git gui opens a window with no usable content

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

On 12.1, git gui opens a window with four different panes (the list of files, the diffs etc.) but all of them are black. It's not usable at all. I'm in dark mode.

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Screenshot

[chrstphrchvz (Christopher Chavez)]

git gui is using Tcl/Tk Aqua 8.5.9 included in macOS, which is very old and appears to be unusable on macOS 12. Since macOS 10.15, the system Tcl/Tk has been deprecated and is likely to be removed in future macOS (as warned on the command line).

If git gui is using wish from PATH, then installing MacPorts’ tk (either the +quartz or +x11 variant is fine) may work around this issue.

If git gui and gitk should always be using MacPorts’ Tcl/Tk, it may be desirable to separate them from the git port, so that git itself isn’t dependent on Tcl/Tk ports.

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Hi Christopher, git gui is hard-coded to use its own Wish:

$ cat /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui
#!/bin/sh
if test "z$*" = zversion ||
   test "z$*" = z--version
then
        echo 'git-gui version 0.21.0.99.gdf4f9e'
else
        libdir="${GIT_GUI_LIB_DIR:-/opt/local/share/git-gui/lib}"
        exec "$libdir/Git Gui.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish" "$0" "$@"
fi

But this Wish (which is a universal binary) appears to be doing something special. Just replacing it with macport's does not work. It execs

exec '/opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/Git Gui.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish' /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui

Yes, it is passing the above shell script to that Wish, which appears to handle it in a special way. The regular wish won't grok it.

$ /opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui
Error in startup script: invalid bareword "test"
in expression "test";
should be "$test" or "{test}" or "test(...)" or ...
    (parsing expression "test")
    invoked from within
"if test "z$*" = zversion ||"
    (file "/opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui" line 2)

I have no idea what needs to be passed to it. My best try won't work.

$ /opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.tcl -- browser
usage: /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.tcl [{blame|browser|citool}]

I don't understand what it wants and how my command line is incorrect.

[chrstphrchvz (Christopher Chavez)]

Did you try $ /opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.tcl browser (no --)?

Git Gui.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish appears to be copied from /System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/Resources/Wish.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish during build.

If building Git Gui.app is desirable, I’m not aware whether it requires Tk to be built as a framework, which MacPorts Tk currently does not do. (Homebrew does not build Tk as a framework either, and they opted to not provide Git Gui.app: ​https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/commit/dfa3ccf1e7d3)

[akimd (Akim Demaille)]

Yes, I had tried that, to no avail.

It turns out that this git-gui.tcl script makes stupid and useless error messages. In most situations of errors it just dumps this stupid usage message instead of forging a genuine error message that tells what it's unhappy about. And once you hacked your way into the script and add details, you find out that this script looks at its name (argv[0]) to decide what to do. And it is taught to recognize git-gui, not git-gui.tcl...

So I have ln -s git-gui.tcl git-gui and now /opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui works properly (no argument such as browser is needed).

I don't understand how

$ cat /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui
#!/bin/sh
if test "z$*" = zversion ||
   test "z$*" = z--version
then
        echo 'git-gui version 0.21.0.99.gdf4f9e'
else
        libdir="${GIT_GUI_LIB_DIR:-/opt/local/share/git-gui/lib}"
        exec "$libdir/Git Gui.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish" "$0" "$@"
fi

works exactly, but there appears to be some magic in $libdir/Git Gui.app/Contents/MacOS/Wish on the way it groks $0. If you do the obvious thing (replace that Wish with /opt/local/bin/wish) it fails, and the error message shows that tcl was really try to read $0, i.e., a shell script, and failed:

$ git gui
Error in startup script: invalid bareword "test"
in expression "test";
should be "$test" or "{test}" or "test(...)" or ...
    (parsing expression "test")
    invoked from within
"if test "z$*" = zversion ||"
    (file "/opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui" line 2)

So we still need to find a way for /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui to work out of the box. The obvious

$ cat /opt/local/libexec/git-core/git-gui
#!/bin/sh
if test "z$*" = zversion ||
   test "z$*" = z--version
then
        echo 'git-gui version 0.21.0.99.gdf4f9e'
else
        libdir="${GIT_GUI_LIB_DIR:-/opt/local/share/git-gui/lib}"
        exec "/opt/local/bin/wish" "$libdir/git-gui" "$@"
fi

works.

[chrstphrchvz (Christopher Chavez)]

I believe #64925 is a duplicate of this

[gma-uw (gma1)]

Thanks for the redirect to this.

FYI, I made the suggested symlink on my machine as follows

ln -s /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.tcl /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui

Then I get this strange behavior:

/opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui.tcl FAILS

/opt/local/bin/wish /opt/local/share/git-gui/lib/git-gui WORKS

At least something works, but I have no idea why.

[mohd-akram (Mohamed Akram)]

In 4bfc47deb6919ff5a90fdf8c6b90317586324322/macports-ports (master):

git: do not bundle tk for gui

Fixes: #62036
Fixes: #64249

[zman0900 (Dan Ziemba)]

With git 2.35.3_0 installed on MacOS 12.3.1 x86_64, running either gitk or git gui still results in an unusable, mostly black window.

[zman0900 (Dan Ziemba)]

Both still output deprecation warning about system tk. gitk also shows this error after closing the window:

Error in startup script: can't invoke "tk" command:  application has been destroyed
    while executing
"tk windowingsystem"
    invoked from within
"if {[tk windowingsystem] eq "win32"} {
    focus -force .
}"
    (file "/opt/local/bin/gitk" line 12697)

[telotortium (Robert Irelan)]

On my computer (macOS Monterey 12.3.1 M1), the issue is fixed for me by installed tk with the quartz variant - the x11 variant doesn't work for me. I have XQuartz installed (from ​http://xquartz.org I believe).

[gagarine (Simon)]

gitk on MacOS in dark

[gagarine (Simon)]

I can confirm that installing tk with quartz fix the issue on MacOS 12 in light and dark mode.

sudo port install tk +quartz