Git checkout and reset on Windows occasionally shows random files have changed

Question

Often when I do a checkout of a different branch, or a reset, I will get 'permission denied' errors from windows for one to a dozen files - but the particular files vary from run to run. Here's the output from a test I just did, with GIT_TRACE=1. The trace only added the one line before the error message:

$ git checkout master
trace: built-in: git 'checkout' 'master'
error: git checkout-index: unable to create file dotnet/src/myfile.cs (Permission denied)
D       dotnet/src/myfile.cs
Switched to branch "master"

I'm pretty sure this is some race with a virus scanner or other indexing service on my machine. If the race persisted, I could use sysinternals to see what process has the file handle open. However, it happens very quickly, and I'm not aware of a tool that will show me this conflict. Surprisingly, I haven't found anyone describing similar behavior. How do I make these errors stop, or diagnose the problem further?

I'm specifically looking to end the file access race by identifying whatever process is doing the simultaneous access. So suggestions for a tool that shows which process has a file locked when an edit is denied would be very helpful. I'm aware of 'unlocker' and similar tools which will show me what process holds a file locked for a period of time. This doesn't work for this issue, because the process keeps the file locked for a very short period. So the tool needs to collect the appropriate data without my intervention, as I'm too slow.

Answer 1

It might be the Windows Search Indexer, which tries do index files as they are created. I ran into this issue with svn checkout and had to exclude that directory from indexing before I could successfully checkout a full project.

Answer 2

See my post https://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/676699/cannot-open-linker-output-for-writing-or-cannot-close-file

Not git related!

Sysinternals' process monitor reveals that Windows explorer interferes with newly created files, perhaps due to some plugin or what, but it happens.