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?

Solution 1:

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.

Solution 2:

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

Solution 3:

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

Solution 4:

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.