Git identity prompt always appearing

[cvande04]

Prerequisites

• Put an X between the brackets on this line if you have done all of the following:
  • Reproduced the problem in Safe Mode: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/#using-safe-mode
  • Followed all applicable steps in the debugging guide: https://flight-manual.atom.io/hacking-atom/sections/debugging/
  • Checked the FAQs on the message board for common solutions: https://discuss.atom.io/c/faq
  • Checked that your issue isn't already filed: https://github.com/issues?utf8=✓&q=is%3Aissue+user%3Aatom
  • Checked that there is not already an Atom package that provides the described functionality: https://atom.io/packages

Description

Hello, I am a long-time Atom user but a first-time poster. I ran into a novel bug earlier today regarding the Git package, specifically the Git identity prompt. Please let me know if the description of the problem is unclear in any way:

The Git Identity prompt appears every time I open the Git panel in Atom. It asks me to enter my Git username and email. However, I have run both git config --global user.name and git config --global user.email (including prior to the bug manifesting) and double-checking the config file shows that the values are set properly:

[user]
	name = (my username)
	email = (my email)
[github]
	user = (my username)

For a file in a repository that is initialized on Github, the Git identity panel often (but not always) pre-populates the fields with my username and email as found in the config file. For a file in a repository that has not been initialized, the name and email address fields are blank. Switching between two repositories, regardless of whether they are initialized or not, often (but not always) results in the Git identity prompt reappearing, even if I have just used it to sign in moments before switching, and even if I can initially see the Git panel for a few moments before the identity prompt appears. Sometimes, the identity panel will flicker rapidly back-and-forth between having the fields pre-populated and having them blank over the course of a few seconds. After this, trying to re-enter my username or email in the fields often results in glitches, where the character I typed appears in the field for a fraction of a second before vanishing as if I had hit the backspace key. I have tried everything in the debugging guide, including uninstalling/reinstalling Atom and disabling/re-enabling the Git package, as well as re-entering the git config --global values for name and email and repeatedly restarting my computer.

My guess is that it has something to do with my Git credentials, given that it is the Git identity prompt that glitches and that sometimes the fields are not pre-populated with my name and email as I have them configured, but for the life of me I cannot figure out what it is. Running git config user.name or git config user.email brings up the correct values, regardless of repository. I do not have any local configs (i.e. I do not have git config username without the global flag to set any values in any of the repositories in question). Any help would be appreciated; the bug is interrupting my workflow and (in some cases) preventing me from using Atom's Git interface entirely.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Atom
2. Open a file from a repository
3. Open Git tab
   4 (optional). Switch between files in different repositories.

Expected behavior:

Git tab (unstaged/staged changes, commit message field, list of past commits) is displayed.

Actual behavior:

Git identity panel is displayed, sometimes after a few seconds of seeing the Git tab and sometimes not; sometimes with the fields pre-populated with my username and email and sometimes not.

Reproduces how often:

95% (occasionally, switching between files of two different repositories that are both initialized will not cause the prompt to reappear).

Versions

Atom : 1.53.0
Electron: 6.1.12
Chrome : 76.0.3809.146
Node : 12.4.0

apm 2.5.2
npm 6.14.8
node 12.4.0 x64
atom 1.53.0
python 2.7.8
git 2.22.0.windows.1
visual studio

OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0.19041

Additional Information

I should note that one of the repositories is linked to Heroku, although the error is not exclusive to that one repository.

[UziTech]

This issue should be on the https://github.com/atom/github repo.

[sweetsweetstefan]

This just started happening for me today as well. The Git Identity panel keeps coming up, and it has never behaved this way before. I was able to reproduce the error in safe mode when switching between files in different GitHub repos. I see the same behaviour where some repos have my information already filled in the fields, and other repos have the fields blank. Here are my versions:

Atom : 1.53.0
Electron: 6.1.12
Chrome : 76.0.3809.146
Node : 12.4.0

This is on MacOS 10.14.6.

[markdynamo6]

Same here (same version as @sweetsweetstefan ), but on Windows.

[smashwilson]

Oh yuck, I'm sorry you're hitting this. I had a few issues like this during development but I thought I'd managed to squash them - I haven't seen it happen myself since then (across a few machines and platforms). Apparently not!

Not sure how soon I'll be able to look into a fix unfortunately (quarantine parenting, etc). I'll flag this for attention the next time I do get time, but if anyone else has the chance to investigate before me I would ❤️ a pull request here 😇 and promise a quick review!

[markdynamo6]

No hassles Ash. Thanks for the quick reply.

[jakubmuransky]

After upgrade to macOS BigSur this problem appears

[Alterraia]

This has been happening since 2018. They have never fixed it. They maybe patch it, but then when they make an update to Atom, it breaks the patch and reverts back to this.

I've seen vague responses since this first started happening, but nothing actually helpful and no real resolution. If the root of the issue is not fixed, it is going to happen again, as it is happening now, and we will be here doing this all over again.

