Error building installing on Redhat Linux Server release 5.3 (Tikanga)

I downloaded the latest tarball (git-1.7.0.2), configured it, and make'ed it. When I did a "make install", the build seemed to work and most of the install, but I got an error when the installation tried to use gtar:

make -C templates DESTDIR='' install
make[1]: Entering directory `/users/e477610/exptool/src/git-1.7.0.2/templates'
install -d -m 755 '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates'
(cd blt && gtar cf - .) | \
        (cd '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates' && umask
022 && gtar xof -)
gtar: This does not look like a tar archive
gtar: Skipping to next header
gtar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers
gtar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
make[1]: *** [install] Error 2
make[1]: Leaving directory `/users/e477610/exptool/src/git-1.7.0.2/templates'
make: *** [install] Error 2

When I try to run "git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git", I get the following error:

$ git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git Initialized empty Git repository in /users/e477610/exptool/src/git/.git/ fatal: Unable to find remote helper for 'http'

I assume it's because I didn't finish the install properly. Any ideas why the install of the build failed and what I could do to make it complete?

Michael

Michael Cox wrote:

Your tar command seems to be seriously broken: it is producing output that it cannot consume.

What is the output of “gtar --version”? Does this problem still occur if you try again? If you run the command above by hand, does it produce the same result?

I checked https://bugzilla.redhat.com/ for known problems but did not find anything similar. If this problem proves reproducible, I would suggest reporting it with them.

In the mean time, you can use git without installing it by adding /home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/bin-wrappers to your $PATH. :)

Hope that helps, Jonathan

Jonathan Nieder wrote:

Or rather $(pwd)/bin-wrappers, where $(pwd) is the directory git was built in. I read your message a little too quickly, sorry.

That fixed the build problem.  Thank you!

But when I tried to run git after the successful build:

   git clone http://www.kernel.org/pub/scm/git/git.git

I still get the error message "fatal: Unable to find remote helper for 'http'"

Michael

P.S. I have to use http since I'm behind a firewall.

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 4:02 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:

I noticed the following messages in the config.log

/usr/lib/gcc/i386-redhat-linux/4.1.2/../../../libcurl.so: undefined reference to
 `tld_strerror'
/usr/lib/gcc/i386-redhat-linux/4.1.2/../../../libcurl.so: undefined reference to
 `idna_strerror'

Could that be the source of my problem?

Michael

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Michael Cox <mhcox@bluezoosoftware.com> wrote:

CDPATH takes scripts to unexpected places. For example, with a CDPATH including a blt directory:

 make -C templates DESTDIR='' install
 make[1]: Entering directory `/users/e477610/exptool/src/git-1.7.0.2/templates'
 install -d -m 755 '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates'
 (cd blt && gtar cf - .) | \
	(cd '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates' && umask 022 && gtar xof -)
 gtar: This does not look like a tar archive

The CDPATH mechanism does not implicitly add "." at the beginning of CDPATH, which is the most irritating part.

Most git scripts already protect against use of CDPATH through git-sh-setup, but the Makefile doesn’t.

Reported-by: Michael Cox <mhcox@bluezoosoftware.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---
I wouldn’t have guessed that.  Thanks, Junio.

Michael Cox wrote:

Here’s a patch to prevent it from happening again.

 Makefile |    6 ++++++
 1 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

Eh, the rationale and the in-code comment need to be fixed. The issue is not "taking us to random places", but "reporting the name of the random place in its standard output".

But other than that, this is something we have seen on the list a few times, and I think it is about time to do this.

Thanks.

If CDPATH is set, "cd" prints its destination to stdout, causing the common (cd a && tar cf - .) | (cd b && tar xf -) idiom to fail. For example:

 make -C templates DESTDIR='' install
 make[1]: Entering directory `/users/e477610/exptool/src/git-1.7.0.2/templates'
 install -d -m 755 '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates'
 (cd blt && gtar cf - .) | \
	(cd '/home/e477610/exptool/share/git-core/templates' && umask 022 && gtar xof -)
 gtar: This does not look like a tar archive

Most git scripts already protect against use of CDPATH through git-sh-setup, but the Makefile doesn’t.

Reported-by: Michael Cox <mhcox@bluezoosoftware.com>
Signed-off-by: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
---

That makes more sense.  Thanks.

Here’s an updated patch.

 Makefile |    6 ++++++
 1 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)