error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start (Unicode chars in workdir path)

[hslee2008]

• I was not able to find an open or closed issue matching what I'm seeing

Setup

• Which version of Git for Windows are you using? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

$ git --version --build-options

git version 2.32.0.windows.1
cpu: x86_64
built from commit: 4c204998d0e156d13d81abe1d1963051b1418fc0
sizeof-long: 4
sizeof-size_t: 8
shell-path: /bin/sh
feature: fsmonitor--daemon 

• Which version of Windows are you running? Vista, 7, 8, 10? Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?

$ cmd.exe /c ver

** Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.1023]**

• What options did you set as part of the installation? Or did you choose the
  defaults?

# One of the following:
> type "C:\Program Files\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
> type "C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
> type "%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\etc\install-options.txt"
$ cat /etc/install-options.txt

** Editor Option: VisualStudioCode    
Custom Editor Path:
Default Branch Option:
Path Option: Cmd
SSH Option: OpenSSH
Tortoise Option: false
CURL Option: OpenSSL
CRLF Option: CRLFAlways
Bash Terminal Option: MinTTY       
Git Pull Behavior Option: Merge    
Use Credential Manager: Core       
Performance Tweaks FSCache: Enabled
Enable Symlinks: Disabled
Enable Pseudo Console Support: Enabled
Enable FSMonitor: Enabled **

• Any other interesting things about your environment that might be related
  to the issue you're seeing?

Nothing

Details

• Which terminal/shell are you running Git from? e.g Bash/CMD/PowerShell/other

** Bash and CMD**

• What commands did you run to trigger this issue? If you can provide a
  Minimal, Complete, and Verifiable example
  this will help us understand the issue.

git add --all
git add <filename>
git status

• What did you expect to occur after running these commands?

I expected them to work like add files, committing, and more.

• What actually happened instead?

It returned an error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start

[hslee2008]

I redownloaded git and it seems like the option "Add a Git Bash Profile to Windows Terminal" is the problem

[dscho]

I redownloaded git and it seems like the option "Add a Git Bash Profile to Windows Terminal" is the problem

Thank you for your report.

Just to clarify: you reinstalled Git for Windows, left "Add a Git Bash Profile to Windows Terminal" unchecked and now it works?

[hslee2008]

It worked fine when the option "add a git bash profile to windows terminal: was left unchecked.

[dscho]

It worked fine when the option "add a git bash profile to windows terminal: was left unchecked.

Hmm. This is really strange. The only thing that does is to write an XML somewhere, I believe. It should not influence the built-in file system watcher.

Could you try once more, to make sure that it was that checkbox?

[dscho]

It worked fine when the option "add a git bash profile to windows terminal: was left unchecked.

Hmm. This is really strange. The only thing that does is to write an XML somewhere, I believe. It should not influence the built-in file system watcher.

Could you try once more, to make sure that it was that checkbox?

Could you?

[lc6464]

Translated by Google:

I encountered the same problem, Git displayed error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start.
And no matter whether I check the checkbox added to Terminal, it doesn't work properly.
I use PowerShell and Git-Bash, and neither of them work properly.
When that check box is checked, Git-Bash is indeed added to the Terminal configuration, and it will indeed be deleted after it is closed.
But Git just doesn't work properly anyway.
This phenomenon will definitely reappear after Git is updated to 2.32.0.windows.1 [4c204998d0e156d13d81abe1d1963051b1418fc0].

Original:

我遇到了同样的问题，Git 显示 error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start。
而我无论是否勾选那个添加到 Terminal 的复选框，它都无法正常工作。
我使用的是 PowerShell 和 Git-Bash，都无法正常工作。
当那个复选框勾选后，Git-Bash 确实被加入了 Terminal 配置，关闭后也确实会被删除，
但无论如何 Git 就是无法正常工作。
此现象在 Git 更新至 2.32.0.windows.1 [4c204998d0e156d13d81abe1d1963051b1418fc0] 后必定复现。

[lc6464]

I have to use git version 2.30.2.windows.1 [37f0a4afad027cf030747a1ef45537ba86162960].
My Windows version: 10.0.19043.1081
From 2.31.0 to the latest version has this problem.

