fatal: early EOF fatal: index-pack failed

finally solved by git config --global core.compression 9

From a BitBucket issue thread:

I tried almost five times, and it still happen.

Then I tried to use better compression and it worked!

git config --global core.compression 9

From the Git Documentation:

core.compression
An integer -1..9, indicating a default compression level. -1 is the zlib default.
0 means no compression, and 1..9 are various speed/size tradeoffs, 9 being slowest.
If set, this provides a default to other compression variables, such as core.looseCompression and pack.compression.

First, turn off compression:

git config --global core.compression 0

Next, let's do a partial clone to truncate the amount of info coming down:

git clone --depth 1 <repo_URI>

When that works, go into the new directory and retrieve the rest of the clone:

git fetch --unshallow 

or, alternately,

git fetch --depth=2147483647

Now, do a regular pull:

git pull --all

I think there is a glitch with msysgit in the 1.8.x versions that exacerbates these symptoms, so another option is to try with an earlier version of git (<= 1.8.3, I think).

This error may occur for memory needs of git. You can add these lines to your global git configuration file, which is .gitconfig in $USER_HOME, in order to fix that problem.

[core] 
packedGitLimit = 512m 
packedGitWindowSize = 512m 
[pack] 
deltaCacheSize = 2047m 
packSizeLimit = 2047m 
windowMemory = 2047m

As @ingyhere said:

Shallow Clone

First, turn off compression:

git config --global core.compression 0

Next, let's do a partial clone to truncate the amount of info coming down:

git clone --depth 1 <repo_URI>

When that works, go into the new directory and retrieve the rest of the clone:

git fetch --unshallow

or, alternately,

git fetch --depth=2147483647

Now, do a pull:

git pull --all

---

Then to solve the problem of your local branch only tracking master

open your git config file (.git/config) in the editor of your choice

where it says:

[remote "origin"]
    url=<git repo url>
    fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

change the line

fetch = +refs/heads/master:refs/remotes/origin/master

to

fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*

Do a git fetch and git will pull all your remote branches now