[Improvement] Confusing Exception message: "Could not find a 'develop' or 'main' branch, neither locally nor remotely."

[odalet]

When I read this error message, I thought my 'master' branch was not recognized by GitVersion whereas the problem was completely unrelated.

Detailed Description

I was trying to have GitVersion work on a private GitLab instance of ours (I'm still a beginner concerning GitLab) and was presented with this exception. I wrongly assumed there was a problem with GitVersion not finding my 'master' branch... Even tried to declare it in GitVersion.yml but that was for naught. It appears the problem was on the GitLab side due to how we had configured the way it retrieves a git clone (a detached head only listing a unique (non-master) remote branch, no wonder GitVersion didn't work).

I understand, by reading GitVersion code, that 'develop' and 'main' are not real branch names, but rather monikers to whatever the development and the main/principal branch are, but the quotation and the fact they can be real branch names as well is, I suppose, the source of my confusion.

I think that the message either:

• should list 'master' along 'main' as one of the branches that could not be found:

Could not find a 'develop' or 'main' or 'master' branch, neither locally nor remotely.

• or avoid the use of the quotes and try to have the reader understand we are talking about branch roles rather than branch names. Something along this line:

Could not find any development or main branch, neither locally nor remotely.

Context

I think this (obvioulsy simple and dispendable) change may help diagnose issues like the one I had.

Possible Implementation

If one or the other of my propositions is accepted, I'll gladly modify the relevant string in a PR

[arturcic]

I guess even better would be if we could use the actual names found in the configuration, as not all are using develop or main, but could be dev or other names. So better if the message displays that name instead

[odalet]

Yes, I suppose it'd be even better, but this is raised by an Exception... Note that I didn't have a look at the code (yet), so I can't say whether this is easy or not. For information, here is the Exception trace:

    ERROR [02/16/21 10:01:23:02] An unexpected error occurred:
  System.InvalidOperationException: Could not find a 'develop' or 'main' branch, neither locally nor remotely.
     at GitVersion.Configuration.BranchConfigurationCalculator.InheritBranchConfiguration(IBranch targetBranch, BranchConfig branchConfiguration, ICommit currentCommit, Config configuration, IList`1 excludedInheritBranches)
     at GitVersion.Configuration.BranchConfigurationCalculator.GetBranchConfiguration(IBranch targetBranch, ICommit currentCommit, Config configuration, IList`1 excludedInheritBranches) in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\Configuration\BranchConfigurationCalculator.cs:line 47
     at GitVersion.GitVersionContextFactory.Create(GitVersionOptions gitVersionOptions) in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\Core\GitVersionContextFactory.cs:line 40
     at GitVersion.GitVersionCoreModule.<>c__DisplayClass0_0.<RegisterTypes>b__3() in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\GitVersionCoreModule.cs:line 61
     at System.Lazy`1.ViaFactory(LazyThreadSafetyMode mode)
     at System.Lazy`1.ExecutionAndPublication(LazyHelper executionAndPublication, Boolean useDefaultConstructor)
     at System.Lazy`1.CreateValue()
     at System.Lazy`1.get_Value()
     at GitVersion.VersionCalculation.NextVersionCalculator.get_context() in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\VersionCalculation\NextVersionCalculator.cs:line 17
     at GitVersion.VersionCalculation.NextVersionCalculator.FindVersion() in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\VersionCalculation\NextVersionCalculator.cs:line 32
     at GitVersion.GitVersionCalculateTool.CalculateVersionVariables() in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.Core\Core\GitVersionCalculateTool.cs:line 52
     at GitVersion.GitVersionExecutor.RunGitVersionTool(GitVersionOptions gitVersionOptions) in D:\a\GitVersion\GitVersion\src\GitVersion.App\GitVersionExecutor.cs:line 61

[arturcic]

GitVersion/src/GitVersion.Core/Configuration/BranchConfigurationCalculator.cs

Line 135 in 8937c25

throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not find a 'develop' or 'main' branch, neither locally nor remotely.");

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. After 30 days from now, it will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[DarwinJS]

I am having this exact problem here when using the default config and I agree that the error seems almost intentionally misleading.

I think the error should be more explicit than the original @odalet suggests:

'Gitversion could not determine which branch to treat as the development branch (default = develop) nor release branch (default = main or master), neither locally nor remotely. Consider diagnosing with git status ; git log -n 1"

[asbjornu]

I agree the error message is bad. Pull requests to improve it are welcome.

[DarwinJS]

@asbjornu - yes I actually submitted a PR against this issue.

[asbjornu]

@DarwinJS, which PR is that?

[DarwinJS]

Opps I had done it back to my own fork - fixed now!