[smashwilson]

The git identity panel was added on 6 April 2020, so if this has been "happening since 2018" that would be pretty impressive.

Are you confusing the git identity panel with something else? We have three distinct identities at play in this package - the username and email that git uses to construct commits; the token and GitHub account used to push and fetch changes to and from remotes; and the token and GitHub account used to interact with the GitHub API to fetch pull request data and review comments and the like. Have you been having problems with one of those, instead?

[Alterraia]

I'm only using Atom, but the issue that I am having I have seen dated as far back as 2018. Maybe it was called something else then or it was the previous version, but the Git Identity panel is repeating the problem that was happening before. Putting a new face on the method to log in doesn't fix the underlying issue. I initially google searched my issue in hopes to find a resolution, which is how I found this issue isn't new. It's just a new version of the same issue.

[jakubmuransky]

In my case is problem with "classic" Git I don't use GitHub plugin

[Alterraia]

I'm new to using Git. I used Atom then replaced the original file with my new file. Git is more convenient. Am I able to just bypass Atom for now and upload directly from Git? I have things I need to push in a few hours. It takes minutes to do, but I figure if git is up to date, then i can pull and update my files on my PC.

[smashwilson]

I initially google searched my issue in hopes to find a resolution, which is how I found this issue isn't new. It's just a new version of the same issue.

Can you link the issue you think this is a duplicate of?

[smashwilson]

Am I able to just bypass Atom for now and upload directly from Git? I have things I need to push in a few hours. It takes minutes to do, but I figure if git is up to date, then i can pull and update my files on my PC.

Yes, of course. You can always use git on the command line (or any other git client, like GitHub Desktop) to do anything git-related.

[Alterraia]

I think this is it. It was a few days ago when I was searching it and there was a lot of school work assignments and web searches between then and now. But the description and the problem seems identical to what I'm experiencing now, only mine is using the 2020 version.

#1353

[smashwilson]

Do you see an error like this in your development console?

Uncaught (in promise) Error: RelayModernGraphQLTag

[Alterraia]

I do not. And that is because I've done everything right in Atom. It's how I learned to do what I do. While it's not as advanced, I'm able to accomplish what I need to do.

The only thing I've done, on the regular and had no issues, was have other projects open while only the one is linked to Git. And I did create a new, unrelated repository the night prior to this all happening.

When I came on the following morning, Atom had an update ready to install and I was signed out.

[cvande04]

Thanks Ash for your quick response! I think my issue is related Git, not GitHub, so while 1353 may be a similar problem, I'm not sure it is the same one.

[Alterraia]

So the problem was is that when atom updated, my .git file was completely removed. Nowhere on my PC. Not even in the recycle bin. Makes zero sense.

We added a new one, but still not working, so we just downloaded a new clone, and that worked fine. The login information worked and everything. Removed the other copy.

I really do not want to have to go through this route again. No reason that .git file should be removed.

[jakubmuransky]

I have untouched .git folder, but in git config --list name and mail missing

[joeland1]

Had same issue. Fixed it by uninstalling and reinstalling atom. (Windows 10)

[jonyyz]

@smashwilson I think I found the root cause of the problem. Try creating a folder with multiple git projects and then add the folder containing the git projects and possibly other git project folders to the project view and switch between them. It seems to work correctly if the only folders added to the project view are roots of git projects. I need functionality like this because I work on teams where the software is composed of a lot of git repositories. It would be quite tedious to add each of them individually to the project pane. 😄 It also seems to happen if you have a project folder that is not a git repository with other folders that are git repositories which I do because I like to have a sandbox handy. What happens there is, you switch to the non-git repository the credentials pane is displayed with the credential fields empty then if you switch back to a git repository that pane is still there with your git credentials pre-populated. It's almost like an event is being handled at the root level of the project view and perhaps not at the sub-folder level. Hope that helps!

As a work-around to this issue, you can add only git repositories to the root level of the project view. That might not work for some setups though like mine.

I've reproduced this on two machines with Atom 1.53.0 both Windows 10 64-bit.

Be one with the recursion 😉

[jnawk]

It wouldn't be nearly so annoying if you could dismiss it without having to fill it in.

Additionally - it seems to only lift values from the repo's .git/config and ignores $HOME/.gitconfig - I have user.name set globally (since my name doesn't change depending on what code I'm working on), and user.email set per repo.

[smashwilson]

It wouldn't be nearly so annoying if you could dismiss it without having to fill it in.

Just as a sidenote, even before I can get a proper fix, you should be able to do this already. Click on the mini-avatar portrait at the top-left of the git panel:

It'll take you right back to the identity panel if you really don't have a git identity set and have an active project root that has a git repository (because you can't actually do anything without populating one, anyway). But if you want to access the "Create repository" button and the like this should work.

[sweetsweetstefan]

I confirm that when the mini-avatar is present and I click it, Atom seems to then find the proper credentials and Git works as expected for a while.

However, the mini-avatar is not always present. I'll keep a closer eye on that and will post again if I find a pattern.

