phacility/phabricator · error · PhutilArgumentUsageException

Unable to lock repository

Error message

Unable to lock repository "%s": only repositories that support clustering may be locked.

What it means

Thrown by `bin/repository lock` when a target repository's `supportsSynchronization()` returns false — in Phabricator only Git and Mercurial implement cluster synchronization; Subversion repositories do not. It is the second pre-flight guard (after the hosted check), rejecting repositories whose VCS type cannot participate in clustered write locking.

Solutions

Exclude the SVN repository from the lock target list.
For SVN maintenance, use other means (take the service down, disable pulls/pushes at the web layer) since cluster locking does not apply.
Long term, migrate the SVN repository to Git or Mercurial if cluster operations are required.

Example fix

// before
$ ./bin/repository lock R1 R3   # R3 is Subversion
[1168] Unable to lock repository "rR3": only repositories that support clustering may be locked.

// after
$ ./bin/repository lock R1   # Git/Hg only

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

# Filter by VCS before locking (exclude SVN repos from the target list)
for r in R1 R3; do vcs=$(./bin/repository list --output json | jq -r --arg r "$r" '.[] | select(.callsign==$r) | .vcs'); [ "$vcs" = git ] || [ "$vcs" = hg ] && ./bin/repository lock "$r"; done

Type guard

function supports_cluster_lock(PhabricatorRepository $repository): bool {
  return $repository->isGit() || $repository->isHg(); // supportsSynchronization() is true only for these
}

Prevention

Keep SVN repositories out of cluster tooling target lists.
When automating across all repos, filter on VCS type first.

When it happens

Trigger: Running `./bin/repository lock` against an SVN repository; passing a wildcard list that includes the one SVN repo in an otherwise Git/Hg install.

Common situations: Legacy installations still hosting SVN attempt cluster lock procedures during maintenance windows; automation iterates all repositories without filtering by VCS type.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of phacility/phabricator@5720a38cfe (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/dab8c2317f4b9603. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/applications/repository/management/PhabricatorRepositoryManagementLockWorkflow.php:43

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

    foreach ($repositories as $repository) {
      $display_name = $repository->getDisplayName();

      if (!$repository->isHosted()) {
        throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
          pht(
            'Unable to lock repository "%s": only hosted repositories may be '.
            'locked.',
            $display_name));
      }

      if (!$repository->supportsSynchronization()) {
        throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
          pht(
            'Unable to lock repository "%s": only repositories that support '.
            'clustering may be locked.',
            $display_name));
      }

      if (!$repository->getAlmanacServicePHID()) {
        throw new PhutilArgumentUsageException(
          pht(
            'Unable to lock repository "%s": only clustered repositories '.
            'may be locked.',
            $display_name));
      }
    }

    $diffusion_phid = id(new PhabricatorDiffusionApplication())
      ->getPHID();

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