From 6641bdf3baa61af33f0d15ff90a3c9a36dcb1d6b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Michael Seibt <mstv@gmx.net>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2021 23:16:19 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Create empty AppSettings file

in order to not let the FileSettingsCache skip the activation
of its FileSystemWatcher

Fixes #9288

(cherry picked from commit ac314554b48368fc5971043a5cfcf98a4c36ce3c)
---
 GitCommands/Settings/AppSettings.cs | 26 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/GitCommands/Settings/AppSettings.cs b/GitCommands/Settings/AppSettings.cs
index 813a10bb0e3..b360389763e 100644
--- a/GitCommands/Settings/AppSettings.cs
+++ b/GitCommands/Settings/AppSettings.cs
@@ -108,15 +108,39 @@ static AppSettings()
                 return path;
             });
 
+            bool newFile = CreateEmptySettingsFileIfMissing();
+
             SettingsContainer = new RepoDistSettings(null, GitExtSettingsCache.FromCache(SettingsFilePath), SettingLevel.Unknown);
 
-            if (!File.Exists(SettingsFilePath))
+            if (newFile || !File.Exists(SettingsFilePath))
             {
                 ImportFromRegistry();
             }
 
             MigrateAvatarSettings();
             MigrateSshSettings();
+
+            return;
+
+            static bool CreateEmptySettingsFileIfMissing()
+            {
+                try
+                {
+                    string dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(SettingsFilePath);
+                    if (!Directory.Exists(dir) || File.Exists(SettingsFilePath))
+                    {
+                        return false;
+                    }
+                }
+                catch (ArgumentException)
+                {
+                    // Illegal characters in the filename
+                    return false;
+                }
+
+                File.WriteAllText(SettingsFilePath, "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?><dictionary />", Encoding.UTF8);
+                return true;
+            }
         }
 
         /// <summary>