repo sync results in "fatal: Not a git repository: 'working_dir/.repo/projects/external/ipsec-tools.git'"

Question

I am trying to download the Android source code and am following the procedure described in https://source.android.com/source/downloading.html, which consists of installing the repo script and then running

$ repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/platform/manifest
$ repo sync

to get the main branch. I have also tried using the -f -j1 flags to go through errors and use only one core, as was suggested somewhere online. At this point, I think I am very close to getting the entire thing downloaded but it will invariably stop towards the end when working on ipsec-tools. It always gives the following output:

    Fetching project platform/external/ipsec-tools
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100     1  100     1    0     0      3      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     3
100 1690k  100 1690k    0     0  2307k      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 2307k
fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/projects/external/ipsec-tools.git'
fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/projects/external/ipsec-tools.git'
fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/projects/external/ipsec-tools.git'
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/main.py", line 500, in <module>
    _Main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/main.py", line 476, in _Main
    result = repo._Run(argv) or 0
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/main.py", line 155, in _Run
    result = cmd.Execute(copts, cargs)
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/subcmds/sync.py", line 635, in Execute
    fetched = self._Fetch(to_fetch, opt)
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/subcmds/sync.py", line 339, in _Fetch
    self._FetchProjectList(**kwargs)
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/subcmds/sync.py", line 234, in _FetchProjectList
    success = self._FetchHelper(opt, project, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/subcmds/sync.py", line 275, in _FetchHelper
    no_tags=opt.no_tags, archive=self.manifest.IsArchive)
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/project.py", line 1110, in Sync_NetworkHalf
    no_tags=no_tags)):
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/project.py", line 1845, in _RemoteFetch
    self.bare_git.pack_refs('--all', '--prune')
  File "/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/repo/project.py", line 2483, in runner
    p.stderr))
error.GitError: platform/external/ipsec-tools pack-refs: fatal: Not a git repository: '/home/sebastian/WORKING_DIR/.repo/projects/external/ipsec-tools.git'

Since it says it is not a git repository, I just went on a hunch and ran git init on the directory it indicated, which didn't work. I also tried deleting the entire ipsec-tools.git directory and running repo sync again so that it would start from scratch but it always gives the same error.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Its not necessary to start sync from scratch. Android is a huge repository to download from scratch and in interest of saving time and internet one can remove specific git repository (generally I have seen only 1 git directory being corrupt) and re-run the sync.

repo stores projects in

.repo/projects

but these are only soft links to actual git data, which is stored in

.repo/project-objects

follow the links in 'projects' and remove both the repositories and run sync again. It worked for me.

Sample for platform/frameworks/support:

rm -fr .repo/projects/frameworks/support.git/ .repo/project-objects/platform/frameworks/support.git/

Sync only this project:

repo sync -j4 platform/frameworks/support

[I wanted to add this as comment, but its not allowing me - so added as answer]

Answer 2

Shorter answer: Remove the offending repositories/data:

rm -Rf platform/external/ipsec-tools # from current path
rm -Rf .repo/projects/platform/external/ipsec-tools.git  # soft links 
rm -Rf .repo/project-objects/platform/external/ipsec-tools.git # actual git data

Better sync only the offending one:

repo sync platform/external/ipsec-tools

That worked for me for lineageos.