git: can't push (unpacker error) related to permission issues

user_138557 0
Viewed 133670

I have this problem when i try to push in git:

error: insufficient permission for adding an object to repository database ./objects

fatal: failed to write object
error: unpack failed: unpack-objects abnormal exit
To ssh://<repo url>/<repo dir>
 ! [remote rejected] master -> master (n/a (unpacker error))
error: failed to push some refs to 'ssh://<repo url>/<repo dir>'

I've had this before sporadically and we've always had to solve it by each user sshing to the repo and setting group permissions on all the files therein with 

chmod -R g+w *

This was never a satisfactory solution and now it's bitten us in the arse as one of the guys is away and no-one knows his repo user's password. So, i'm trying to solve it properly.

The error seems to occur when someone tries to push up a change that will alter a repo dir that is owned by another user (hence setting the group write option above). I've done a bit of googling around this and have found a couple of solutions being discussed (neither of which worked for me)

1) make sure that the group that the repo dirs are shared with is each users' primary group (i believe that is the case already: each user has only one group so that must be their primary group, right?)

2) git repo core.sharedRepository setting, as detailed here: Git: Can't push from one computer I changed this but it didn't make any difference. Do i need to reload the config or something to actually effect the change?

Here's what my repo config looks like atm:

[core]
        repositoryformatversion = 0
        filemode = true
        bare = true
        sharedRepository = all
[receive]
        denyNonFastForwards = True

Grateful for any advice or suggestions! max

linux git
14 Answers

A simpler way to do this is to add a post-receive script which runs the chmod command after every push to the 'hub' repo on the server. Add the following line to hooks/post-receive inside your git folder on the server:

chmod -Rf u+w /path/to/git/repo/objects
user_5119710

For the permission error using git repository on AWS instance, I successfully solved it by creating a group, and assigning it to the repository folder recursively(-R), and give the written right to this group, and then assign the default aws instance user(ec2-user or ubuntu) to this group.

1. Create a goup name share_group or something else

     sudo groupadd share_group

2. change the repository folder from 'root' group to 'share_group'

     sudo chgrp -R share_group /path/to/your/repository

3. add the write authority to share_group

     sudo chmod -R g+w /path/to/your/repository

4. The last step is to assign current user--default user when login (by default ec2 is 'ec2-user', user of ubuntu instance is 'ubuntu' in ubuntu on aws) to share_group. I am using ubuntu insance on aws, so my default user is ubuntu.

     sudo usermod -a -G share_group ubuntu

By the way, to see the ownership of the folder or file just type:

    ls -l  /path/to/your/repository

'

Output:

    drwxr-x--x  2 root shared_group
(explanation please see:https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/File_permissions_and_attributes).

After step 3, you will see 

    drwx--x--x  2 root root

changed to

    drwxr-x--x  2 root share_group

In this case, I did not assign user 'ubuntu' to root group, for the consideration of security. You can just try to assign you default user to root according to step 4 (just skip the first 3 steps

In another way, tried the solution by :

    chmod -Rf u+w /path/to/git/repo/objects
It did not work for me, I think it should be the reason that my repository folder belong to the root user, not to Ubuntu user, and 'git' by default use the default user(ec2-user or Ubuntu user. You can try to change the user and test it.

Finally, below code definitely work for me, but 777 is not good for security

    sudo chmod -R 777 /path/to/your/repo
user_47693950

I was getting similar error and please see below how I resolved it.

My directory structure: /opt/git/project.git and git user is git

$ cd /opt/git/project.git
$ sudo chown -R git:git .

chown with -R option recursively changes the ownership and and group (since i typed git:git in above command) of the current directory. chown -R is necessary since git changes many files inside your git directory when you push to the repository.

user_7942120

A git configuration mistake can also product this error. I give my students and example of configuration like this:

git config --global user.name "John Doe"
git config --global user.email johndoe@example.com

One of my students was getting the unpacker error. Other students were fine, but I still did a double check on the git server's permissions and to be sure the student was in proper group.

Finally, I had the student do a git log and saw that he had John Doe for his configuration, but his branch was his own name.

Setting up his configuration properly eliminated the error .

user_26627280
Related