]

I'll just call this closed, as -rc0 already shipped with less v692.