lapce/lapce · error

Error while creating commit's signature: {}

Error message

Error while creating commit's signature: {}

What it means

The catch-all arm of the same signature match in lapce-proxy/src/dispatch.rs:1437: libgit2 failed to create the commit signature with an error code other than NotFound, and libgit2's own message is interpolated. Typical codes are malformed config values (user.name containing '<'/newlines, invalid user.email), config files that fail to parse, or I/O errors reading .git/config.

Source

Thrown at lapce-proxy/src/dispatch.rs:1437

                .and_then(|head| Ok(vec![head.peel_to_commit()?]))
                .unwrap_or(vec![]);
            let parents_refs = parents.iter().collect::<Vec<_>>();

            repo.commit(
                Some("HEAD"),
                &signature,
                &signature,
                message,
                &tree,
                &parents_refs,
            )?;
            Ok(())
        }
        Err(e) => match e.code() {
            NotFound => Err(anyhow!(
                "No user.name and/or user.email configured for this git repository."
            )),
            _ => Err(anyhow!(
                "Error while creating commit's signature: {}",
                e.message()
            )),
        },
    }
}

fn git_checkout(workspace_path: &Path, reference: &str) -> Result<()> {
    let repo = Repository::discover(workspace_path)?;
    let (object, reference) = repo.revparse_ext(reference)?;
    repo.checkout_tree(&object, None)?;
    repo.set_head(reference.unwrap().name().unwrap())?;
    Ok(())
}

fn git_discard_files_changes<'a>(
    workspace_path: &Path,
    files: impl Iterator<Item = &'a Path>,

View on GitHub (pinned to c9e4c33948)

Solutions

  1. Read the embedded libgit2 message — it names the exact config defect
  2. Reproduce in a terminal: git commit --allow-empty to get git's own diagnosis
  3. git config --global --edit and fix/flatten user.name and user.email to plain values
  4. Remove stale .git/config.lock (and ~/.gitconfig.lock) if present
  5. git config --list --show-origin to find which file carries the bad value

Example fix

# before
# user.name accidentally contains the email too
git config --global user.name 'Ada <ada@example.com>'

# after
git config --global user.name 'Ada Lovelace'
git config --global user.email 'ada@example.com'
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

// Validate config shape before committing: names must be plain, email must contain '@'
let name = repo.config()?.get_string("user.name")?;
let email = repo.config()?.get_string("user.email")?;
if name.contains('<') || !email.contains('@') {
    return Err(anyhow!("malformed git identity: user.name='{name}', user.email='{email}'"));
}

Try / catch

match git_commit(workspace_path, message, staged) {
    Err(e) if e.to_string().contains("commit's signature") => {
        // embed libgit2's message; suggest terminal reproduction
        Err(e.context("run `git commit` in a terminal to see git's own diagnosis"))
    }
    other => other,
}?

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: git2's signature lookup returns e.g. a parse/invalid-spec error: user.name set to 'Name <email>' (double-wrapping), user.email missing '@', .git/config with syntax errors or a stale .git/config.lock, or permission problems reading system config.

Common situations: Users pasting a full 'Name <email>' string into user.name; hand-edited config files with typos; crashed git processes leaving config.lock behind; shared machines with unreadable /etc/gitconfig.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of lapce/lapce@c9e4c33948 (2026-08-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/902e1d52b94d83fc. Report an issue: GitHub.