Git tag, status, log failed with code -1 "The system cannot find the file specified"

[Grimmrobe]

Just downloaded SourceTree and dragged my project folder into the window. When I click into it all I get is a series of errors saying:

'git status' failed

'git log' failed

'git tag' failed

As below. What am I doing wrong here?

[Mike Corsaro · Accepted solution]

It looks like git isn't able to access the files in the repository -- do you have anti-virus or anything like that installed that's known to cause issues with programs attempting to access your filesystem?

[Grimmrobe]

Hmm, I have Norton antivirus. But turning that off doesn't seem to make any difference...

 I frequently use git through the command line? And if I hit the terminal button from within sourcetree I'm able to use it through that interface... is there something specific about git through the GUI that I need to be aware of?

[Mike Corsaro]

`C:\wamp\www\palsagency` is the path of the repository, right?

It's possible that git is on the "approved applications" list, but Sourcetree isn't so when git is run from it your AV might get confused.

I assume you're using the latest version of Sourcetree? Could you tell me the current version of git and if you're using embedded git or not (check under Tools > Options > Git > Git Version)?

[Grimmrobe]

Thanks for this, having done a bit more digging and based on this answer I tried switching to the embedded version of Git and it worked.

But by the looks of things it was looking for system git.exe under c:/Program Files(x86)/Git/cmd/ when in fact no such file exists on my machine. The git.exe is in c:/Program Files(x86)/Git/cmd/bin

Source Tree Version: 3.1.2

Git --version git 1.7.9.msysgit.0 (perhaps this is way out of date?)

So:

Is there any drawback to using the embedded Git version when I do have another version of Git installed on my machine?

[Mike Corsaro]

Ah, yeah that's a very old version of Git (the latest version is 2.21.0).

Using embedded git shouldn't cause any problems -- we include that as a feature for this exact reason 😊