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

Question

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.

Do you have write permission for the local directory & files where you try to do pull? Also, probably `sudo` doesn't help here at all since it needs access to you ssh keys (not root's). — Benjamin Bannier, Nov 02 '12 at 13:09
I had this problem and solved it by giving my user Modify & Full Access permissions to that folder (Windows) — Frank, Dec 12 '19 at 09:55

score 221 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:09

221

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

answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:09

abyx

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I am facing the similar issue and I am not sure if I can give my `www-data` user the permission to update the `.git` directory. I am calling the shell script using php over http in browser. Details [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/32116917/executing-git-commands-via-php-over-http) – KillABug Aug 21 '15 at 08:58
28

This often happens when you accidently forget you've run `sudo su` and your acting as root in a repo. A simple `sudo chown -R .` in that directory works magic! – Ray Jul 07 '17 at 12:59
@Ray has the answer! Worked perfectly for me. – drewkiimon Mar 09 '21 at 22:32
works like magic but how come my directory's permission changed? – Aayush Neupane Apr 20 '21 at 06:01

René Höhle · Answer 2 · 2015-04-08T07:54:00.323

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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/

edited Apr 08 '15 at 07:54

answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:10

René Höhle

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This gives me `chown: youruser: Invalid argument` – zakdances May 24 '13 at 22:09
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It should be `chown -R youruser .git/` – blend Jul 26 '13 at 11:20
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I had to `chown` `.git/` and its parent folder for it to work – zadubz Jan 01 '15 at 14:35
This seems like a very common problem .. ok if you work with different user and and something from another user you have changed your permissions its a bit tricky. – René Höhle Apr 08 '15 at 07:53
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If `chown` not working than also run this command `sudo chmod 0777 -R .git/` – Kiran May 14 '19 at 06:59
@Kiran don't do the 777 its a public write – Jobin May 04 '21 at 17:07

score 51 · Answer 3 · edited Nov 08 '18 at 17:44

51

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

edited Nov 08 '18 at 17:44

shilovk

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answered Mar 23 '15 at 18:07

Won Jun Bae

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score 32 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 22 '20 at 05:39

32

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.

edited Feb 22 '20 at 05:39

Adriano

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answered Nov 02 '12 at 13:10

Johannes Thoma

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Exactly this! I came across this problem because I had to do `sudo clone` in order to accept XCode's new license agreement. The answer is to accept the agreement, then clone with no sudo. – Barnaby Oct 29 '15 at 23:12

shilovk · Answer 5 · 2020-03-03T17:45:38.020

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In my case work fine after it:

rm -f .git/FETCH_HEAD

git branch -u

edited Mar 03 '20 at 17:45

answered Mar 23 '15 at 09:07

shilovk

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It have worked for me too with [this particular case](https://stackoverflow.com/a/45975806/4094098). – P. Mergey Aug 31 '17 at 07:40
For me, it was also the solution. Thank you for this solution option. – Francisco Maria Calisto Nov 08 '18 at 13:27

score 23 · Answer 6 · edited Mar 07 '15 at 15:16

23

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.

edited Mar 07 '15 at 15:16

shilovk

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answered Dec 22 '14 at 22:54

pg2286

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does't work with `.git/FETCH_HEAD` alone if permission issue is on `.git`. – Cœur Sep 01 '15 at 06:04

score 21 · Answer 7 · answered May 15 '18 at 16:32

21

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/

answered May 15 '18 at 16:32

Always Sunny

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this works for me while running discourse installation on Amazon lightsail ubuntu – Jide Feb 18 '19 at 00:48

score 12 · Answer 8 · answered Mar 11 '14 at 18:42

12

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.

answered Mar 11 '14 at 18:42

Jim

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does't work with `.git/FETCH_HEAD` alone if permission issue is on `.git`. – Cœur Sep 01 '15 at 06:04
I had to allow write access to the git folder for group `sudo chmod g+w .git/FETCH_HEAD` – William Apr 21 '18 at 18:13
`sudo chmod g+w .git/FETCH_HEAD`, perfect solution. – Rishi Kulshreshtha Mar 28 '19 at 10:26

score 9 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 24 '14 at 15:17

9

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).

answered Jul 24 '14 at 15:17

Nicholas Westby

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score 9 · Answer 10 · answered Jul 03 '16 at 01:26

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.

score 9 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 11 '19 at 12:31

9

Set permission to your current user by running the command

$ sudo chown -R <username> .git/

answered Jul 11 '19 at 12:31

Shivam Kohli

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score 8 · Answer 12 · answered Oct 11 '19 at 12:45

