VS 2017 An exception was thrown while initializing part "GitFlowVS.Extension.GitFlowActionSection"

[brianthielagilethought]

On a new installation of Visual Studio 2017 (after the update), I get the following error when opening the GitFlow window for the first time:

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.CompositionFailedException: An exception was thrown while initializing part "GitFlowVS.Extension.GitFlowActionSection". ---> System.ArgumentException: String cannot be of zero length.
Parameter name: oldValue
at System.String.ReplaceInternal(String oldValue, String newValue)
at System.String.Replace(String oldValue, String newValue)
at GitFlow.VS.GitFlowWrapper.<>c__DisplayClass37_0.b__1(Branch b)
at System.Linq.Enumerable.WhereSelectListIterator2.MoveNext() at System.Collections.Generic.List1..ctor(IEnumerable1 collection) at System.Linq.Enumerable.ToList[TSource](IEnumerable1 source)
at GitFlow.VS.GitFlowWrapper.GetAllBranchesThatStartsWithConfigPrefix(String config)
at GitFlow.VS.GitFlowWrapper.get_AllFeatures()
at GitFlowVS.Extension.ViewModels.ActionViewModel.get_AllFeatures()
at GitFlowVS.Extension.ViewModels.ActionViewModel.set_ShowFinishFeature(Visibility value)
at GitFlowVS.Extension.ViewModels.ActionViewModel..ctor(GitFlowActionSection te)
at GitFlowVS.Extension.GitFlowActionSection..ctor()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.RuntimeExportProviderFactory.RuntimeExportProvider.RuntimePartLifecycleTracker.CreateValue()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.PartLifecycleTracker.Create()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.PartLifecycleTracker.MoveNext(PartLifecycleState nextState)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.PartLifecycleTracker.MoveToState(PartLifecycleState requiredState)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.PartLifecycleTracker.GetValueReadyToExpose()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.<>c__DisplayClass53_0.b__0()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.<>c__DisplayClass55_0.b__1()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.ExportProvider.<>c__DisplayClass54_0.b__0()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.DelegateServices.<>c__DisplayClass2_01.<As>b__0() at System.ComponentModel.Composition.ExportFactory1.CreateExport()
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.Composition.NetFxAdapters.MefV1ExportProvider.ComposablePartDefinitionForExportFactory.CreatePart()
at System.ComponentModel.Composition.ReflectionModel.ExportFactoryCreator.LifetimeContext.GetExportLifetimeContextFromExport[T](Export export)
at System.ComponentModel.Composition.ReflectionModel.ExportFactoryCreator.<>c__DisplayClass6_02.<CreateStronglyTypedExportFactoryOfTM>b__0() at System.ComponentModel.Composition.ExportFactory1.CreateExport()
at Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Controls.WPF.TeamExplorer.Framework.TeamExplorerSectionHost.Create()

[neilmiddleton-klaw]

+1 consistently getting this too on VS 15.9.8, 15.9.9 and 15.9.10

[wikiped]

On VS 16.4.2 as well.

[wikiped]

I appears the reason for this error was rooted in empty prefixes which were result of improper initialization of the working directory for whatever reason:

$ git flow init -d
Using default branch names.

How to name your supporting branch prefixes?
Feature branches? []
Bugfix branches? []
Release branches? []
Hotfix branches? []
Support branches? []
Version tag prefix? []
Hooks and filters directory? [/tmp/test/.git/hooks]

After updating git-flow to latest version 1.12.3 (AVH Edition) and running git flow init -f the problem was fixed. Default non-empty prefixes look like these:

How to name your supporting branch prefixes?
Feature branches? [feature/]
Bugfix branches? [bugfix/]
Release branches? [release/]
Hotfix branches? [hotfix/]
Support branches? [support/]

There is also a manual way to add prefixes to config desribed here.