phacility/phabricator · warning · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Specify one or more repositories to pull.

Error message

Specify one or more repositories to pull.

What it means

`bin/repository pull` fetches new commits into one or more repositories on this host. The wildcard `repos` arguments (callsigns, monograms, or PHIDs) are resolved through loadLocalRepositories(), which keeps only repositories whose local working copy is bound to this device (unless --ignore-locality is passed). When no repository is selected the command refuses to run with this PhutilArgumentUsageException.

Source

Thrown at src/applications/repository/management/PhabricatorRepositoryManagementPullWorkflow.php:35

          array(
            'name' => 'ignore-locality',
            'help' => pht(
              'Pull even if the repository should not be present on this '.
              'host according to repository cluster configuration.'),
          ),
          array(
            'name'      => 'repos',
            'wildcard'  => true,
          ),
        ));
  }

  public function execute(PhutilArgumentParser $args) {
    $ignore_locality = (bool)$args->getArg('ignore-locality');

    $repos = $this->loadLocalRepositories($args, 'repos', $ignore_locality);
    if (!$repos) {
      throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
        pht('Specify one or more repositories to pull.'));
    }

    $console = PhutilConsole::getConsole();
    foreach ($repos as $repo) {
      $console->writeOut(
        "%s\n",
        pht(
          'Pulling "%s"...',
          $repo->getDisplayName()));

      id(new PhabricatorRepositoryPullEngine())
        ->setRepository($repo)
        ->setVerbose($args->getArg('verbose'))
        ->pullRepository();
    }

    $console->writeOut("%s\n", pht('Done.'));

View on GitHub (pinned to 5720a38cfe)

Solutions

1. Pass an explicit target: `./bin/repository pull XYZ` (callsign) or a repository PHID.
2. List valid repositories with `./bin/repository list-repositories` and copy the exact callsign.
3. Run the command on the device that actually hosts the working copy, or add `--ignore-locality` to bypass the local-host filter.
4. If this host intentionally hosts nothing, remove the pull job from its cron so the invocation stops failing.

Example fix

# before
./bin/repository pull
# Usage exception: Specify one or more repositories to pull.

# after
./bin/repository pull XYZ
# or, from a host that does not host the working copy:
./bin/repository pull XYZ --ignore-locality

# Resolve targets before pulling; abort if nothing matches or is local
repos=$(./bin/repository list-repositories)
printf '%s\n' "$repos" | grep -q "^R<callsign>" || { echo "unknown callsign" >&2; exit 1; }
ls "/var/repo/<callsign>" >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo "not hosted here; use --ignore-locality" >&2; exit 1; }
./bin/repository pull <callsign>

When it happens

Trigger: Executing `./bin/repository pull` with no arguments; passing a callsign that does not exist or is not hosted on this device; running the command on a web/CI node that hosts no working copies without `--ignore-locality`; all arguments filtered out by the locality check.

Common situations: A cron job or monitoring wrapper installed on the wrong host; a typo'd or renamed callsign; a new cluster node that is not yet bound to the repository's Almanac service so it hosts nothing locally.

Related errors

• 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
• Use either %s or %s and %s to specify the billing range, but
• Flags "--all-repositories" and "--repository" are not compat

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/3e4c45e014296cbf. Report an issue: GitHub.