Git Another git process seems to be running in this repository Solution

Only one Git process can run at any given time on a project. If you have multiple processes that are using Git on your computer, you’ll encounter the “Another git process seems to be running in this repository” error.

This guide discusses what this error means and why it is raised. We’ll walk through an example of this error so you can learn how to resolve it.

Another git process seems to be running in this repository

Git can only run one command at a time. The Git version control system needs to run commands sequentially to preserve the integrity of a codebase.

Consider the following scenario: Two Git processes are running on your computer. One of them is committing a change and the other one is pulling changes. This would confuse Git because it would not know whether to pull changes or commit changes first.

This error can be raised if you have an editor program opened that is using Git or if you have multiple terminal windows open that are in interactive Git sessions.

This error may also be raised in a Git repository if an earlier process has crashed, or if you have tried to execute two git commands simultaneously.

An Example Scenario

We’re going to create a commit in a repository called ck-git. To start, let’s update our README.md file. We’re going to update this file in a text editor that is integrated with Git.

We’ve just added a line of text to the end of our README.md file. Next, let’s add this file to the staging area and create a commit using the git add and git commit commands:

git add README.md
git commit

The git commit command returns an error message:

Another git process seems to be running in this repository, e.g.
an editor opened by 'git commit'. Please make sure all processes
are terminated then try again. If it still fails, a git process
may have crashed in this repository earlier:
remove the file manually to continue.

This error tells us that our commit cannot go ahead because there is already a process on our computer that is running Git.

The Solution

Git cannot run two processes simultaneously. The cause of our error is likely that our text editor has an instance of Git running to support its Git integration and we’ve tried to run a Git command from the command line at the same time.

We can fix this error by deleting a file called index.lock in the .git/ directory:

rm -f .git/index.lock


This will clear the cache on the Git index so that you can run another Git command. We do not need to use the git rm command because index.lock is not part of our tracked repository. index.lock is a hidden Git configuration file. Let’s try to commit our code again:

git commit


The git commit command opens an interactive window in which we can set our commit message:

# Please enter the commit message for your changes. Lines starting
# with '#' will be ignored, and an empty message aborts the commit

Because this window has opened, we know we are now able to interact with Git.

Conclusion

The Another git process seems to be running in this repository error is raised if two processes are running Git at the same time.

To solve this error, remove your index.lock file in the .git/ directory. This will clear your Git process cache so you can run another process.

Now you have the knowledge you need to fix this error like a professional!