threads / bug / 13762

[Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

Subject: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

## tl;dr

8 messages between Jun 2, 2008 and Jun 2, 2008.

replies: 7people: 4as markdown or json

Thomas Christensen· Jun 2, 2008, 10:20 UTC · lore
Hi,

I am having this issue on Debian with kernel 2.6.25 (2.6.24 works fine) and git 1.5.5.3.

  $ git push /media/KINGSTON/foo.git
  fatal: '/media/KINGSTON/foo.git': unable to chdir or not a git archive
  fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
A notable difference between these 2 kernels is this line:
  [   62.575939] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT
  filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
which appears in 2.6.25.
If this bug should be filed against Debian I will do so.
	Thomas
David Tweed· Jun 2, 2008, 10:37 UTC · re: Thomas Christensen · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Thomas Christensen <thomasc@thomaschristensen.org> wrote:

Show 15 quoted lines
> Hi,
>
> I am having this issue on Debian with kernel 2.6.25 (2.6.24 works fine)
> and git 1.5.5.3.
>
>  $ git push /media/KINGSTON/foo.git
>  fatal: '/media/KINGSTON/foo.git': unable to chdir or not a git archive
>  fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
>
> A notable difference between these 2 kernels is this line:
>
>  [   62.575939] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT
>  filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
>
> which appears in 2.6.25.

I don't remember if it gives this particular error message, but some vfat mounting options cause the file 'HEAD' to appear to the filesystem as 'head' which git doesn't like. (I don't think there any other basic git files which have uppercase.)It's worth having a look and see if that's happened.

-- 
cheers, dave tweed__________________________
david.tweed@gmail.com
Rm 124, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading.
"while having code so boring anyone can maintain it, use Python." --
attempted insult seen on slashdot
Stephen Sinclair· Jun 2, 2008, 15:16 UTC · re: David Tweed · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 6:37 AM, David Tweed <david.tweed@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 23 quoted lines
> On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Thomas Christensen
> <thomasc@thomaschristensen.org> wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am having this issue on Debian with kernel 2.6.25 (2.6.24 works fine)
>> and git 1.5.5.3.
>>
>>  $ git push /media/KINGSTON/foo.git
>>  fatal: '/media/KINGSTON/foo.git': unable to chdir or not a git archive
>>  fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
>>
>> A notable difference between these 2 kernels is this line:
>>
>>  [   62.575939] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT
>>  filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
>>
>> which appears in 2.6.25.
>
> I don't remember if it gives this particular error message, but some
> vfat mounting options cause the file 'HEAD' to appear to the
> filesystem as 'head' which git doesn't like. (I don't think there any
> other basic git files which have uppercase.)It's worth having a look
> and see if that's happened.

I recently had some issue where I got this "Not a git archive" message. Turned out it was something stupid I had done during a failed filter-branch operation, related to deleting my refs. But the message "Not a git archive" wasn't very helpful. Finally I found that recreating my refs manually (using cat) did the trick. But it would have been nice to have a more specific error message along with "Not a git archive", like "HEAD points to refs/heads/master, but file .git/refs/heads/master not found."

Steve
Teemu Likonen· Jun 2, 2008, 10:39 UTC · re: Thomas Christensen · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

Thomas Christensen wrote (2008-06-02 12:20 +0200):
Show 15 quoted lines
> I am having this issue on Debian with kernel 2.6.25 (2.6.24 works fine)
> and git 1.5.5.3.
> 
>   $ git push /media/KINGSTON/foo.git
>   fatal: '/media/KINGSTON/foo.git': unable to chdir or not a git archive
>   fatal: The remote end hung up unexpectedly
> 
> A notable difference between these 2 kernels is this line:
> 
>   [   62.575939] FAT: utf8 is not a recommended IO charset for FAT
>   filesystems, filesystem will be case sensitive!
> 
> which appears in 2.6.25.
> 
> If this bug should be filed against Debian I will do so.

