Subject: bug#51460: emacs-magit: path error during commit

From: Maxim Cournoyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 10:23:57 -0400

Hi Christopher,

Christopher Howard <[email-masked]> writes:

> Hello, for a long time I've struggled with getting a path error when I
> try to do a commit using emacs-magit. Here is an example log copied from
> the magit-process buffer:
>
> ```
>   0 git … add -u -- Genesis/gen_1.org
>   1 git … commit --
> hint: Waiting for your editor to close the file...
> Waiting for Emacs...
> *ERROR*: Searching for program: No such file or directory, git
> error: There was a problem with the editor
> '/gnu/store/dpky3z5844bclhswdk69z90vayy65b58-emacs-27.2/bin/emacsclient
> --socket-name=/run/user/1000/emacs/server'.
> Please supply the message using either -m or -F option.
> ```

One thing I can think about is that emacs-magit doesn't refer to git
directly:

$ guix gc -R /gnu/store/xd1bvmac1p4gjxb90m875r15xna52jyr-emacs-magit-3.3.0
/gnu/store/720rj90bch716isd8z7lcwrnvz28ap4y-bash-static-5.1.8
/gnu/store/vqdsrvs9jbn0ix2a58s99jwkh74124y5-coreutils-minimal-8.32
/gnu/store/5h2w4qi9hk1qzzgi1w83220ydslinr4s-glibc-2.33
/gnu/store/4y5m9lb8k3qkb1y9m02sw9w9a6hacd16-bash-minimal-5.1.8
/gnu/store/094bbaq6glba86h1d4cj16xhdi6fk2jl-gcc-10.3.0-lib
/gnu/store/hy6abswwv4d89zp464fw52z65fkzr7h5-perl-5.34.0
/gnu/store/xd1bvmac1p4gjxb90m875r15xna52jyr-emacs-magit-3.3.0

So it needs to be on your PATH.  For me, the value returned by 'C-h v
magit-git-executable' is "git".  One thing we could do is patch the
default value of this Elisp variable in our emacs-magit package to git,
so that users wouldn't need installing git manually.

Thanks,

Maxim