GitoxideLabs/gitoxide · error · anyhow::Error

{err}

Error message

{err}

What it means

This is a context-wrapping of an underlying object-write failure in `gix merge tree` CLI handling. After a merge produces in-memory trees, the CLI writes each tree back to the object database via `repo.write(tree)`; any write error (I/O, compression, missing object) is re-raised as `anyhow!("{err}")` losing its type but keeping the message.

Solutions

1. Check disk space and write permissions on .git/objects
2. Run the same operation as a user with write access to the repository
3. Inspect the inner `{err}` message for the root cause from gix::odb::write
4. Reproduce with a fresh clone to rule out object-store corruption

Example fix

// before
.map_err(|err| anyhow!("{err}"))?
// after
.map_err(|err| anyhow!("failed to write merged tree to object database: {err}"))?

fn can_write_objects(repo: &gix::Repository) -> bool {
    repo.workdir()
        .map(|d| d.join("objects").metadata().map(|m| !m.permissions().readonly()).unwrap_or(false))
        .unwrap_or(false)
}

match result {
    Ok(v) => v,
    Err(e) => { eprintln!("tree write failed: {e:#}"); check_disk_and_permissions(); }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the `gix merge tree` CLI (gitoxide-core `repository::merge::tree`) where the merge result tree cannot be written to the object database — e.g. unwritable .git/objects, disk full, or an internal gix::object::write error.

Common situations: Running merges in read-only or disk-full environments; permission issues on .git/objects; corrupted object database backends.

Understand the failure class

Background: "failed to write file", "Could not save figure", "Error saving remote file" — file write failed: causes and fixes across languages and libraries — this error's family across 38 libraries.

Related errors

• could not persist a prepared rebase object
• Cannot run without any task to perform on the repositories
• At least one operation failed
• No commits to process
• Refusing to checkout index into existing directory

AI-assisted analysis of GitoxideLabs/gitoxide@e73179060b (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/93df4ffd0e774be0. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at gitoxide-core/src/repository/merge/tree.rs:103

        if message.is_some() && has_unresolved_conflicts {
            write_unresolved_conflict_paths(err, &res.conflicts)?;
            if debug {
                writeln!(err, "{:#?}", res.conflicts)?;
            }
            bail!("Tree conflicted, refusing to write commit");
        }

        let tree_id = {
            let _span = gix::trace::detail!("Writing merged tree");
            let mut written = 0;
            let tree_id = res
                .tree
                .detach()
                .write(|tree| {
                    written += 1;
                    repo.write(tree)
                })
                .map_err(|err| anyhow!("{err}"))?;
            writeln!(out, "{tree_id} (wrote {written} trees)")?;
            tree_id
        };

        let conflicts = res.conflicts;
        if message.is_some() && !in_memory {
            persist_in_memory_objects(&mut repo)?;
        }

        if let Some(message) = message {
            let head_id = repo.head_id()?;
            let commit_id = if update_head {
                let commit_id = repo.commit("HEAD", message, tree_id, Some(head_id))?;
                let mut index = repo.index_from_tree(&tree_id)?;
                index.write(Default::default())?;
                commit_id
            } else {
                repo.new_commit(message, tree_id, Some(head_id))?.id()

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