[dscho]

Can you run git fsmonitor--daemon start manually, does that command succeed?

[hslee2008]

The outcome is the same. It still says

error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start

[hslee2008]

Also, it seems like there is no 'e' for the word 'the' in the setup explanation for the 'Override the default branch name for new repositories'.

[dscho]

The outcome is the same. It still says

error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start

I cannot reproduce this. Could you run this while Process Monitor is running and then investigate what the precise error is? It would be toward the end of that process' life time.

Also, it seems like there is no 'e' for the word 'the' in the setup explanation for the 'Override the default branch name for new repositories'.

I don't understand. Are you referring to this message? https://github.com/git-for-windows/build-extra/blob/995f6ac120c46ae506d633cd5c6e49c56e28ea5a/installer/install.iss#L2020

If so, please do open a Pull Request to fix the typo.

[dscho]

The outcome is the same. It still says
error: fsmonitor--daemon failed to start

I cannot reproduce this. Could you run this while Process Monitor is running and then investigate what the precise error is? It would be toward the end of that process' life time.

Before that, because it might give us better insights, could you run git fsmonitor--daemon start after setting GIT_TRACE2_PERF=perf.log and then seeing whether the generated perf.log file says anything obviously suspicious?

[hslee2008]

I tried GIT_TRACE2_PERF=perf.log command, but I could not find the file perf.log

I also tried process monitor and when I run and I could not find any errors appearing on the screen of process monitor

[derrickstolee]

I tried GIT_TRACE2_PERF=perf.log command, but I could not find the file perf.log

You need to provide a fully-scoped path, such as GIT_TRACE2_PERF=/c/Users/<name>/perf.log.

[hslee2008]

04:03:48.679480 usage.c:74 error could not initialize listener thread

[dscho]

could not initialize listener thread

This error message stems from here: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/v2.32.0.windows.1/builtin/fsmonitor--daemon.c#L1245

It means that something in the fsmonitor_fs_listen__ctor() function failed: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/v2.32.0.windows.1/compat/fsmonitor/fsmonitor-fs-listen-win32.c#L495-L537

The only two ways this can fail (at least that I can see) are if either the worktree or the git dir cannot be watched, i.e. that create_watch() fails somehow: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/v2.32.0.windows.1/compat/fsmonitor/fsmonitor-fs-listen-win32.c#L106-L136

The only way that can fail (again, as far as I can see) is if the file handle cannot be created: https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/blob/v2.32.0.windows.1/compat/fsmonitor/fsmonitor-fs-listen-win32.c#L115-L123

Now, I have a couple of observations there:

• If create_watch() fails, it prints an error "could not watch". Did you see that, too? (It is not part of your reply.)
• One thing that immediately jumps out to me is the call to CreateFileA(). We have had tons of encoding problems in the past, until we switched from the *A() Win32 API functions to the *W() ones.
• Your handle name suggests that you might have non-ASCII characters in your path (either the worktree, the git directory, or most likely both). Is this correct? That could be the reason for this problem. And moving from CreateFileA() to CreateFileW() would potentially solve it.

[hslee2008]

I tried git commands in paths without any non-ASCII characters and it worked. I think the problem is solved.

Do you have any way for users to work on trees with non-ASCII characters?

[y-k-m]

I have the same problem.
fsmonitor--daemon doesn't seem to support multibyte characters.

@dscho I think, probably correct.

[dscho]

@HyunseungLee-Travis @y-k-m I just opened a Pull Request to fix this, and kicked off a git-artifacts run that will build an installer for you to verify the fix: https://github.com/dscho/git/actions/runs/1001013617. Please to test, once the artifacts are ready!

[EDIT] Please do test 😄

[dscho]

Please to test, once the artifacts are ready!

The artifacts are ready:

• the installer
• the portable Git

Please do test.

[y-k-m]

@dscho It worked!
Thank you for fix, I'm looking forward to being merge!

current stable:

new build:

[dscho]

@y-k-m Awesome, thank you for testing and sharing the results here!

[jeffhostetler]

I updated the title with the cause of the problem to help when skimming issues.