Error: cannot spawn ??: No such file or directory...... fatal: external diff died

[tnolte]

I am not sure if Beyond Compare forum is the correct spot, but I need to start somewhere...I am currently using Git for Windows and Bash with Beyond Compare 4 configured as my difftool and mergetool. Recently, while stepping through diffs, difftool command will bomb with the error above. On another setup and VM, I experience the same issue in random spots

What is weird is that I can do a git difftool on the file that it is bombing on and BC 4 comes up fine. The error above happens when I issue git difftool command and no file specified.

I'm not sure what it is complaining about....Is this a Beyond Compare 4 issue or Git or ??

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

[Chris]

Most of my Git for Windows use and testing is with the Windows command prompt rather than Git Bash. Do you see the random errors if you use the Windows command prompt instead of Git Bash?

Also:
What version of Windows are you using?
What version of Beyond Compare are you using? Open Help > About Beyond Compare to display your version.
What version of Git are you using? Run git --version to display your version.
What is the output of git config --list in your Git working directory?

[tnolte]

[IMG]file:///C:%5CUsers%5CTravas%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5CSNA GHTML4347067b.PNG[/IMG]Experiencing same random issue when using Windows Command Prompt too...

What version of Windows are you using?

I'm experiencing the issue on two VMs. Both 64-bit. One VM is running Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 OS build 17134.472. The second VM is running Windows 8 Pro

What version of Beyond Compare are you using?

Installed on both VMs...
64-bit Edition
Version 4.2.8 (build 23479)

What version of Git are you using?

On Windows 10, version 2.20.1.windows.1 is installed
On Windows 8, version 2.19.2.windows.1 is installed

Output of git --config

Images attached

Win10



Win8



Configs

Win10



Win8

[Chris]

Thanks for the additional information. I don't see any issues in your Git settings. Does it help if you use a Windows command prompt instead of Git Bash?

Edit: Sorry, I see you said it also happens in the Windows command prompt.

[Chris]

If you check logs for your antivirus software do you see it blocking file access or the launch of Beyond Compare when the error occurs?

[chrroe]

Maybe the tool Process Monitor from Sysinternals may help to figure out, which process has what kind of trouble while accessing the filesystem:

https://docs.microsoft.com/de-de/sys...nloads/procmon

Bye
Christoph

[tnolte]

Thank you for suggestions. Can't seem to spot any log errors using Process Monitor and reviewing Windows logs.

It's odd. I can do a git difftool path/to/file command on the file that its complaining about and BC works fine. It only bombs when I do git difftool command and toggle through a collection of diffs.

[Aaron]

Hello,

Could you clarify "a collection of diffs"? Is BC4 launching multiple tabs at once in this scenario, each showing a pair of diff files? Or does it launch one tab for each [Y/n] diff detected, and waits until that tab or window is closed before you see the command line prompt for the next [Y/n] launch?

[tnolte]

When I say collection of diffs, I'm just referring to all the changes I'm reviewing in my working directory.

It appears to close BC after each review of each diff, not opening a new tab. In one of my instances, if I have 9 files that have changed. I can [Y/n] through and review changes and BC opens fine for each file, until I get to the 9th diff and then it bombs with the error shown. If I do a diff on that 9th file using git difftool path/to/file then BC opens and I can see what has changed.

In my other instance, I get the cannot spawn error, but I don't see a pattern between the two, except that they both fail while stepping one-by-one through the changes.

Does that help?

[tnolte]

More info...

I had to make changes to other files in my work directory. I wanted to see if the difftool command would bomb on the 9th file again and surprisingly it did, but its not the same file that it was bombing on before. It's another file that I was able to view before making new changes. It just happens to be the 9th diff in the collection of diffs I'm reviewing now

This error is a little different though. It says. error: cannot spawn 8f?

I'm at a lost as to what the issue is and concerned about committing these changes to my repo without knowing the issue with fear of causing issues down the road. Any ideas what this might be related to? I'm wondering if I commit and have a fresh working directory if these issues go away.

[tnolte]

Just bit more info...

I should have tested this as well yesterday, but on my other development VM where I am having the same issue, the difftool command is bombing on the 9th diff in a collection of diffs. So there is a pattern. On 2 separate VMs with changes in the working directory, when difftool commanding through chamges one-by-one, the external diff tool is bombing on the 9th file changed.

[Chris]

Thanks for the additional information. I tested using a larger set of files and duplicated the problem with the error:

error: cannot spawn .?: No such file for directory
fatal: external diff died, stopping at file.c

The error also appeared to happen on the 9th file.

I don't know what's causing the problem. Now that I've duplicated it I'll see if I can determine the cause, then post an update.

[Chris]

git difftool --dir-diff is a workaround. It will open the diffs in Beyond Compare's Folder Compare. Double click on the first pair of files to open them in the Text Compare, then use Search > Next Difference Files (Control-M) to cycle through the files.

[tnolte]

Thanks Chris for the workaround. Question. Not sure if I want to, but is it possible to > Next Difference Files to a new tab rather than it using the same tab as it cycles through the files?

[Chris]

Sorry, it isn't possible to launch Next Difference Files in a new tab.