alibaba/open-code-review · error

git ls-files (tracked): %w

Error message

git ls-files (tracked): %w

What it means

listFilesViaGit runs `git -c core.quotepath=false ls-files -z` to list tracked files. Any failure of that git invocation is wrapped as 'git ls-files (tracked): ...'. It indicates git itself failed, not that files are missing.

Source

Thrown at internal/scan/provider.go:170

// with the simpler in-process gitignore handling (root .gitignore + the
// internal ExcludedDirs blocklist).
func (p *Provider) listFiles(ctx context.Context) ([]string, error) {
	if p.isGitRepo(ctx) {
		return p.listFilesViaGit(ctx)
	}
	return p.listFilesViaWalk(ctx)
}

// isGitRepo reports whether p.repoDir is inside a git working tree.
func (p *Provider) isGitRepo(ctx context.Context) bool {
	cmd := exec.CommandContext(ctx, "git", "-C", p.repoDir, "rev-parse", "--git-dir")
	return cmd.Run() == nil
}

func (p *Provider) listFilesViaGit(ctx context.Context) ([]string, error) {
	tracked, err := p.gitLs(ctx, "-z")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("git ls-files (tracked): %w", err)
	}
	untracked, err := p.gitLs(ctx, "-z", "--others", "--exclude-standard")
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("git ls-files (untracked): %w", err)
	}

	seen := make(map[string]struct{}, len(tracked)+len(untracked))
	all := make([]string, 0, len(tracked)+len(untracked))
	for _, f := range append(tracked, untracked...) {
		if f == "" {
			continue
		}
		if _, ok := seen[f]; ok {
			continue
		}
		seen[f] = struct{}{}
		all = append(all, f)
	}

View on GitHub (pinned to 5cf97d0d15)

Solutions

1. Run `git ls-files` manually in the repo to see the raw git error.
2. Ensure the git binary is installed and on PATH.
3. Rebuild a corrupt index with `git read-tree HEAD` (or re-clone).
4. Check for context timeout and raise it if the repo is very large.

cmd := exec.Command("git", "-C", repoDir, "ls-files", "-z")
if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("git ls-files will fail: %w", err)
}

func isGitLsError(err error) bool {
    return err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "git ls-files (tracked)")
}

files, err := provider.Enumerate(ctx)
if err != nil {
    var gitErr *exec.ExitError
    if errors.As(err, &gitErr) && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "tracked") {
        // inspect git stderr, possibly repair index
        return fmt.Errorf("repair git repo, then retry: %w", err)
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: p.gitLs(ctx, "-z") returns a non-nil error — git exits non-zero (not a repo despite the earlier check, corrupt index, git binary missing) or the context is canceled while git runs.

Common situations: Corrupt .git/index, git not installed or not on PATH, HOME unset causing git config errors, disk full, or context deadline exceeded on huge repos.

Understand the failure class

Background: "git command failed": what it means when a tool shells out to git and git exits non-zero — this error's family across 21 libraries.

Related errors

• git ls-files (untracked): %w
• %s failed: %w
• %s failed: %w: %s
• enumerate files: %w
• git show %s:%s: %w

AI-assisted analysis of alibaba/open-code-review@5cf97d0d15 (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8178e5a3dc65541a. Report an issue: GitHub.