git-upload-pack: command not found, when cloning remote Git repo

I have been using git to keep two copies of my project in sync, one is my local box, the other the test server. This is an issue which occurs when I log onto our remote development server using ssh;

git clone me@me.mydevbox.com:/home/chris/myproject
Initialized empty Git repository in /tmp/myproject/.git/
Password:
bash: git-upload-pack: command not found
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
fetch-pack from '[email protected]:/home/chris/myproject' failed.

(the file-names have been changed to protect the guilty... !)

Both boxes run Solaris 10 AMD. I have done some digging, if I add --upload-pack=$(which git-upload-pack) the command works, (and proves that $PATH contains the path to 'git-upload-pack' as per the RTFM solution) but this is really annoying, plus 'git push' doesn't work, because I don't think there is a --unpack= option.

Incidentally, all the git commands work fine from my local box, it is the same version of the software (1.5.4.2), installed on the same NFS mount at /usr/local/bin.

Can anybody help?

Make sure git-upload-pack is on the path from a non-login shell. (On my machine it's in /usr/bin).

To see what your path looks like on the remote machine from a non-login shell, try this:

ssh you@remotemachine echo \$PATH

(That works in Bash, Zsh, and tcsh, and probably other shells too.)

If the path it gives back doesn't include the directory that has git-upload-pack, you need to fix it by setting it in .bashrc (for Bash), .zshenv (for Zsh), .cshrc (for tcsh) or equivalent for your shell.

You will need to make this change on the remote machine.

If you're not sure which path you need to add to your remote PATH, you can find it with this command (you need to run this on the remote machine):

which git-upload-pack

On my machine that prints /usr/bin/git-upload-pack. So in this case, /usr/bin is the path you need to make sure is in your remote non-login shell PATH.

You can also use the "-u" option to specify the path. I find this helpful on machines where my .bashrc doesn't get sourced in non-interactive sessions. For example,

git clone -u /home/you/bin/git-upload-pack you@machine:code

Building on Brian's answer, the upload-pack path can be set permanently by running the following commands after cloning, which eliminates the need for --upload-pack on subsequent pull/fetch requests. Similarly, setting receive-pack eliminates the need for --receive-pack on push requests.

git config remote.origin.uploadpack /path/to/git-upload-pack
git config remote.origin.receivepack /path/to/git-receive-pack

These two commands are equivalent to adding the following lines to a repo's .git/config.

[remote "origin"]
    uploadpack = /path/to/git-upload-pack
    receivepack = /path/to/git-receive-pack

Frequent users of clone -u may be interested in the following aliases. myclone should be self-explanatory. myfetch/mypull/mypush can be used on repos whose config hasn't been modified as described above by replacing git push with git mypush, and so on.

[alias]
    myclone = clone --upload-pack /path/to/git-upload-pack
    myfetch = fetch --upload-pack /path/to/git-upload-pack
    mypull  = pull --upload-pack /path/to/git-upload-pack
    mypush  = push --receive-pack /path/to/git-receive-pack

I found and used (successfully) this fix:

# Fix it with symlinks in /usr/bin
$ cd /usr/bin/
$ sudo ln -s /[path/to/git]/bin/git* .

Thanks to Paul Johnston.

Mac OS X and some other Unixes at least have the user path compiled into sshd for security reasons so those of us that install git as /usr/local/git/{bin,lib,...} can run into trouble as the git executables are not in the precompiled path. To override this I prefer to edit my /etc/sshd_config changing:

#PermitUserEnvironment no

to

PermitUserEnvironment yes

and then create ~/.ssh/environment files as needed. My git users have the following in their ~/.ssh/environment file:

PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/git/bin

Note variable expansion does not occur when the ~/.ssh/environment file is read so:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/git/bin

will not work.

Matt's solution didn't work for me on OS X, but Paul's did.

The short version from Paul's link is:

Created /usr/local/bin/ssh_session with the following text:

#!/bin/bash
export SSH_SESSION=1
if [ -z "$SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND" ] ; then
    export SSH_LOGIN=1
    exec login -fp "$USER"
else
    export SSH_LOGIN=
    [ -r /etc/profile ] && source /etc/profile
    [ -r ~/.profile ] && source ~/.profile
    eval exec "$SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND"
fi

Execute:

> chmod +x /usr/local/bin/ssh_session

Add the following to /etc/sshd_config: > ForceCommand /usr/local/bin/ssh_session

For bash, it needs to be put into .bashrc not .bash_profile (.bash_profile is also only for login shells).

I got these errors with the MsysGit version.

After following all advice I could find here and elsewhere, I ended up:

> installing the Cygwin version of Git

on the server (Win XP with Cygwin SSHD), this finally fixed it.

I still use the MsysGit version client side

> ..in fact, its the only way it works > for me, since I get POSIX errors with > the Cygwin Git pull from that same > sshd server

I suspect some work is still needed this side of Git use.. (ssh+ease of pull/push in Windows)

Like Johan pointed out many times its .bashrc that's needed:

ln -s .bash_profile .bashrc

You must add the

export PATH=/opt/git/bin:$PATH

before this line in the .bashrc:

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
[ -z "$PS1" ] && return

Otherwise all export statements will not be executed (see here).

My case is on Win 10 with GIT bash and I don't have a GIT under standard location. Instead I have git under /app/local/bin. I used the commands provided by @Garrett but need to change the path to start with double /:

git config remote.origin.uploadpack //path/to/git-upload-pack
git config remote.origin.receivepack //path/to/git-receive-pack

Otherwise the GIT will add your Windows GIT path in front.

For zsh you need to put it in this file: ~/.zshenv

For example, on OS X using the git-core package from MacPorts:

$ echo 'export PATH=/opt/local/sbin:/opt/local/bin:$PATH' > ~/.zshenv

I have been having issues connecting to a Gitolite repo using SSH from Windows and it turned out that my problem was PLINK! It kept asking me for a password, but the ssh gitolite@[host] would return the repo list fine.

Check your environment variable: GIT_SSH. If it is set to Plink, then try it without any value ("set GIT_SSH=") and see if that works.

Add the location of your git-upload-pack to the remote git user's .bashrc file.

It may be as simple as installing git on the remote host (like it was in my case).

sudo apt-get install git

Or equivalent for other package management systems.

If you're using GitHub Enterprise, make sure the repo is public, not internal. There may be other ways to solve this for an internal repo, but this was the quickest way to solve the problem without involving more time and people.