Understand when positron knows git

[xx02al]

The question has come up again and I am writing here because I would be glad if someone can help me to fully understand the following behavior. Let's imagine we open a project in positron. This project is properly version controlled and synchronized with GitHub. We are not signed in with a GitHub account and we also do not use the GitHub PR Extension (likely soon included by default #7525). We can pull and push, for example. BUT, it takes some time until system git is recognized. This means that only then we can do things like usethis::create_from_github()or work with the {usethis} PR helpers. In other words, until some time gitcreds::gitcreds_get()would error with “could not find system git” and after some time it will show the expected response. If we want to compare with RStudio, it won't take some time in RStudio. I assume something concrete must happen in some time, but examining a few hypotheses, I could not explain it to my satisfaction.

In case it matters: I can observe it using positron (several versions including) 2025.06.0-48 on a Windows machine. I haven't had the chance to try it on another OS.

[jennybc]

Just a comment on this:

BUT, it takes some time until system git is recognized. This means that only then we can do things like usethis::create_from_github() or work with the {usethis} PR helpers.

usethis uses the R package gert for all git operations, which provides libgit2 bindings, and gh for github work. So none of that depends on finding or using system git.

It is true that git/github credentials will need to be available for gert and gh, for much of what they do. I suspect you're going to need to fill in more detail for us to be able to tell if there's anything within Positron's control about your problem. As in, some exact sequence of actions and exact error messages.

[jmcphers]

What does Sys.getenv("PATH") show in both cases? I wonder if you're seeing a variation of #7274.

[xx02al]

It does not return the same in Positron and RStudio, and sorry I'm hesitant to paste the strings right now. Can I share them privately or do I not share any "confidential" data?

[jmcphers]

No need to share them. Instead:

• What does Sys.which("git") return on RStudio?
• Does the path that it returns exist in the set of paths returned by Sys.getenv("PATH") in Positron?

[jennybc]

can you reproduce what I observe if you do similar actions?

No, I can successfully access git credentials via gitcreds right away in a fresh Positron and R session:

R 4.4.2 restarted.
> gitcreds::gitcreds_get()
<gitcreds>
  protocol: https
  host    : github.com
  username: jennybc
  password: <-- hidden -->
>

☝️ is on macOS. So @jmcphers's hunch that perhaps it's connected to a Windows PATH issue is intriguing.

[xx02al]

I do not detect RStudio's Sys.which("git") answer identically in Positron's Sys.getenv("PATH") answer. RStudio gives me "C:\PROGRA~1\Git\cmd\git.exe", while the part in the Positron string is

• when gitcreds::gitcreds_get() works: "C:\Program Files\Git\cmd;"
• when gitcreds::gitcreds_get() errors with "Could not find system git": there is no part containing Git or cmd