zed-industries/zed · error

poll watcher initialized

Error message

poll watcher initialized

What it means

The poll-mode counterpart of the native watcher guard: after ensure_poll_watcher() returns Ok, the code re-locks poll_watcher and expects Some('poll watcher initialized'). It fires only if the just-succeeded initialization did not leave a watcher installed — an internal contradiction or an interleaved teardown — since WatcherMode::Poll dispatch reaches this line only after the ensure call succeeded.

Source

Thrown at crates/fs/src/fs_watcher.rs:1015

                self.native_watcher
                    .lock()
                    .as_mut()
                    .expect("native watcher initialized")
                    .watch(
                        path,
                        if cfg!(any(target_os = "windows", target_os = "macos")) {
                            notify::RecursiveMode::Recursive
                        } else {
                            notify::RecursiveMode::NonRecursive
                        },
                    )?;
            }
            WatcherMode::Poll => {
                self.ensure_poll_watcher()?;
                self.poll_watcher
                    .lock()
                    .as_mut()
                    .expect("poll watcher initialized")
                    .watch(path, notify::RecursiveMode::Recursive)?;
            }
        }

        Ok(())
    }

    fn unwatch(&self, path: &Path, mode: WatcherMode) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
        let watcher = match mode {
            WatcherMode::Native => self
                .native_watcher
                .lock()
                .as_mut()
                .map(|watcher| watcher.unwatch(path)),
            WatcherMode::Poll => self
                .poll_watcher
                .lock()
                .as_mut()

View on GitHub (pinned to f4178619ac)

Solutions

1. Return the initialized watcher reference from ensure_poll_watcher so no second lock/expect is needed
2. On None, call ensure_poll_watcher again and propagate its error rather than panicking
3. Guard the ensure/use pair with a single critical section to eliminate the interleaving window

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at crates/fs/src/fs_watcher.rs:1015 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/ed6612acfecfe31b. Report an issue: GitHub.