fatal: could not read Username for 'https://github.com': No such file or directory

Question

I have the following problem when I try to pull code using git Bash on Windows:

fatal: could not read Username for \'https://github.com\': No such file or dir         


        

Answer 1

This error can also happen when trying to clone an invalid HTTP URL. For example, this is the error I got when trying to clone a GitHub URL that was a few characters off:

$ git clone -v http://github.com/username/repo-name.git
Cloning into 'repo-name'...
Username for 'https://github.com': 
Password for 'https://github.com': 
remote: Repository not found.
fatal: Authentication failed for 'https://github.com/username/repo-name.git/'

It actually happened inside Emacs, though, so the error in Emacs looked like this:

fatal: could not read Username for ’https://github.com’: No such device or address

So instead of a helpful error saying that there was no such repo at that URL, it gave me that, sending me on a wild goose chase until I finally realized that the URL was incorrect.

This is with git version 2.7.4.

I'm posting this here because it happened to me a month ago and again just now, sending me on the same wild goose chase again. >:(