[github] Jenkins returned status code 128 with github

With GitHub command I have:

ssh -T [email protected]
Hi (MyName)! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.

My connection with GitHub is ok (no problem), but with Jenkins I have this error:

ERROR: Error cloning remote repo 'origin' : Could not clone [email protected]:Name-MysRepo/MyRepo.git
hudson.plugins.git.GitException: Could not clone [email protected]:Name-MysRepo/MyRepo.git
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.clone(CliGitAPIImpl.java:219)
    at hudson.plugins.git.GitSCM$2.invoke(GitSCM.java:1001)
    at hudson.plugins.git.GitSCM$2.invoke(GitSCM.java:942)
    at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:904)
    at hudson.FilePath.act(FilePath.java:877)
    at hudson.plugins.git.GitSCM.determineRevisionToBuild(GitSCM.java:942)
    at hudson.plugins.git.GitSCM.checkout(GitSCM.java:1101)
    at hudson.model.AbstractProject.checkout(AbstractProject.java:1369)
    at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.defaultCheckout(AbstractBuild.java:676)
    at jenkins.scm.SCMCheckoutStrategy.checkout(SCMCheckoutStrategy.java:88)
    at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.run(AbstractBuild.java:581)
    at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1575)
    at hudson.maven.MavenModuleSetBuild.run(MavenModuleSetBuild.java:477)
    at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:88)
    at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:241)
Caused by: hudson.plugins.git.GitException: Command "git clone --progress -o origin [email protected]:Name-MysRepo/MyRepo.git /root/.jenkins/jobs/TestKRGDAOV01/workspace" returned status code 128:
stdout: Cloning into '/root/.jenkins/jobs/TestKRGDAOV01/workspace'...

stderr: Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

Is this problem with public key?

I use Jenkins under Tomcat 7 / Ubuntu 12.

This question is related to github jenkins

The answer is


I deleted my project (root folder) and created it again. It was the fastest and simplest way in my case.

Do not forget to save all you changes, before you delete you project!


To check are the following:

  1. if the right public key (id_rsa.pub) is uploaded to the git-server.
  2. if the right private key (id_rsa) is copied to /var/lib/jenkins/.ssh/
  3. if the known_hosts file is created inside ~/.ssh folder. Try ssh -vvv [email protected] to see debug logs. If thing goes well, github.com will be added to known_hosts.
  4. if the permission of id_rsa is set to 700 (chmod 700 id_rsa)

After all checks, try ssh -vvv [email protected].


In my case I had to add the public key to my repo (at Bitbucket) AND use git clone once via ssh to answer yes to the "known host" question the first time.


Also make sure you using the ssh github url and not the https


i had sometime ago the same issue. make sure that your ssh key doesn't have password and use not common user account (e.g. better to user account called jenkins or so).

check following article http://fourkitchens.com/blog/2011/09/20/trigger-jenkins-builds-pushing-github


I changed the permission of my .ssh/id_rsa (private key) to 604. chmod 700 id_rsa


When I got a similar status code 128 error from Jenkins:

status code 128:
stdout: 
stderr: fatal: Couldn't find remote ref refs/heads/jenkins

    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommandIn(CliGitAPIImpl.java:2172)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.launchCommandWithCredentials(CliGitAPIImpl.java:1864)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl.access$500(CliGitAPIImpl.java:78)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.gitclient.CliGitAPIImpl$1.execute(CliGitAPIImpl.java:545)
    at jenkins.plugins.git.GitSCMFileSystem$BuilderImpl.build(GitSCMFileSystem.java:358)
    at jenkins.scm.api.SCMFileSystem.of(SCMFileSystem.java:197)
    at jenkins.scm.api.SCMFileSystem.of(SCMFileSystem.java:173)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsScmFlowDefinition.create(CpsScmFlowDefinition.java:113)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.cps.CpsScmFlowDefinition.create(CpsScmFlowDefinition.java:67)
    at org.jenkinsci.plugins.workflow.job.WorkflowRun.run(WorkflowRun.java:299)
    at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:97)
    at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:429)
Finished: FAILURE

It was because I hadn't pushed my new branch "jenkins" that had my Jenkinsfile. So the solution was to just push my changes