[git] 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 [email protected]:/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?

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

ln -s .bash_profile .bashrc

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

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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).

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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)

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).

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

ln -s .bash_profile .bashrc

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.

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