lazygit error when GIT_TRACE env. variable is set

[carloluis]

Describe the bug

Lazygit fails to start

To Reproduce

The simple invocation lazygit command started to produce this issue after my last system restart.
Searching online I couldn't find a similar recent error. The culprit was a recent change to my shell environment while debugging git commands that I forgot to clean later.

Setting the GIT_TRACE=1 env. variable makes lazygit to crash.

GIT_TRACE=true lazygit
2025/05/29 17:49:18 An error occurred! Please create an issue at: https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/issues

*fs.PathError chdir 17:49:18.170936 git.c:476               trace: built-in: git rev-parse --path-format=absolute --show-toplevel --absolute-git-dir --git-common-dir --is-bare-repository --show-superproject-working-tree: no such file or directory
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils/errors.go:13 (0x1031269dc)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/commands/git.go:70 (0x1031269dd)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/gui.go:304 (0x1032bbe20)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/gui.go:854 (0x1032bfff0)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/gui.go:873 (0x1032c0498)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/utils/utils.go:81 (0x102f150ec)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/gui/gui.go:872 (0x1032c0404)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/app/app.go:270 (0x1033125e0)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/app/app.go:48 (0x103312599)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/pkg/app/entry_point.go:168 (0x103314150)
github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/main.go:23 (0x103315378)
internal/runtime/atomic/types.go:194 (0x102b9d074)
runtime/asm_arm64.s:1223 (0x102bdabe4)

Expected behavior

lazygit opens and extended trace logs are reported into the command log pane.

Screenshots

Version info:

lazygit --version
commit=, build date=, build source=Homebrew, version=0.51.1, os=darwin, arch=arm64, git version=2.49.0

git --version
18:22:31.611516 git.c:476               trace: built-in: git version
git version 2.49.0

[stefanhaller]

That's a long-standing, known problem, see #2050 (comment) (and the comment before that). Fixing it is probably quite a bit of work, but not impossible. Didn't have high priority for me so far, since there's the easy workaround of unsetting GIT_TRACE. 😄

[carloluis]

Thank you for the quick reply and information. I couldn't find that issue from my search.
Indeed, that's the simple fix and as described I discover this error just by mistake as I forgot to remove the var.
My intention is to report the error to help others if they stumble with it (also probably by mistake too 😅), and in the case it can be solved with low effort perhaps get attention to it. I'm happy to contribute, but as you mention the cost/benefit doesn't justify

[rivermanbw]

Thanks. This helped me to spend hours searching: unset GIT_TRACE