Git push results in fatal: protocol error: bad line length character: This

Question

I am trying to get GitLab working on my server (running CentOS 6.5). I followed the gitlab-receipe to the line, but I just can't get it working. I am able to access the web interface, create new projects but pushing to the master branch returns the following error :

fatal: protocol error: bad line length character: This

I have done checks on the production environment, here are the results :

Checking Environment ...

Git configured for git user? ... yes

Checking Environment ... Finished

Checking GitLab Shell ...

GitLab Shell version >= 1.7.9 ? ... OK (1.8.0)
Repo base directory exists? ... yes
Repo base directory is a symlink? ... no
Repo base owned by git:git? ... yes
Repo base access is drwxrws---? ... yes
update hook up-to-date? ... yes
update hooks in repos are links: ... 
ASC / Wiki ... repository is empty
Running /home/git/gitlab-shell/bin/check
Check GitLab API access: OK
Check directories and files: 
    /home/git/repositories: OK
    /home/git/.ssh/authorized_keys: OK
Test redis-cli executable: redis-cli 2.4.10
Send ping to redis server: PONG
gitlab-shell self-check successful

Checking GitLab Shell ... Finished

Checking Sidekiq ...

Running? ... yes
Number of Sidekiq processes ... 1

Checking Sidekiq ... Finished

Checking LDAP ...

LDAP is disabled in config/gitlab.yml

Checking LDAP ... Finished

Checking GitLab ...

Database config exists? ... yes
Database is SQLite ... no
All migrations up? ... yes
GitLab config exists? ... yes
GitLab config outdated? ... no
Log directory writable? ... yes
Tmp directory writable? ... yes
Init script exists? ... yes
Init script up-to-date? ... no
  Try fixing it:
  Redownload the init script
  For more information see:
  doc/install/installation.md in section "Install Init Script"
  Please fix the error above and rerun the checks.
projects have namespace: ... 
ASC / Wiki ... yes
Projects have satellites? ... 
ASC / Wiki ... can't create, repository is empty
Redis version >= 2.0.0? ... yes
Your git bin path is "/usr/bin/git"
Git version >= 1.7.10 ? ... yes (1.8.3)

Checking GitLab ... Finished

For the init script error, the receipt says

Do not mind about that error if you are sure that you have downloaded the up-to-date

so as I have downloaded the latest one, I can't really do much about it.

I've been banging my head for the past week, and can not figure out why this error is occurring, any help would appreciated!!

Answer 1

If anyone else has this problem, the solution is to change the login shell of the user 'git' (or whatever your user is called) to /bin/bash. This can be done via the command : usermod -s /bin/bash git (Link). The reason for changing the login shell is because the default shell for the git user is /sbin/nologin (or similar, depending on environment), which prevents the git application from logging in as the git user on the git server.

Answer 2

Just for other users reference:

fatal: protocol error: bad line length character: no s
can be a truncated answer for "No such project".

As in my case, this kind of error can be fixed by adding user (even yourself) to the project in gitlab:

https://gitlab.com/username/your_project/project_members

also, ensure your public key is set in your user Profile settings > SSH Key or in Project > Settings > Deploy Keys

https://gitlab.com/profile/keys

Answer 3

Another thing to check is that your .bashrc does not print extra stuff. For example 'echo "hello"' in .bashrc creates the error:

kruus@borg:~/malt$ ssh snake01
Last login: Tue Oct 21 10:44:31 2014 from 138.15.166.103
hello
...
kruus@snake01:/net/snake01/usr/hydra/kruus/malt$ git pull
fatal: protocol error: bad line length character: hell

Note how saying hello caused one hell of a problem.

Removing the 'echo "hello"' from my .bashrc allows git to work as expected again. You may need to ">& /dev/null" to remove output if your .bashrc does more complicated things.