mv: name both source and destination when rename fails

When "git mv" fails at the rename(2) syscall, the error is reported with die_errno() using only the source path: fatal: renaming 'src' failed: No such file or directory rename(2) returns ENOENT both when the source does not exist and when a directory component of the destination does not exist, and errno does not distinguish the two. Reporting only the source therefore misleads the user in the latter case: for git mv a/file b/no-such-dir/file the message blames 'a/file', which exists, and gives no hint that 'b/no-such-dir/' is the missing part. Inspecting the paths again after the failure to determine which one is at fault would be racy, since either could appear or disappear between the rename(2) and the follow-up check. Instead, simply name both the source and the destination in the message and let the reader see which one is wrong: fatal: renaming 'a/file' to 'b/no-such-dir/file' failed: No such file or directory Signed-off-by: Lucas Zamboni Orioli <lucaszam0@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>

Lucas Zamboni Orioli committed Jul 23, 2026 at 13:13 UTC 7ca4ebea08ed6c5fc093934c1052f6619d636e42
1 file changed +1 -1
builtin/mv.c
+1 -1
index e03823370c..a414f3621f 100644 --- a/builtin/mv.c +++ b/builtin/mv.c @@ -549,7 +549,7 @@ remove_entry: rename(src, dst) < 0) { if (ignore_errors) continue; - die_errno(_("renaming '%s' failed"), src); + die_errno(_("renaming '%s' to '%s' failed"), src, dst); } if (submodule_gitfiles[i]) { if (!update_path_in_gitmodules(src, dst))