[jnawk]

Hrm. My issue where values aren't pulled from the places appears to be windows gaslighting me, so I have nothing new to add after all.

[saschabraun]

Having the same issue (the one from the top of the thread) since Big Sur update.

[andygeorge]

Seeing this happen on Fedora 33 whenever I switch (tabs) between a file in a repository and another one not in a repository.

When switching between files, the name/email fields are correctly set (eg blank for the file not in a repo, and populated for a file in a repo), but still prompts me to "Continue".

[mikkopori]

I've started seeing this with Atom on Ubuntu for a short time. Pretty annoying to have click 'continue' once a while even if the values are still the same & correct.

Do not have github configured.

[mrherickz]

Same issue on Big Sur, it's very very annoying

[realizelol]

Hi,

I am having the same issue on windows 10. "Git Identity" window will appear on every start of atom, even if I click on my avatar
I still get back to "Git Identity" everytime. On my MacBook (10.15.7) it's more annoying because it's unusable I have had to download the beta version because stable is not stable. 👎🏻
Both are the latest stable version 1.53.0.

best regards
realizelol

[markdynamo6]

Seems like we've all confirmed that there's an issue. Anyone care to venture a fix?

[smashwilson]

Oh, I've started a fix for the root cause in #2564. It's a little slow going because this isn't my day job anymore, but I'm hopeful that it won't take too much longer.

On my MacBook (10.15.7) it's more annoying because it's unusable I have had to download the beta version because stable is not stable.

Wait. Is this not an issue on beta? That's... odd. I've been able to reproduce it easily enough on nightly.

[markdynamo6]

Awesome. Cheers Ash.

[smashwilson]

Doing a little digging in the history shows that #2437 already addresses most of this, and is not included in the version of this package that's included in Atom stable, but is already included in the current beta (and will be in the next stable release). Furthermore, I've just merged #2564, which deals with another source of odd edge cases.

This means that switching to Atom Beta or Atom Nightly should help most of the immediate annoyance. But if you really want to live on the cutting edge, run this in a command prompt or terminal:

apm install atom/github

This will install the latest commit to the default branch of this repo and load that version of the github package instead of the one that's bundled with your Atom install. It'll make Atom slightly slower to launch, but it would let you try out the very latest changes to make sure that they address the problem. And you can always undo it with apm uninstall github if it becomes a problem.

[kalwalt]

I have this issue too, I thought that i was the only one. I have installed atom on OpenSuse tumbleweed, installed with package manager, installed atom-github atom-git-plus plugins. I would try your suggested solution @smashwilson, hoping that will fix it.

[amirhp-com]

same problem here, windows 10 x64 Atom latest

[kalwalt]

@smashwilson i can't install with:

apm install atom/github

i receive a long list of errors, i will report here a log file.

[ggstuart]

Same problem on ubuntu 18.04, also cannot install atom/github

[smashwilson]

Ahhh right... my first guess is that you're likely missing build tools. This package includes dependencies with C/C++ components, most notably keytar, so your system needs to be able to compile these properly in order to install it in dev mode.

The way to do that depends on your operating system. It's a strict subset of the build prerequisites listed in the Atom flight manual for your platform - on Ubuntu, you'll need at least build-essential and libsecret-1-dev - so following those instructions should get you running.

If it's too much hassle, I'm hoping to have this in nightly in a few days.

[kalwalt]

Ahhh right... my first guess is that you're likely missing build tools. This package includes dependencies with C/C++ components, most notably keytar, so your system needs to be able to compile these properly in order to install it in dev mode.

The way to do that depends on your operating system. It's a strict subset of the build prerequisites listed in the Atom flight manual for your platform - on Ubuntu, you'll need at least build-essential and libsecret-1-dev - so following those instructions should get you running.

If it's too much hassle, I'm hoping to have this in nightly in a few days.

Thank you for the answer @smashwilson ! since i am on OpenSuse OS i will search for corresponding packages to install.

[smashwilson]

I'm going to close this because the fix is merged and the GitHub package update will be in the next nightly build. (It looks like the nightly build is having some unrelated issues, so it isn't published there yet.)

Thanks for the reports and your patience, everyone.

[jnawk]

Keen to see if this fix resolves the issue I'm seeing - after further observation, it seems that when I have my name and email split over the global (for the name) and the per repo (for the email), my global config gets rewritten when I dismiss the identity window - name disappears (since it's not in the local config), and email is set to what was in the local config.

Any idea when this will be released?

[ivanblack19]

Not fixed in Nightly also - MacOs
but apm install atom/github helps

[gothicserpent]

happens for me in 1.53

[smashwilson]

Yeah, I got stalled on some unrelated test crashing in the Atom build, and also had a bunch of stuff to deal with for Universe at my Real Job. It's still on the way though, and the core team knows about it.

[gothicserpent]

thank you

[nikahmadz]

That thing going from bad to worst. It start blinking and preventing me to type my name and email into it. Super annoying

[smashwilson]

@nikahmadz Off-topic: see #2594. Please subscribe there instead of commenting on a closed issue.