An error occurred when trying to get the file ${age === 'old

Error message

An error occurred when trying to get the file ${age === 'oldest' ? 'creation' : 'last update'} date from Git

What it means

Thrown by getGitCommitInfo() as a wrapper-level catch-all after getFileCommitDate rejects with an error that is neither GitNotFoundError nor FileNotTrackedError. Those two known cases are downgraded to a single logger.warn; any other failure (file-missing, non-zero exit, unexpected output, or a generic git invocation error) is re-thrown wrapped with context indicating whether the build was seeking 'creation' (age=oldest) or 'last update' (age=newest) dates.

Source

Thrown at packages/docusaurus-utils/src/vcs/gitUtils.ts:240

      includeAuthor: true,
    });
    return {timestamp: result.timestamp, author: result.author};
  } catch (err) {
    // TODO legacy perf issue: do not use exceptions for control flow!
    if (err instanceof GitNotFoundError) {
      if (!showedGitRequirementError) {
        logger.warn('Sorry, the last update options require Git.');
        showedGitRequirementError = true;
      }
    } else if (err instanceof FileNotTrackedError) {
      if (!showedFileNotTrackedError) {
        logger.warn(
          'Cannot infer the update date for some files, as they are not tracked by git.',
        );
        showedFileNotTrackedError = true;
      }
    } else {
      throw new Error(
        `An error occurred when trying to get the file ${
          age === 'oldest' ? 'creation' : 'last update'
        } date from Git`,
        {cause: err},
      );
    }
    return null;
  }
}

export async function getGitLastUpdate(
  filePath: string,
): Promise<GitCommitInfo | null> {
  return getGitCommitInfo(filePath, 'newest');
}

export async function getGitCreation(
  filePath: string,

View on GitHub (pinned to 3f483e80e3)

Solutions

Inspect the cause property of the thrown error — it is the underlying Error from getFileCommitDate (errors 94, 95, or 97).
Apply the fix appropriate to the cause: restore the missing file (94), repair the repo / remove stale locks (95), or address the git output issue (97).
If you call getGitLastUpdate / getGitCreation directly and want to tolerate transient failures, wrap them in try/catch and fall back to null.
Re-run the build after resolving the underlying cause.

Example fix

// before — caller propagates the wrapper unconditionally
const info = await getGitLastUpdate(filePath);

// after — caller degrades gracefully when git info is unavailable
let info = null;
try {
  info = await getGitLastUpdate(filePath);
} catch (err) {
  console.warn(`Skipping git info for ${filePath}: ${err.cause ?? err}`);
}

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

import fs from 'fs-extra';

async function safeToQueryGit(file: string): Promise<boolean> {
  return await fs.pathExists(file);
}

if (!(await safeToQueryGit(file))) return null;

Try / catch

try {
  await getGitLastUpdate(filePath);
} catch (err) {
  // err.cause is the underlying getFileCommitDate error (94/95/97)
  console.warn(`Git info unavailable for ${filePath}: ${err.cause ?? err}`);
  return null;
}

Prevention

Inspect err.cause — the wrapper hides the real failure behind a generic message.
Resolve the underlying cause (missing file, corrupted repo, unexpected git output) using errors 94/95/97 guidance.
If you call getGitLastUpdate / getGitCreation directly, wrap them in try/catch and degrade to null when git info is non-critical.

When it happens

Trigger: Any of errors 94, 95, or 97 bubbling up through getGitCommitInfo — i.e. the file does not exist, git exited non-zero, or the log output was unparseable. Since getGitCommitInfo catches only the two custom error classes, every other throw from getFileCommitDate is wrapped here.

Common situations: Building with showLastUpdateTime while a content file is missing, the repo is corrupted, or git produced unexpected output (see the underlying errors 94/95/97). The wrapper error hides the original behind a generic message, so the cause property must be inspected to find the real failure.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of facebook/docusaurus@3f483e80e3 (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/bdbaf2a3c8bec433. Report an issue: GitHub.