8

This will resolve all permissions in folder

sudo chown -R $(whoami) ./

answered Oct 11 '19 at 12:45

Pablo Papalardo

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This will always work but it can have the effect of trampling access for other users. Be aware that previous answers were taking group access into account where this answer does not. – ftrotter Jan 19 '21 at 19:37

score 6 · Answer 13 · edited Nov 02 '18 at 12:31

6

Simply go to your root folder and run this command:

chmod a+rw .git/FETCH_HEAD

edited Nov 02 '18 at 12:31

Rishabh Agarwal

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answered Nov 02 '18 at 10:57

Suvajit Chakraborty

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score 5 · Answer 14 · answered Jun 20 '15 at 17:52

5

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.

answered Jun 20 '15 at 17:52

jdf

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Hidden directory, who woulda thunk. – Ian Newland Oct 14 '15 at 18:07
Same fix for me on Windows 10 worked as well. Thanks. – Valentine Shi Nov 21 '20 at 10:30

score 3 · Answer 15 · answered Sep 30 '17 at 17:14

3

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.

answered Sep 30 '17 at 17:14

Sentry.co

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score 3 · Answer 16 · answered Dec 24 '20 at 06:07

3

Error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

This work for me:

By default .git folder is hidden.
Unhide .git folder and its child folders and file and try to pull request.

answered Dec 24 '20 at 06:07

Trideb Chapagai

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score 2 · Answer 17 · answered Jan 11 '16 at 06:17

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 ;)

score 2 · Answer 18 · answered Nov 18 '16 at 13:41

2

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.

answered Nov 18 '16 at 13:41

Oleg Dmitriev

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score 2 · Answer 19 · answered Jul 03 '18 at 06:04

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

score 1 · Answer 20 · answered Mar 07 '18 at 07:36

1

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

answered Mar 07 '18 at 07:36

Rob Bowman

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score 1 · Answer 21 · answered Nov 30 '18 at 04:48

1

In my case,

sudo chmod ug+wx .git -R

this command works.

answered Nov 30 '18 at 04:48

narwanimonish

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8

score 1 · Answer 22 · answered May 12 '19 at 10:23

1

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..!!

answered May 12 '19 at 10:23

Nakshtra Pradhan

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score 1 · Answer 23 · answered Nov 07 '19 at 05:17

I had the exact same error but in my case, the problem was the result of having rebuilt Apache after an upgrade to the PHP version. Long story short, I forgot to install the Apache module 'suexec'.

It had nothing to do with group or ownership. That only took me two days to figure out, someone shoot me...

score 1 · Answer 24 · answered Nov 25 '19 at 20:11

In my case I had a dual-boot system (Windows 10 and Linux) with project folder on NTFS disk. It turned out that on another update Windows 10 enabled by itself "fast startup" in its settings. After I've unchecked it in the Windows - the "error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied" in Linux was gone.

score 0 · Answer 25 · answered May 07 '15 at 21:17

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.

score 0 · Answer 26 · answered Oct 28 '18 at 03:57

0

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

answered Oct 28 '18 at 03:57

aaron

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score 0 · Answer 27 · answered Apr 19 '20 at 07:07

0

for MacOS user (if High Sierra or higher version) use this:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) $(brew --prefix)/*

answered Apr 19 '20 at 07:07

rony36

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score 0 · Answer 28 · answered Sep 08 '20 at 15:43

Many Answers here, many suggesting doing a chown. For me was much easier to change user to the user owning the folder (in my case tomcat) as the owner was allowed to write: sudo su tomcat and than do a git pull no need to change permissions. I prefere this because I do not have to remember to change permission back after I am done.

To find the user owning the folder do a ls -la

Note: Do not give non-sudo write access to folders that are served!

score 0 · Answer 29 · answered Apr 26 '21 at 19:23

When I was doing bundle install I got:

Following files may not be writable, so sudo is needed:
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/bin
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/build_info
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/bundler
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/cache
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/doc
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/extensions
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/gems
  /Library/Ruby/Gems/2.6.0/specifications
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/.........
error: cannot open .git/FETCH_HEAD: Permission denied

I had followed the steps from here and updated my bash_profile to add a rbenv shim.

export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(rbenv init -)"

But for some unknown reason I had them commented out. Once I uncommented I was able to run bundle install successfully.

score -1 · Answer 30 · edited Jun 29 '20 at 13:44

-1

In my case work that: I just wrote sudo before the command :

sudo npm run deploy

edited Jun 29 '20 at 13:44

Rostislav Matl

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answered Jun 29 '20 at 09:42

Андрей Пахомов

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numan947 · Answer 31 · 2020-01-16T06:34:04.303

TL;DR: In Dual Boot systems, turn off Fast Startup for Windows

I was having this issue in my dual boot Ubuntu/Windows system. I couldn't write anything in any of the partitions that are shared with Windows (NTFS partitions).

I recently reinstalled both and forgot to turn of the "Fast Startup" in Windows. Everything went back to normal after I rebooted in windows and turned that feature off and restarted again.

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

31 Answers31

This worked for me:

Linked