[Error: Watcher took too long to load]

[LeezQ]

this error often happen in my computer, how can I avoid this ?

[ksmithut]

From the docs try step 5:

brew install watchman. We recommend installing watchman, otherwise you might hit a node file watching bug.

note that brew is a Mac package. If you don't have that already and you're on a mac, see installation instructions here. If you're not on a mac, you'll need to find another way of getting ruby and watchman installed on your computer.

[amasad]

Does it happen only some of the time?
I'll increase the timeout

[LeezQ]

@amasad , yes , some of time ... and I think it's watchman's problem. because when I have no process to run watchman, it also tell me please shut down any existing instances that are already running

[cxfeng1-zz]

same here

[chucai]

I got the same error on my macbook. Is there any solution to fix it?

I had install watchman in my book.

After I run watchman in my terminal, I got

{
    "error": "invalid command (expected an array with some elements!)",
    "cli_validated": true,
    "version": "3.0.0"
}

[amasad]

Can you try the steps in the troubleshooting?

http://facebook.github.io/react-native/docs/troubleshooting.html#watchman-took-too-long-to-load

[chucai]

Hi @amasad,

The solution didn't fix my issue ... 😭

[Error: Watcher took too long to load
Try running `watchman` from your terminal
https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/troubleshooting.html]
Error: Watcher took too long to load
Try running `watchman` from your terminal
https://facebook.github.io/watchman/docs/troubleshooting.html
    at null._onTimeout (/Users/xdhe/Documents/projects/react/react-native/HackerNews-React-Native/node_modules/react-native/packager/react-packager/src/FileWatcher/index.js:71:16)
    at Timer.listOnTimeout [as ontimeout] (timers.js:110:15)

  >>> ERROR: could not create packager - please shut down any existing instances that are already running.

I got the message after I run the command watchman in my terminal.

$ watchman
{
    "error": "invalid command (expected an array with some elements!)",
    "cli_validated": true,
    "version": "3.1.0"
}

[amasad]

@chucai There are some steps here to help you debug facebook/watchman#90 (comment)
cc @wez

[chucai]

Hi @amasad & @wez ,

Thanks for you comments. This is my debug log.

1428027461: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428027461: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=10240
1428027461: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 10240
1428027461: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket
1428027461: tid=2142380816 failed to parse json from /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: unable to open /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: No such file or directory
1428046836: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428046836: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=10240
1428046836: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 10240
1428046836: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket
1428046836: tid=2142380816 failed to parse json from /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: unable to open /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: No such file or directory
1428047359: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428047359: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=20480
1428047359: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 20480
1428047359: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket
1428047359: tid=2142380816 failed to parse json from /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: unable to open /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: No such file or directory
1428047413: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428047413: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=20480
1428047413: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 20480
1428047413: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket
1428047413: tid=2142380816 failed to parse json from /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/var/run/watchman/xdhe.state: '[' or '{' expected near end of file
1428047495: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428047495: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=20480
1428047495: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 20480
1428047495: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket
1428047536: tid=2142380816 Using watcher mechanism fsevents
1428047536: tid=2142380816 file limit is 256 kern.maxfilesperproc=20480
1428047536: tid=2142380816 raised file limit to 20480
1428047536: tid=2142380816 Using socket from launchd as listening socket

The xdhe.state file is created by myself. Its content is very simple:

#xdhe.state
{}

[chucai]

I fixed my issue with the following commands.

brew uninstall watchman

brew install --HEAD watchman 

watchman watch-list 

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/Cellar/watchman/HEAD/bin/watchman

Thanks @amasad .

[holyspectral]

I had the same issue, but later I found somehow /Users/XXX/Library/LaunchAgents/ is belonged to root.
After chown, everything works.

[raichur]

Thanks, @chucai. That solved it for me.

[amasad]

Seems to be resolved, closing for now. Feel free to reopen if you're still seeing the issue.