Pushing to UNC paths seems broken but mounted network drives works

[ablaylock]

I have some projects that were configured with remotes that have a UNC path i.e. //remote-serve/myProject which were set up with git 1.9.x. It seems that with 2.5.3 they no longer work when pushing or pulling a project.

When executing a push I get the following error:

$ git push
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No error
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

when the remote is configured like:

$ git remote -v
origin  //remote-serve/myProject (fetch)
origin  //remote-serve/myProject (push)

However updating the remote url to the same share which has been mapped as a network drive works //remote-serve/ -> U:/:

$ git remote -v
origin  U:/myProject (fetch)
origin  U:/myProject (push)

System configuration:
Windows 10 x64 Pro

$ git --version
git version 2.5.3.windows.1

[dscho]

I will probably not manage to have a look at this issue before Monday. Please feel free to ping me on Tuesday if you haven't heard back from me by then.

[kevin-david]

git clone has a similar (maybe the same) problem. Let me know if you think I should file a separate ticket.

Repro:

PS C:\VSO> New-PSDrive -Name "Z" -PSProvider FileSystem -Root "\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO" -Persist

Name           Used (GB)     Free (GB) Provider      Root
----           ---------     --------- --------      ----
Z                  42.38        190.49 FileSystem    \\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO


PS C:\VSO> git clone "\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src"
Cloning into 'src'...
fatal: '\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
PS C:\VSO> git clone Z:\src
Cloning into 'src'...
[worked]

I tried some other combinations too:

PS C:\VSO> git clone "\\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src" src2
fatal: repository '\\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' does not exist
PS C:\VSO> git clone "\\\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src" src2
fatal: repository '\\\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' does not exist
PS C:\VSO> git clone '\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' src2
Cloning into 'src2'...
fatal: '\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

[Radrik5]

I recently executed git fetch with an UNC path on Windows 7 64bit with Git 2.6.1. It worked well.
@kevin-david what versions of Windows and Git do you use?

[kevin-david]

PS C:\VSO\src> git --version
git version 2.6.1.windows.1

Edit: Forgot to mention, this is on Windows 10.

Fetch doesn't seem to be working for me either, despite the URL being set correctly:

PS C:\VSO\src> git remote set-url origin "\\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src"
PS C:\VSO\src> git fetch
fatal: '\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.
PS C:\VSO\src> git remote -v
origin  \\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src (fetch)
origin  \\kedavid-dev2\d$\VSO\src (push)

[Radrik5]

On Windows 7 git clone also doesn't work with UNC paths, but git fetch does:

Test $ git clone '\\\\localhost\Test\test-repo' dst
fatal: repository '\\\\localhost\Test\test-repo' does not exist

Test $ git init dst
Initialized empty Git repository in D:/Test/dst/.git/

Test $ cd dst/

dst $ git fetch '\\\\localhost\Test\test-repo'
remote: Counting objects: 3, done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.
From \\\\localhost\Test\test-repo
 * branch            HEAD       -> FETCH_HEAD

Same on Windows 10. Very strange behavior, but reproduible!

[Radrik5]

git push also works:

$ git push '\\\\localhost\Test\test-repo' master
Counting objects: 3, done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 239 bytes | 0 bytes/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To \\\\localhost\Test\test-repo
   520d83c..2ef26e0  master -> master

$ git push '//localhost/Test/test-repo' master
Everything up-to-date

So, probaly the issue with git clone is not related to the original one.

[ablaylock]

Testing Radrik5's comment about first init-ing the repo and then fetching doesn't work for me:

$ git init motion
Initialized empty Git repository in C:/projects/usb-printer/motion/.git/

$ cd motion
$ git fetch '\\\\uncPath\Code\motion'
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No such file or directory
fatal: The remote end hung up upon initial contact

$ git --version
git version 2.6.2.windows.1

[Radrik5]

@ablaylock could you try repo shared on your local PC: \\localhost\...?

[ablaylock]

@Radrik5 A locally hosted repo works. Tested with the following steps (some output removed):

$ git init --bare testrepo
$ mkdir test
$ cd test
$ touch "this is a test.txt"
$ git init
$ git add .
$ git commit -am "Test commit"
$ git remote add origin '\\localhost\path\to\testrepo'
$ git push --set-upstream origin master
$ cd ..
$ git clone  '\\localhost\path\to\testrepo' test2
Cloning into 'test2'...
done.
$ cd ..
$ git clone '\\PC-HOSTNAME\path\to\testrepo' test3
Cloning into 'test3'...
done.

