Git Push Error: insufficient permission for adding an object to repository database
Repair Permissions
After you have identified and fixed the underlying cause (see below), you'll want to repair the permissions:
cd /path/to/repo.git
sudo chgrp -R groupname .
sudo chmod -R g+rwX .
find . -type d -exec chmod g+s '{}' +
Note if you want everyone to be able to modify the repository, you don't need the chgrp
and you will want to change the chmod to sudo chmod -R a+rwX .
If you do not fix the underlying cause, the error will keep coming back and you'll have to keep re-running the above commands over and over again.
Underlying Causes
The error could be caused by one of the following:
The repository isn't configured to be a shared repository (see
core.sharedRepository
ingit help config
). If the output of:git config core.sharedRepository
is not
group
ortrue
or1
or some mask, try running:git config core.sharedRepository group
and then re-run the recursive
chmod
andchgrp
(see "Repair Permissions" above).The operating system doesn't interpret a setgid bit on directories as "all new files and subdirectories should inherit the group owner".
When
core.sharedRepository
istrue
orgroup
, Git relies on a feature of GNU operating systems (e.g., every Linux distribution) to ensure that newly created subdirectories are owned by the correct group (the group that all of the repository's users are in). This feature is documented in the GNU coreutils documentation:... [If] a directory's set-group-ID bit is set, newly created subfiles inherit the same group as the directory, and newly created subdirectories inherit the set-group-ID bit of the parent directory. ... [This mechanism lets] users share files more easily, by lessening the need to use
chmod
orchown
to share new files.However, not all operating systems have this feature (NetBSD is one example). For those operating systems, you should make sure that all of your Git users have the same default group. Alternatively, you can make the repository world-writable by running
git config core.sharedRepository world
(but be careful—this is less secure).- The file system doesn't support the setgid bit (e.g., FAT). ext2, ext3, ext4 all support the setgid bit. As far as I know, the file systems that don't support the setgid bit also don't support the concept of group ownership so all files and directories will be owned by the same group anyway (which group is a mount option). In this case, make sure all Git users are in the group that owns all the files in the file system.
- Not all of the Git users are in the same group that owns the repository directories. Make sure the group owner on the directories is correct and that all users are in that group.
For Ubuntu (or any Linux)
From project root,
cd .git/objects
ls -al
sudo chown -R yourname:yourgroup *
You can tell what yourname and yourgroup should be by looking at the permissions on the majority of the output from that ls -al command
Note: remember the star at the end of the sudo line
use the following command, works like magic
sudo chown -R "${USER:-$(id -un)}" .
type the command exactly as it is (with extra spaces and one dot at the end)