Trouble setting up git error: could not lock config file

I'm getting this error when trying to set the global config:

$ git config --global user.name "Your Name Here"
error: could not lock config file /pathto/file/.gitconfig: No such file or directory

and the file .gitconfig is already exists, anyone have any ideas??

See if any of those tips help you:

1. Verify if there's some file called ~/.gitconfig.lock. If that's the case just delete it.

2. The file ~/.gitconfig belongs to you (use ls -la ~/.gitconfig to check). If it does not you can change the ownership using sudo chown <your_username>:<your_username> ~/.gitconfig

If none of these solves the problem you can always edit ~/.gitconfig using your favorite text editor. It is just a INI like file. An example:

$ cat ~/.gitconfig
[user]
    name = my_username
    email = [email protected]
[core]
    editor = editor
    pager = most
[color]
    ui = auto
[merge]
    conflictstyle = diff3

I am assuming the correct location is ~/.gitconfig. If that's not the case replace it with the correct path.

Hope it helps.

In my case, there is a file .git/config.lock file in my git repo. I deleted that file and it solved the problem.

You need to own the directory where .gitconfig is in:

chown -R <user>.<user> /pathto/file/

That's what worked for me.

My problem was similar to yours. I found that the "git" user was unable to access its home directory.

I did chown -R git:git /mnt/sdb1/git and this solved the permission error.