helix panics if started in non-existent dir

[sigmaSd]

Summary

helix panics if cwd is removed

Reproduction Steps

• mkdir a
• cd a
• from another terminal rm -rf a
• hx

expected: no crash
actual: panics

thread 'main' panicked at 'Couldn't determine current working directory: Os { code: 2, kind: NotFound, message: "No such file or directory" }', helix-loader/src/lib.rs:29:10

#7185 says this is an internal invariant but in reality its used in many places accessible from the outside

Helix log

No response

Platform

linux

Terminal Emulator

weterm

Helix Version

helix 23.05 (c9694f6)

[pascalkuthe]

I just don't see how this would work. If the cwd doesn't exists before helix is started then it's impossible for us ti the determine the cwd oath so all commands that use the cwd (:open, anytime you start an LSP, file picker, global search,...) just won't work properly. I think its entirely reasonable to assume that the cwd exists at startup.

Especially because helix crashes immidietly (so no lost work) with an entirely reasonable error message I just don't think it's worth the extra headache to fix.

[cronhan]

I also recently experienced it, and even though I understood the message, it was not apparent what was wrong immediately since the shell did not give a similar error message (and my prompt includes the full CWD so even more "confusing"). So I think it might be good to at least adjust the error message to also include the path that it tried but does not exist? Or add a hint to the message that the user should check whether that directory exists/was removed by another process?

[eminence]

I think the only other possible option is for helix to change to a different directory, when the cwd doesn't exist. But then you're left with the question of what directory should that be, and then the subsequent possible confusion from users when that happens. So the current behavior of refusing to start seems well justified.

I think probably a lot of people have come to associate panic error messages with bugs, rightly or wrongly.

Would you accept a PR that improves this message a bit? Something like:

Error: Couldn't determine current working directory.  Check that '/tmp/a` exists.

[pascalkuthe]

Yeah I think helix should just print an error message and exit with an error code.