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

Question

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?

Answer 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.