Unable to add any repository with fresh install of GitButler on MacOS - Unexpected token error

[gtmassey]

Version

0.14.32

Operating System

macOS

Distribution Method

dmg (Mac OS - Apple Silicon)

Describe the issue

On a fresh install of GitButler on a Apple Silicon Macbook Pro running MacOS Sequoia, when I try to add a local project to GitButler, I get the error:

Got an unexpected token on line 1 while trying to parse a section header: '[ "core"]
' ... (242 characters omitted)

This happens with all local repositories. I have uninstalled and re-installed GitButler, and that did not solve the issue.

Additional information: each repository uses host aliases so that I can have multiple Git accounts on the same machine. So for one project, the git config might look like this:

[core]
        repositoryformatversion = 0
        filemode = true
        bare = false
        logallrefupdates = true
        ignorecase = true
        precomposeunicode = true
[remote "origin"]
        url = git@work-github:account-name/repository-name.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
...

and another would look like this:

[core]
        repositoryformatversion = 0
        filemode = true
        bare = false
        logallrefupdates = true
        ignorecase = true
        precomposeunicode = true
[remote "origin"]
        url = git@personal-github:account-name/repository-name.git
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
...

so instead of using git@github.com I am referencing specific items defined in my .ssh/config like so:

Host work-github
        HostName github.com
        AddKeysToAgent yes
        IdentitiesOnly yes
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/work-github
Host personal-github
        HostName github.com
        AddKeysToAgent yes
        IdentitiesOnly yes
        IdentityFile ~/.ssh/personal-github

Possibly related to gitoxide #725

How to reproduce (Optional)

1. Download and GitButler .dmg
2. Drag GitButler to Applications folder
3. Open GitButler
4. Click "Add Local Project"
5. select the repository to add

Expected behavior (Optional)

Should be able to add local repository without issue on a fresh install.

Relevant log output (Optional)

2025-06-09T16:29:19.463549Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:361: Inheriting static interactive shell environment, valid for the entire runtime of the application
2025-06-09T16:29:19.463627Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:82: system git executable for fetch/push: "git"
2025-06-09T16:29:19.464354Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:121: starting app version=0.14.32 name=GitButler
2025-06-09T16:29:19.873394Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: new
2025-06-09T16:29:19.873414Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: close time.busy=11.4µs time.idle=9.38µs
2025-06-09T16:29:19.882308Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: new
2025-06-09T16:29:19.882314Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: close time.busy=1.00µs time.idle=5.42µs
2025-06-09T16:29:19.886361Z  INFO get_user: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/users.rs:10: new
2025-06-09T16:29:19.886407Z  INFO get_user: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/users.rs:10: close time.busy=40.1µs time.idle=5.88µs
2025-06-09T16:29:19.984355Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: new
2025-06-09T16:29:19.984430Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: close time.busy=66.0µs time.idle=9.29µs
2025-06-09T16:29:20.105269Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: new
2025-06-09T16:29:20.105293Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: close time.busy=16.1µs time.idle=8.46µs
2025-06-09T16:29:48.902439Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:361: Inheriting static interactive shell environment, valid for the entire runtime of the application
2025-06-09T16:29:48.902509Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:82: system git executable for fetch/push: "git"
2025-06-09T16:29:48.902597Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:121: starting app version=0.14.32 name=GitButler
2025-06-09T16:29:49.178559Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: new
2025-06-09T16:29:49.178581Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: close time.busy=12.3µs time.idle=10.2µs
2025-06-09T16:29:49.195249Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: new
2025-06-09T16:29:49.195259Z  INFO get_app_settings: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/settings.rs:49: close time.busy=1.42µs time.idle=9.17µs
2025-06-09T16:29:49.199762Z  INFO get_user: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/users.rs:10: new
2025-06-09T16:29:49.199798Z  INFO get_user: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/users.rs:10: close time.busy=32.1µs time.idle=4.25µs
2025-06-09T16:29:49.297072Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: new
2025-06-09T16:29:49.297139Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: close time.busy=57.3µs time.idle=10.0µs
2025-06-09T16:29:49.412199Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: new
2025-06-09T16:29:49.412221Z  INFO list_projects: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:52: close time.busy=14.1µs time.idle=8.21µs
2025-06-09T16:29:55.255793Z  INFO add_project: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:25: new path="/Users/garrettmassey/Sites/ecsc.unm"
2025-06-09T16:29:55.295534Z ERROR add_project: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:25: error=Error(Failed to load the git configuration

Caused by:
    Got an unexpected token on line 1 while trying to parse a section header: '[ "core"]
    ' ... (242 characters omitted)) path="/Users/garrettmassey/Sites/ecsc.unm"
2025-06-09T16:29:55.295567Z  INFO add_project: crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/projects.rs:25: close time.busy=39.7ms time.idle=9.58µs path="/Users/garrettmassey/Sites/ecsc.unm"

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting!

What I did to try and reproduce it is to copy all configuration file samples into an actual .git/config. Then I ran git config -l on that repository, as well as gix config. Both worked, even though I would have expected the gix invocation to fail.

Finally, I manually edited one of the [core] sections to be ["core"] instead. And now I got this:

❯ git config
fatal: bad config line 40 in file .git/config

github.com/Byron/small via 
❯ gix config
Error: Failed to load the git configuration

Caused by:
    Got an unexpected token on line 40 while trying to parse a name: '["core"]
     ' ... (308 characters omitted)

Alright, now I added a space to turn ["core"] (that nobody liked) into [ "core"], and the following happened:

❯ git config
usage: git config [<options>]
…
❯ gix config
Error: Failed to load the git configuration

Caused by:
    Got an unexpected token on line 40 while trying to parse a name: '[ "core"]
    ' ... (309 characters omitted)

Now that seems to exactly reproduce the error message.

Since none of the samples actually contained this strangely-formed [ "core"] section, could you check the system configuration file at /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr/share/git-core/gitconfig for this core section? Maybe it's also in one of the other files, like ~/.gitconfig maybe.

From there, I'd hope as a workaround you could [ "core] into [core], and I will see if gitoxide could be coerced into accepting [ "core"], but not ["core"] to be bug-for-bug compatible 😁.

[gtmassey]

@Byron For me the issue seems to have stemmed from a poorly formatted config file in /users/garrettmassey/.gitconfig, where I found the [ "core"] section. I changed it to [core], and now it seems to be working as expected.

Thanks for the quick reply and the help!