phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Nothing specified to rebuild. Use flags to choose which iden

Error message

Nothing specified to rebuild. Use flags to choose which identities to rebuild, or "--help" for help.

What it means

rebuild-identities does nothing unless a selector flag is given: `--repository`, `--all-repositories`, `--all-identities`, or `--raw`. The workflow tracks $rebuilt_anything and, when no branch of the selection logic ran, exits with this PhutilArgumentUsageException telling the operator to choose a target.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/repository/management/PhabricatorRepositoryManagementRebuildIdentitiesWorkflow.php:191

        }

        $identity_list = $identities;
      } else {
        $identity_query = id(new PhabricatorRepositoryIdentityQuery())
          ->setViewer($viewer);

        $identity_list = new PhabricatorQueryIterator($identity_query);

        $this->logInfo(
          pht('REBUILD'),
          pht('Rebuilding all existing identities.'));
      }

      $this->rebuildIdentities($identity_list);
    }

    if (!$rebuilt_anything) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht(
          'Nothing specified to rebuild. Use flags to choose which '.
          'identities to rebuild, or "--help" for help.'));
    }

    return 0;
  }

  private function rebuildCommits($commits) {
    foreach ($commits as $commit) {
      $needs_update = false;

      $data = $commit->getCommitData();
      $author = $data->getAuthorString();

      $author_identity = $this->getIdentityForCommit(
        $commit,
        $author);

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Add at least one selector: `--repository R` to scope to a repository, `--all-repositories` for all of them, or `--all-identities` / `--raw <string>` to pick identities directly.
2. Run `./bin/repository rebuild-identities --help` to review the available selectors before composing the command.
3. Prepend `--dry-run` while experimenting so the command validates arguments without writing.

Example fix

# before
./bin/repository rebuild-identities
# Usage exception: Nothing specified to rebuild...

# after
./bin/repository rebuild-identities --repository R --dry-run

# Require at least one selector before invoking
[ -n "$REPO" ] || [ "$ALL_REPOS" = 1 ] || [ "$ALL_IDS" = 1 ] || [ -n "$RAW" ] || {
  echo "rebuild-identities needs a selector flag" >&2; exit 2;
}
./bin/repository rebuild-identities ${REPO:+--repository "$REPO"} ${ALL_REPOS:+--all-repositories} ${ALL_IDS:+--all-identities} ${RAW:+--raw "$RAW"}

When it happens

Trigger: Bare `./bin/repository rebuild-identities` with no flags, or a combination where every flag is falsy (e.g. `--repository` passed an empty value).

Common situations: Running the new command to 'see what it does'; automation that builds the command line dynamically and ends up with all selectors empty.

Related errors

• Flags "--all-repositories" and "--repository" are not compat
• Flags "--all-identities" and "--raw" are not compatible.
• Specify which subscription to invoice with %s.
• Specify a billing range with %s and %s, or use %s.
• When specifying %s or %s, you must specify both arguments to

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e8d2e130e1707aaf. Report an issue: GitHub.