pcottle/learnGitBranching · info · CommandResult

<dynamic describe output: foundTag-N-g<id>>

Error message

<dynamic describe output: foundTag-N-g<id>>

What it means

Not a real failure: this is the successful describe output when the commit is N commits ahead of the nearest tag, formatted as foundTag-N-g<abbrev-id> (matching git's describe format). It is delivered by throwing a CommandResult.

Source

Thrown at src/js/git/index.js:2806

      pQueue = pQueue.concat(parents);
      pQueue.sort(this.dateSortFunc);
    }
  }

  if (!foundTag) {
    throw new GitError({
      msg: intl.todo('Fatal: no tags found upstream')
    });
  }

  if (numAway.length === 0) {
    throw new CommandResult({
      msg: foundTag
    });
  }

  // then join
  throw new CommandResult({
    msg: foundTag + '-' + numAway.length + '-g' + startCommit.get('id')
  });
};

GitEngine.prototype.renameBranch = function(oldName, newName, force) {
  var target = this.resolveID(oldName);

  if (!target || target.get('type') !== 'branch') {
    throw new GitError({
      msg: intl.todo('fatal: not a branch: ' + oldName)
    });
  }

  if (target.getIsRemote()) {
    throw new GitError({
      msg: intl.str('git-error-remote-branch')
    });
  }

View on GitHub (pinned to 5b09d0ff96)

Solutions

  1. No fix needed — informational output
  2. Parse the tag-N-gid format if you need the tag name and distance programmatically
Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Try / catch

try { engine.describe(ref); } catch (e) { if (e instanceof CommandResult) { var m = e.msg.match(/^(.*)-(\d+)-g([0-9a-f]+)$/); if (m) { /* tag, distance, sha */ } } else throw e; }

Prevention

When it happens

Trigger: Running describe on a commit that is 1+ commits downstream of the nearest tag; numAway.length supplies N and the commit id supplies the g<id> suffix.

Common situations: Normal git describe usage after tagging an earlier commit; expected output.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of pcottle/learnGitBranching@5b09d0ff96 (2026-08-27). Data as JSON: /api/errors/460796a698796bae. Report an issue: GitHub.