Trying to git pull with error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

Help me please, I am trying to run this in my terminal:

asgard@asgard-A7N8X2-0:~/CollegePortal$ git pull
error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

Then I try this one

asgard@asgard-A7N8X2-0:~/CollegePortal$ sudo git pull
Permission denied (publickey).
fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly

Help me, I don't understand this problem.

It seems like the first one isn't working because your user doesn't have the permissions for changing that directory, and the second because your root user doesn't have the right SSH keys for accessing that git repository.

Depending on what you're trying to do, it might be better to clone the repository to a different directory, or maybe chown the current directory to have full access for your user

Check if you have enough permissions on the .git/ directory. You should have write permissions. You can set them with the following command.

Go to your project folder:

chown -R youruser:yourgroup .git/

Won Jun Bae

If you want to give the permission to the group,

sudo chmod g+w .git -R

worked best for me.

For MacOS

sudo chmod -R g+w .git

Johannes Thoma

This is a UNIX permission problem. Do not use sudo for cloning the repository. You don't have the same ssh keys as root and you shouldn't work as root anyway. Try ls -la to find the permissions on the files and use chmod (or sudo chown) to fix them. Hope that helps.

pg2286

The answer to this issue make sure .git/FETCH_HEAD has write privileges and you will be all set.

I had this issue on Windows and it was resolved by giving write permissions.

In unix one can run chmod a+rw .git/FETCH_HEAD from the project repository after which it should work.

In my case work fine after it:

rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD

Try like this way,

Step 1: First check who you are? it will return current user name e.g ubuntu

$ whoami

Step 2: Then set permission to your current user, in that case, ubuntu by

sudo chown -R ubuntu .git/

In my case, I only had read access to the .git/FETCH_HEAD file. I had to do "sudo chmod g+w .git/FETCH_HEAD" in order to be able to do a pull request.

I was having the first issue (FETCH_HEAD permission denied) on Windows.

I fixed it by running Git Bash as an administrator (right click, run as administrator).

If you haven't added yourself to the group that owns .git/, then you should.

sudo usermod -a -G $(stat -c '%G' .git) $USER
sudo chmod g+u .git -R
sudo chmod g+u .gitignore
su - $USER

What this does:

finds out which group owns .git/ and adds your user to that group.
makes sure group members have the same permissions as the owner for .git/.
repeats this for .gitignore, which you'll probably need
logs you out and back in to refresh your group membership file permissions

If you just recently did something like this (added yourself to the group that owns .git/), then you need to log out and back in before you'll be able to write to .git/FETCH_HEAD during your git pull.

Running Windows 7, when I had this issue it was because I had hidden the .git folder. The permissions were fine, it was just hidden. Showing the folder resolved it.

This worked for me:

Right click .git folder
click get info
set permission to your user
click the Cog icon and click apply to enclosed items

No more permission denied errors in git. 🎉

Look at the owner and group of .git directory with (first go to parent directory of .git) ll .git , look at the group and owner of the directory, add your user to group of of the owner with sudo usermod -a -G yourusername groupsofonwner, then logout => login and everything getting work.

So in summeries

go to parent directory of git
```
$cd your path
```
find group owner of the .git direcotry
```
$ll .git     
```

add your user to that group

$usermod -a -G yourusername ownergroupofgit

Logout and login to system to this change take effect.
Enjoy it ;)

Got that issue when .git folder is hidden and all files in it is hidden too. Make only .git folder hidden without recursive files update and it will work.

Reasons of this error could be multiples but in my case i updated branch with root then when i tried to update it with normal user it gives me error .

try both solutions one should work for you

1- sudo chmod g+w .git -R

if it doesn't work please try next solution hope it will solve your problem

2 - rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD

Suvajit Chakraborty

Simply go to your root folder and run this command:

chmod a+rw .git/FETCH_HEAD

Set permission to your current user by running the command

$ sudo chown -R <username> .git/

I had this message when using git extensions for windows. My fix was to simply close git extensions then open again as administrator

This issue arises when you don't give sufficient permissions to .git folder. To solve this problem-

First navigate to your working directory.
Enter this command-

sudo chmod a+rw .git -R

Hope it helps..!!

I got this because I had more than 1 user account on my box. I was logged in as user A and was in a directory for user B. User A didn't have permission to user B's stuff. Once I realized I wasn't where I thought I was in the file system, this error made sense.

if you find the same problem in windows server, then you need to run the command line with enough permission, such as administrator permission.

In my case,

sudo chmod ug+wx .git -R

this command works.

来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13195814/trying-to-git-pull-with-error-cannot-open-git-fetch-head-permission-denied

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