This however doesn't work for non-localhost repositories (i.e. those hosted on another computer).

[Radrik5]

@ablaylock could you also try repo shared on another remote?
Probably there is a difference in configuration of your local share and remote share that doesn't work for you. The sooner we find that difference, the sooner we can reproduce the problem and fix it.

[ablaylock]

@Radrik5 Cloning from a different computer with a different share works.
Configuration details:

PC1 -> Windows 10 Pro x64
PC2 -> Windows 7 Pro x64
Server1 -> Windows Server 2008 R2 w/SP1

Server -> Client
PC1 -> PC1 Cloning works with localhost and hostname.
PC1 -> PC2 Cloning works with hostname
Server1 -> PC1 Cloning does not work with hostname (unc path, error below). Does work with mapped network drive.

Cloning into 'reponame'...
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No such file or directory
fatal: The remote end hung up upon initial contact

Server1 -> PC2 Cloning does not work. Error:

Cloning into 'reponame'...
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No such file or directory
fatal: The remote end hung up upon initial contact

[Radrik5]

@ablaylock this looks like a configuration issue on Server1 (permissions of something else). Could you install Git 1.9.5 and confirm that it still works with Server1?

[ablaylock]

@Radrik5 Testing with Git 1.9.5 does work with the following commands on Server1. I downloaded this version:
https://github.com/msysgit/msysgit/releases/download/Git-1.9.5-preview20150319/Git-1.9.5-preview20150319.exe

$ git version
git version 1.9.5.msysgit.1

$ git clone //Server1/workspace/motion
Cloning into 'motion'...
done.

Trying the exact same commands in git 2.6.2:

$ git version
git version 2.6.2.windows.1

$ git clone //Server1/workspace/motion
Cloning into 'motion'...
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No such file or directory
fatal: The remote end hung up upon initial contact

[Radrik5]

@ablaylock unfortunately I don't have more ideas on how to find the cause of the problem. Please try to create a reproducible example (why repo shared on Server1 doesn't work?) or try to debug the git process. Some time ago I used Eclipse and gdb but maybe there are better tools today. @dscho may help with this.

[ablaylock]

Is there a discussion of how to debug git. I looked at the wiki for this project and arrived at this page for "Building and Debugging"
https://github.com/git-for-windows/git/wiki/Building-Git
but found no debugging information. If someone can help me get a debugger attached I am willing to do the debugging myself.

[dscho]

@ablaylock I just described the steps here.

[dscho]

I was able to perform a quick test, and can verify that git push \\server\share HEAD does not work.

However, using //server/share or \\\\server\share do work...

[mkaut]

I also have a problem with cloning:
git clone file:////server/share/repo works for me (the owner of the share), but not for my colleague with whom I have shared the folder. He gets:

Cloning into 'test'...
fatal: unable to get current working directory: No such file or directory
fatal: The remote end hung up upon initial contact

He has read/write permission to the folder.
He can clone using cygwin-version of git.
Once this is done, he can push to the repo using Windows git.

[dscho]

@mkaut please do not hide bug reports in unrelated tickets ("unable to get current working directory" is clearly unrelated to UNC paths, and you will find that searching for that phrase turns up other tickets that would be more appropriate).

[dscho]

There has been some substantial work on UNC paths recently. Sadly, I am really scarce on time; would you mind testing with v2.11.1?

[kasajian]

I have a scenario where I can reproduce this problem. I found that I don't get the problem with Git version 2.5.2, but I can reproduce it with 2.5.3.

[dscho]

I found that I don't get the problem with Git version 2.5.2, but I can reproduce it with 2.5.3.

Wow, speaking of going back some ways ;-)

Having said that, have you read this comment?

I have a scenario where I can reproduce this problem.

Maybe you want to describe the scenario, as well as the exact steps, and in particular the exact output.

If you clone from, say, //myserver/some/folder/repository.git, I would expect it to work. If you clone from \\myserver\some\folder\repository.git, I know it will fail because it strips the first backslash. I am working on that, though.

In the meantime, please increase the verbosity, it is very frustrating for me otherwise (and you want to keep me happy, don't you, as that's all you have to offer me, eh? 😄).