git: can't push (unpacker error) related to permission issues

Question

I have this problem when i try to push in git:

error: insufficient permission for adding an object to repository database ./objects

fatal: failed to write o         


        

Answer 1

Where I work we have been using this method on all of our repositories for a few years without any problems (except when we create a new repository and forget to set it up this way):

1. Set 'sharedRepository = true' in the config file's '[core]' section.

2. Change the group id of the repository to a group shared by all users who are allowed to push to it:

   chgrp -R shared_group /git/our_repos
   chmod -R g+w /git/our_repos
   

3. Set the setgid bit on all directories in the repository so that new files/directories keep the same group:

   find /git/our_repos -type d -exec chmod g+s {} +
   

4. Add this line to the pre-receive hook in the repository to ensure new file permissions allow group read/write:

   umask 007
   

Answer 2

For me its a permissions issue:

On the git server run this command on the repo directory

sudo chmod -R 777 theDirectory/

Answer 3

For me, this error occurred when I was out of space on my remote.

I just needed to read the rest of the error message:

error: file write error (No space left on device)
fatal: unable to write sha1 file
error: unpack failed: unpack-objects abnormal exit

Answer 4

I was having trouble with this too, thinking my remote gitolite-admin was corrupted or something wrong.

My setup is Mac OS X (10.6.6) laptop with remote Ubuntu 10 server with gitolite.

It turned out that the problem was with my local checkout of gitolite-admin.

Despite the "unpack failed" error, it turned out the the problem was local.

I figured this out by checking it out again as gitolite-admin2, making a change, and the pushing.

Voila! It worked!

Answer 5

For what it worth, I had the same problem over my own VPS and it was caused by my low hard disk space on VPS. Confirmed by df -h command and after i cleaned up my VPS' hard disk; the problem was gone.

Cheers.

Answer 6

I use gitosis for managing this kind of stuff. Gitosis has a single user (usually called "git") that owns all the repositories, and it uses public-key-based access control to each repo. It might not suit your setup but is probably worth checking out (no pun intended).