Can't use Plugin Manager to install... anything?

1

I was trying to use the Plugin Manager to install word-o-mat, but got an error. Checking something else to install, Python, it seems i can’t install that either.

I get:

Failed to clone repository from 
https://github.com/schriftgestalt/GlyphsPythonPlugin 
to 
/Users/drj/Library/Application Support/Glyphs 3/Repositories/GlyphsPythonPlugin

and for word-o-mat the very similar:

Failed to clone repository from 
https://github.com/schriftgestalt/word-o-mat 
to 
/Users/drj/Library/Application Support/Glyphs 3/Repositories/word-o-mat

In my other life, i’m fully Python and git enabled. I have no problem cloning those repos, so github is ok.

3

This either is a problem with your internet connection (unlikely) or file permissions.

Can you check if the Repositories folder is there and writable?

4 
; ls -la "/Users/drj/Library/Application Support/Glyphs 3/Repositories"
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  2 drj  staff   64 12 Oct 10:47 .
drwxr-xr-x  5 drj  staff  160 12 Oct 10:29 ..

Yes, Repositories directory is there and is writable.

Earlier i tried manually cloning the git repo in there. Which cloned fine, but Glyphs 3 still didn’t see the plugin. So i know file permissions and internet connection to github aren’t a problem.

Is there a log file i can poke around in?

5

Rainer’s now deleted question about Python versions may be relevant. Poking around the Glyphs Preferences i see a preference for Python version, currently set to 3.10.6 (Homebrew).

This is somewhat of a surprise to me since:

  • I would expect Glyphs to use its own Python
  • I never told it to use this version of Python, it found it on its own
  • Because of homebrew upgrades, Python 3.10.6 is installed (maybe, see below), but not the default 3.10 version

image
image1492×558 47.3 KB 

; brew info python@3.10
==> python@3.10: stable 3.10.7 (bottled)
Interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language
https://www.python.org/
/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.10/3.10.6_1 (3,113 files, 56.6MB)
  Poured from bottle on 2022-08-22 at 20:49:41
/usr/local/Cellar/python@3.10/3.10.7 (3,112 files, 56.6MB) *
  Poured from bottle on 2022-10-12 at 20:25:24
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/HEAD/Formula/python@3.10.rb
License: Python-2.0

From my command-line python python3 and python3.10 all state the same Python 3.10.7 version.

6

I deleted the python comment because is is not connected to the installation failure. It is a separate problem.

What version of MacOS do you have?

7 
; sw_vers 
ProductName:	macOS
ProductVersion:	11.6.8
BuildVersion:	20G730

macOS 11.6.8

I’m about to investigate whether options in my .gitconfig are interfering.

8

Yeah, so it’s my slightly unusual .gitconfig (also visible at gitconfig · main · D Jones / dot · GitLab):


[user]
	name = David Jones
	email = …
[init]
	defaultBranch = main
[url "ssh://git@github.com/"]
	insteadOf = https://github.com/
[url "ssh://git@gitlab.com/"]
	insteadOf = https://gitlab.com/
[color]
	ui = never

I suspect the relevant line is [url "ssh://git@github.com/"] insteadOf = https://github.com/.

What this means is that git when it sees https://github.com in a repo URL will replace it with ssh://git@github.com/. Because i have SSH keys registered with github this effectively “upgrades” me to SSH access, which is useful if i happen to also have push access to a repo. It then doesn’t matter if my remote is https://something or ssh://something.

git is permitted to use my Apple Keychain to access my private SSH keys, but i suspect that however Glyphs is running git (gitlib?) then it is not permitted to access my private SSH keys.

So this is a rather unlikely scenario.

Should Glyphs be using my .gitconfig ? tricky question, i would lean towards not (after all, there are some really terrifying things i can put in my .gitconfig).

9

A sufficient workaround (for this case):

[url "https://github.com/schriftgestalt/"]
	insteadOf = https://github.com/schriftgestalt/

Do all the plugin repo URLs start https://github.com/schriftgestalt/ ?

I could also: remove my .gitconfig; set HOME= before launching Glyphs. Various places on the internet suggest there are environment variables that may help git to avoid reading my .gitconfig.

(I have now installed the Glyphs Python, word-o-mat and vanilla and it appears to work)

Glad i put this one down.

10

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

1 Like
11

The answer to my question

Do all the plugin repo URLs start https://github.com/schriftgestalt/ ?

is, No.