Fatal error "not a git repository" Git

July 7, 2014 36.1k views
ppanero27
By:
ppanero27

Hi!

I've been trying to setup git. I've followed this tutorials step by step like 12 times.
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-git-effectively
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-git-on-debian-7

But I get stuck in the same step: "git push origin master"
I get the following error:

fatal: '/testing.git' does not appear to be a git repository
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

Please make sure you have the correct access rights
and the repository exists.

Previously I've done:

git remote add origin ssh://gitadmin@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/testing.git
git remote -v

I've also tried with the complete path
git remote set-url origin ssh://gitadmin@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/home/gitadmin/git/testing.git

Without errors, but always the same error...
gitadmin is a user of my server, which is a debian 7 x32

Thanks in advance.

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1 Answer
asb MOD July 7, 2014

The tutorials you linked to just get you setup to use the git client. They don't set up the server side. Check out this tutorial:

How To Set Up a Private Git Server on a VPS

Have you created the empty repository on the server you are pushing to already? On the server run:

git init --bare path/to/testing.git
How To Set Up a Private Git Server on a VPS
by Brian Rogers
This tutorial will show you how to set up a fully fledged Git server using SSH keys for authentication.
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  • ppanero27 July 7, 2014

    Although they're not in the tutorials I linked, I've done what's in the one you did (added the ssh key, ...)

    I've also created the empty repository the following way:

    git init

    While being in the testing directory, then I did:

    git add .

    And then a simple commit of an empty file, the comes the error.

    Thanks for the answer

  • asb MOD July 7, 2014

    In order for the server side repository to accept a push, it needs to be created with --bare flag.

    In order to initially set up any Git server, you have to export an existing repository into a new bare repository — a repository that doesn’t contain a working directory. This is generally straightforward to do. In order to clone your repository to create a new bare repository, you run the clone command with the --bare option. By convention, bare repository directories end in .git

    See here.

  • ppanero27 July 8, 2014

    Thanks again, well now there is no error. But the output isn't the same, while in the tutorial shows this:

    user@host ~/git/testing $ git push origin master
Counting objects: 4, done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads.
Compressing objects: 100% (2/2), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 266 bytes, done.
Total 3 (delta 1), reused 1 (delta 0)
To ssh://git@git.domain.tld/repository.git
   0e78fdf..e6a8ddc  master -> master

    in my case is just:

    everything up-to-date

    NOTE: I'm doing inside my-project.git

    git init && git remote add origin git@git.droplet.com:my-project.git
  • ppanero27 July 8, 2014

    I've solved it, Thanks!! It was a misunderstanding between server side and client side.

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