gitui-org/gitui · critical

Could not get status

Error message

Could not get status

What it means

switch_to_selected_branch() calls sync::status::get_status() to check the working directory for pending changes and immediately .expect()s the result. get_status wraps libgit2's status enumeration; it returns Err when the worktree or index cannot be read - most often because .git/index.lock exists (concurrent git process or a stale lock from a crashed one), also corrupt index files or permission problems. The expect panics, tearing down the TUI.

Source

Thrown at src/popups/branchlist.rs:590

				span_msg,
			]));
		}

		Text::from(txt)
	}

	///
	fn switch_to_selected_branch(&mut self) -> Result<()> {
		if !self.valid_selection() {
			anyhow::bail!("no valid branch selected");
		}

		let status = sync::status::get_status(
			&self.repo.borrow(),
			StatusType::WorkingDir,
			None,
		)
		.expect("Could not get status");

		let selected_branch = &self.branches[self.selection as usize];
		if status.is_empty() {
			if self.local {
				checkout_branch(
					&self.repo.borrow(),
					&selected_branch.name,
				)?;
				self.hide();
			} else {
				checkout_remote_branch(
					&self.repo.borrow(),
					selected_branch,
				)?;
				self.local = true;
				self.update_branches()?;
			}
			self.queue.push(InternalEvent::Update(NeedsUpdate::ALL));

View on GitHub (pinned to 2fa693cb6e)

Solutions

1. Check for the lock: ls -la .git/index.lock - if present and no git process is running (ps aux | grep git), remove it: rm .git/index.lock.
2. Validate repo health from a shell: git status; if the index is corrupt, git reset rebuilds it (re-clone as a last resort).
3. Retry the branch switch in gitui afterwards.
4. Update gitui - newer versions propagate this failure as an error instead of a panic.

Example fix

# before: panic 'Could not get status' when switching branches
ls -la .git/index.lock    # stale lock present
# after
rm .git/index.lock && git status && gitui

# before switching branches via the popup
[ ! -e .git/index.lock ] || echo 'git busy or stale lock present'
git status >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo 'status readable'

// Rust: probe for the lock before triggering the popup action
let lock = repo.workdir().map(|w| w.join(".git").join("index.lock")).filter(|p| p.exists());
if lock.is_some() { /* defer the switch, notify user */ }

When it happens

Trigger: Another git process (IDE background indexing, editor integration, background fetch) holding .git/index.lock at the moment you press enter in gitui's branch popup; a previously killed gitui or git leaving a stale lock; an index damaged by disk issues.

Common situations: IDE git integrations racing manual TUI usage; crash remnants after OOM kills or forced shutdowns; network filesystems with lingering lock files.

Related errors

• invalid path.
• invalid path
• lock err
• wait err
• set err

AI-assisted analysis of gitui-org/gitui@2fa693cb6e (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/066eb3572f09bb98. Report an issue: GitHub.