Error Handling when TERM variable is invalid

[cattyman919]

PR Description

Resolves #4868

The root cause stems from running an external command infocmp in setupterm function from tcell dependency.

lazygit/vendor/github.com/gdamore/tcell/v2/terminfo/dynamic/dynamic.go

Lines 119 to 130 in 0d5a410

	func (tc *termcap) setupterm(name string) error {
	cmd := exec.Command("infocmp", "-1", name)
	output := &bytes.Buffer{}
	cmd.Stdout = output
	tc.strs = make(map[string]string)
	tc.bools = make(map[string]bool)
	tc.nums = make(map[string]int)
	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
	return err
	}

The error returns 'exit status 1' which will be propagate all the way up to app.go.

Unset Term Variable

Before

> unset TERM > lazygit Not in a git repository. Create a new git repository? (y/N): N 2025/09/07 18:52:22 An error occurred! Please create an issue at: https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/issues *fmt.wrapError terminal entry not found: term not set /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/app/app.go:55 (0xc9d2bf) /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/app/entry_point.go:172 (0xc9f486) /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/main.go:23 (0xca0838) /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/src/internal/runtime/atomic/types.go:194 (0x443f6b) /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:1700 (0x480ca1)

After

> unset TERM > lazygit Not in a git repository. Create a new git repository? (y/N): N 2025/09/07 20:58:03 Error: TERM environment variable not set. exit status 1

Invalid Term Variable

Before

> export TERM=skibidi > lazygit Not in a git repository. Create a new git repository? (y/N): N 2025/09/07 18:49:56 An error occurred! Please create an issue at: https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/issues *exec.ExitError exit status 1 /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/app/app.go:55 (0xc9d2bf) /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/pkg/app/entry_point.go:172 (0xc9f486) /home/runner/work/lazygit/lazygit/main.go:23 (0xca0838) /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/src/internal/runtime/atomic/types.go:194 (0x443f6b) /opt/hostedtoolcache/go/1.24.5/x64/src/runtime/asm_amd64.s:1700 (0x480ca1)

After

> export TERM=skibidi > lazygit 2025/09/07 21:00:01 Error: could not find terminal info for $TERM 'skibidi'. Please check your TERM variable is set correctly. exit status 1

Please check if the PR fulfills these requirements

• Cheatsheets are up-to-date (run go generate ./...)
• Code has been formatted (see here)
• Tests have been added/updated (see here for the integration test guide)
• Text is internationalised (see here)
• If a new UserConfig entry was added, make sure it can be hot-reloaded (see here)
• Docs have been updated if necessary
• You've read through your own file changes for silly mistakes etc

[stefanhaller]

Thanks, this is a nice improvement.

However, you are modifying code in vendor; we can't simply do that. What needs to happen here is that you propose the change to terms_dynamic.go as a PR in the tcell repo, and then, once that's accepted and merge, we can bump the tcell dependency and make the rest of your changes.

[cattyman919]

Thanks for the feedback

i will try to do PR instead in the tcell repo instead

gdamore/tcell#822