GIT: Can't Push (Strange Config Issue)

Question

I'm on a fresh install of Linux Mint.

I'm getting the following error when trying to push from any repository:

error: Malformed value for push.default: simple
error: Must be one of nothing, matching, tracking or current.
fatal: bad config file line 8 in /home/leng/.gitconfig
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

This is very odd, because I definitely have a version that supports the simple push behavior.

The output of git --version is git version 1.8.3.2.

The contents of ~/.gitconfig:

[user]
    name = My Name
    email = [email protected]
[color]
    ui = true
[push]
    default = simple

Here's where it gets creepy.

If I change the behavior to matching (or to nothing, tracking, or current, for that matter), then attempt to push, I get the same exact error message. How is that possible? Is it caching the config somehow? I've even tried rebooting. I've even tried purging GIT completely from the system (and deleting ~/.gitconfig) then reinstalling it.

If I delete the [push] section completely from the .gitconfig file (or if I delete the file entirely), then try to push, then I get this:

Git 2.0 from 'matching' to 'simple'. To squelch this message
and maintain the current behavior after the default changes, use:

  git config --global push.default matching

To squelch this message and adopt the new behavior now, use:

  git config --global push.default simple

See 'git help config' and search for 'push.default' for further information.
(the 'simple' mode was introduced in Git 1.7.11. Use the similar mode
'current' instead of 'simple' if you sometimes use older versions of Git)

error: Malformed value for push.default: simple
error: Must be one of nothing, matching, tracking or current.
fatal: bad config file line 8 in /home/leng/.gitconfig
fatal: Could not read from remote repository.

...so it appears to be both acknowledging that I haven't chosen a pushing behavior, but then also saying that I've chosen an unsupported behavior. What on earth is going on here?

I even get the error if I delete ~/.gitconfig completely.

Can anyone help me out with this witchcraft?

Thanks!

EDIT:

Here is a .git/config file requested:

[core]
        repositoryformatversion = 0
        filemode = true
        bare = false
        logallrefupdates = true
[remote "origin"]
        url = ssh://{my remote repo}
        fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
[branch "master"]
        remote = origin
        merge = refs/heads/master

Answer 1

Okay, so I fixed it, but the method is absolute witchcraft.

I tried to isolate the problem by purging GIT, deleting the config file, reinstalling GIT, then creating a local bare repository, then cloning it, then attempting to push from there. Pretty much like this:

sudo apt-get purge git-core
rm -f ~/.gitconfig
sudo apt-get install git-core
cd /git
mkdir foo
cd foo
git init --bare
cd /var/www
git clone /git/foo
cd foo
touch blah.txt
git add -A
git config --global user.name "Name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git commit -m "Blah"
git push

...same exact error message, no change there. (Still some serious witchcraft.)

Then, I deleted one of my repositories that doesn't have a local origin (it connects to its origin via SSH) and cloned the repository anew after deleting it (with a fresh git clone ssh://... command).

I got an error from the clone command:

remote: Malformed value for push.default: simple
remote: Must be one of nothing, matching, tracking or current.

Ah ha! Now it says remote instead of error. So the remote doesn't support this behavior. (That doesn't explain why the error persists on local-only repositories with local origins, then, though.)

So I then SSH'ed into the remote server and updated the git-core there to the latest version, re-attempted to clone the repository from my local machine, and it worked.

Now, I can finally git push. Insanely, this also fixed it so I can git push from the entirely local /var/www/foo to the also entirely local /git/foo (the local origin bare repository). SSH'ing into this remote server and updating it somehow - WITCHCRAFT - fixed my local machine's error.

Why on earth the entirely local repos care about an entirely different machine's GIT version is... beyond me. How utterly, utterly insane.

Answer 2

I had the same error message on git push.

For me it turned out that the remote user's git was an older version (1.7.2.5), and I had recently updated the remote ~/.gitconfig to include:

[push]
  default = simple

The solution was to remove this setting from the remote's configuration.