How to stop git add -patch not displaying prompt in mintty

Question

When using git add --patch somefile.txt in cygwin I get a bizarre response.

After first typing the command it waits for me to hit enter without displaying anything. Once I press enter I get the following output

--- a/somefile.txt
+++ b/somefile.txt  
@@ -m,n +m,n @@
-Aple
+Apple
 Bear
 Cat
 Dog

Stage this hunk [y,n,q,a,d,/,j,J,g,e,?]? y - stage this hunk
n - do not stage this hunk
q - quit; do not stage this hunk nor any of the remaining ones
a - stage this hunk and all later hunks in the file
d - do not stage this hunk nor any of the later hunks in the file
g - select a hunk to go to
/ - search for a hunk matching the given regex
j - leave this hunk undecided, see next undecided hunk
J - leave this hunk un

And leaves the carat after un

After making a selection , in this case n I get the rest

J - leave this hunk unn
decided, see next hunk
k - leave this hunk undecided, see previous undecided hunk
K - leave this hunk undecided, see previous hunk
s - split the current hunk into smaller hunks
e - manually edit the current hunk
? - print help
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-Lne 1
+Line 1
 Line 2
 Line 3
 Line 4
Stage this hunk [y,n,q,a,d,/,j,J,g,e,?]? @@ -289,6 +289,8 @@
 Line 289
 Line 290
 Line 291
+Line 292
+Line 293
 Line 294
 Line 295
 Line 296

The pattern continues for the rest of the file leaving me unable to tell which hunk I am being prompted on.

Answer 1

I usually see two settings when using git with Cygwin.

The first one (if your git config -l don't already include it) is about the pager (as in this gitconfig file)

git config core.pager C:/cygwin/root/bin/less.exe

[core]
        # we want to use cygwin's less, because msys's doesn't play well
        # with i/o via cygwin bash. This would be the default, but for the fact
        # that msysgit prepends `dirname argv[0]` to $PATH.
        pager = C:/cygwin/root/bin/less.exe

The other are about the TTY, as in this blog post:

export TERM=cygwin
export LESS=FRSX

One of those settings should make your git add -p runs more smoothly.