Hmm, for example KDE automatically mounts VFAT filesystems with mount option "utf8" when using UTF-8 locale. VFAT uses UTF-16 in filenames and the only way to convert filenames losslessly (apart from the case insensitive issue) between Linux and VFAT is to use UTF-8 locale in Linux. I have described the subject in the Debian bug #417324:

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=417324

What locale are you using? What mount options did you use when you mounted the /media/KINGSTON/ filesystem?

Thomas Christensen· Jun 2, 2008, 11:04 UTC · re: Teemu Likonen · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
Show 12 quoted lines
> Thomas Christensen wrote (2008-06-02 12:20 +0200):
>
> Hmm, for example KDE automatically mounts VFAT filesystems with mount
> option "utf8" when using UTF-8 locale. VFAT uses UTF-16 in filenames and
> the only way to convert filenames losslessly (apart from the case
> insensitive issue) between Linux and VFAT is to use UTF-8 locale in
> Linux. I have described the subject in the Debian bug #417324:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=417324
>
> What locale are you using? What mount options did you use when you
> mounted the /media/KINGSTON/ filesystem?
LANG=en_DK.UTF-8

/dev/sda1 on /media/KINGSTON type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=lower,uid=1000)

It is auto mounted by the Gnome desktop. I have tried to mount it manually without mount options as well:

/dev/sda1 on /mnt type vfat (rw)

But alas, same problem. I have been fiddling with the shortname option and iocharset too, also without success.

	Thomas
David Tweed· Jun 2, 2008, 11:11 UTC · re: Thomas Christensen · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

On Mon, Jun 2, 2008 at 12:04 PM, Thomas Christensen <thomasc@thomaschristensen.org> wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines
> Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
>
>> Thomas Christensen wrote (2008-06-02 12:20 +0200):
>>
>> Hmm, for example KDE automatically mounts VFAT filesystems with mount
>> option "utf8" when using UTF-8 locale. VFAT uses UTF-16 in filenames and
>> the only way to convert filenames losslessly (apart from the case
>> insensitive issue) between Linux and VFAT is to use UTF-8 locale in
>> Linux. I have described the subject in the Debian bug #417324:
>>
>> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=417324
>>
>> What locale are you using? What mount options did you use when you
>> mounted the /media/KINGSTON/ filesystem?
>
> LANG=en_DK.UTF-8
>
> /dev/sda1 on /media/KINGSTON type vfat
> (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=lower,uid=1000)

I've got shortname=mixed (but via a manually set up fstab; I don't know what the automounters do.)

-- 
cheers, dave tweed__________________________
david.tweed@gmail.com
Rm 124, School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading.
"while having code so boring anyone can maintain it, use Python." --
attempted insult seen on slashdot
Thomas Christensen· Jun 2, 2008, 11:05 UTC · re: Teemu Likonen · lore

Re: [Bug] vfat: Not a git archive

Teemu Likonen <tlikonen@iki.fi> writes:
Show 12 quoted lines
> Thomas Christensen wrote (2008-06-02 12:20 +0200):
>
> Hmm, for example KDE automatically mounts VFAT filesystems with mount
> option "utf8" when using UTF-8 locale. VFAT uses UTF-16 in filenames and
> the only way to convert filenames losslessly (apart from the case
> insensitive issue) between Linux and VFAT is to use UTF-8 locale in
> Linux. I have described the subject in the Debian bug #417324:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=417324
>
> What locale are you using? What mount options did you use when you
> mounted the /media/KINGSTON/ filesystem?
LANG=en_DK.UTF-8

/dev/sda1 on /media/KINGSTON type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=hal,shortname=lower,uid=1000)

It is auto mounted by the Gnome desktop. I have tried to mount it manually without mount options as well:

/dev/sda1 on /mnt type vfat (rw)

But alas, same problem. I have been fiddling with the shortname option and iocharset too, also without success.

	Thomas

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