zed-industries/zed · error · anyhow::Error

'git show' failed with error {:?}

Error message

'git show' failed with error {:?}

What it means

The 'git show -s --format=%B<MARKER> <shas>' subprocess used to fetch commit messages exited non-zero ({error} is the process Output). Typically one of the requested SHAs does not exist in the repository (bad object), or the repo is corrupt; the ensure! guard fails the whole get_messages batch.

Source

Thrown at crates/git/src/commit.rs:145

        };
        result.entry(sha).or_default().push(tag_name.to_string());
    }

    result.retain(|sha, _| shas.contains(sha));
    result
}

async fn get_messages_impl(git: &GitBinary, shas: &[Oid]) -> Result<Vec<String>> {
    const MARKER: &str = "<MARKER>";
    let output = git
        .build_command(&["show"])
        .arg("-s")
        .arg(format!("--format=%B{}", MARKER))
        .args(shas.iter().map(ToString::to_string))
        .output()
        .await
        .context("starting git show process")?;
    anyhow::ensure!(
        output.status.success(),
        "'git show' failed with error {:?}",
        String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stderr)
    );
    Ok(String::from_utf8_lossy(&output.stdout)
        .trim()
        .split_terminator(MARKER)
        .map(|str| str.trim().replace("<", "&lt;").replace(">", "&gt;"))
        .collect::<Vec<_>>())
}

pub(crate) const GITLINK_MODE: &str = "160000";

#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
pub(crate) enum CommitDiffObjectKind {
    Blob,
    Gitlink,
}

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Verify all requested SHAs exist ('git cat-file -e <sha>') before batching them into one git show call
2. Surface the captured stderr — 'bad object' names the offending SHA
3. Split the batch and retry per-sha to isolate which commit is unreadable

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/git/src/commit.rs:145 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of zed-industries/zed@f4178619ac (2026-08-20). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ad902b58542ba527. Report an issue: GitHub.