Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128

[arhue]

Couple of days back this action stopped working.

    - name: Checkout private tools
      uses: actions/checkout@v2
      with:
        repository: tectonic/infrastructure-helm
        token: ${{ secrets.GIT_TECHDEPLOY_TOKEN }}
        path: infrastructure-helm
        fetch-depth: 0
        ref: master

Run actions/checkout@v2
/usr/bin/docker exec  d0faea3798ca7561c881e147e6613d25f75372e481a2c181696cc87de585d470 sh -c "cat /etc/*release | grep ^ID"
Syncing repository: tectonic/infrastructure-helm
Getting Git version info
Initializing the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Fetching the repository
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/tectonic/infrastructure-helm/' not found
  The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  Waiting 19 seconds before trying again
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/tectonic/infrastructure-helm/' not found
  The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  Waiting 11 seconds before trying again
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/*
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/tectonic/infrastructure-helm/' not found
  Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128

Seems similar to this issue: ad-m/github-push-action#76

[richardxia]

We also experienced a similar issue yesterday in one of our private repositories:

  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/* +COMMIT_HASH:refs/remotes/pull/PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER/merge
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/sifive/REPOSITORY_NAME/' not found
  The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  Waiting 12 seconds before trying again
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/* +COMMIT_HASH:refs/remotes/pull/PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER/merge
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/sifive/REPOSITORY_NAME/' not found
  The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128
  Waiting 16 seconds before trying again
  /usr/bin/git -c protocol.version=2 fetch --prune --progress --no-recurse-submodules origin +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/* +refs/tags/*:refs/tags/* +COMMIT_HASH:refs/remotes/pull/PULL_REQUEST_NUMBER/merge
  remote: Repository not found.
  Error: fatal: repository 'https://github.com/sifive/REPOSITORY_NAME/' not found
  Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128

This happened at around Jan 5, 2021, 7:05 PM PST. The issue seems to have gone away now, but I just wanted to add some extra information in case if it's useful.

[arhue]

Doesn't appear to be fixed for me ☹️

[arhue]

Without ref: master this is the output:

Run actions/checkout@v2
  with:
    repository: tectonic/infrastructure-helm
    token: ***
    path: infrastructure-helm
    fetch-depth: 0
    ssh-strict: true
    persist-credentials: true
    clean: true
    lfs: false
    submodules: false
  env:
    XDG_DATA_HOME: /root/.local/share
    KUBECONFIG: /root/kubeconfig
    AWS_DEFAULT_REGION: eu-central-1
    AWS_REGION: eu-central-1
    AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: ***
    AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: ***
/usr/bin/docker exec  391d5591308f1b002e6fa53e803efc54eab81186507cdf92652262f21b79d9ef sh -c "cat /etc/*release | grep ^ID"
Syncing repository: tectonic/infrastructure-helm
Getting Git version info
Initializing the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Determining the default branch
  Retrieving the default branch name
  Not Found
  Waiting 13 seconds before trying again
  Retrieving the default branch name
  Not Found
  Waiting 17 seconds before trying again
  Retrieving the default branch name
  Error: Not Found

[CFlaniganMide]

I'm having the same issue

[samueltadros]

same issue here

[samueltadros]

did anyone reached a solution?

[jjzazuet]

Same here. Thanks!

[barthalion]

Seems to be an issue with the token handed out to the CI runner. When I used one generated manually and passed it via with.token, cloning worked fine.

[sgore-godaddy]

We were facing the same issue in private repos.
We changed to one version older release and that seems to work.

We changed it to:

   - uses: actions/checkout@a81bbbf8298c0fa03ea29cdc473d45769f953675

(which is release 2.3.3 https://github.com/actions/checkout/releases/tag/v2.3.3 )

What is root cause though?

[purpose-driven-engineer]

Same problem too. Just getting this now

[jayconscious]

How to solve this problem?

[bboles]

We also ran into this same issue with all workflows using the checkout action on one of private repos. The issue in our case was with the auth token that gets generated for each run that the checkout action uses by default was not working. We were able to workaround the issue by adding our own PAT as a repo secret and having the checkout action use our token instead:

      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          lfs: true
          token: ${{ secrets.ACCESS_TOKEN }}

There were not any changes on our end that would have caused this. The issue just seemingly popped up out of nowhere after working without a problem for months.

At the very least the checkout action could do better error reporting in this case and also check the validity of the token before doing any privileged operations.

[NachoNorris]

same issue here folks, and also used PAT as a workaround 👍🏼

[meadowsys]

mine is weirder hah

checkout completes successfully but produces an annotation, and clicking the annotation brings me to the logs page but doesn't focus any logs. looking at the logs, all looks normal

EDIT: nevermind, mine is a problem that is my fault, disregard

[MartinNowak]

We also ran into this same issue with all workflows using the checkout action on one of private repos. The issue in our case was with the auth token that gets generated for each run that the checkout action uses by default was not working. We were able to workaround the issue by adding our own PAT as a repo secret and having the checkout action use our token instead:

Same issue here for tokens generated for schedule, workflow_dispatch, and issue_comment triggered runs. Tokens issued for pull_request triggered runs worked fine.

[jeacott1]

saw this today too. is it just me or is github looking and behaving more like microsoft devops everyday?

[bboles]

I have had a support case open with Github Support for this since I initially ran into it last month and they reported that there is a pull request currently waiting to be merged to address this. They would not share any further details regarding the nature of the fix or a timeline for it to be merged/released.

[pavelloz]

I get this error when trying to update docker container with testcafe to run the tests on. There is no error when it comes to containers... but git throws in this action. Extremely weird and blocking...

[jeacott1]

according to similar error in fisheye docs
https://confluence.atlassian.com/fishkb/non-zero-exit-code-128-error-executing-command-unable-to-find-remote-helper-for-http-305759561.html

"This ERROR is caused when you have an Environment Variable called GIT_EXEC_PATH."

[pavelloz]

Hmm. Following this trail i found https://www.xspdf.com/resolution/59948454.html which seems like an aggregation of different forums threads about it. And it seems like error 128 can mean a lot of diferent things, including wrong SSH keys.
Maybe SSH keys are not propagated correctly from the GHA to Checkout action?

[leoherbie]

No idea why but I was suddenly forced to use an access token to checkout this repo:

runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
  - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    with:
      token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}

[Willibaur]

Hi there

I'm facing this issue since this morning, but in my case I use gh cli instead of checkout action, I've tested the same command with the same token locally and it works fine. The same token is used in many other repos within the organisation and they are working fine.
Any idea why is this happening out of nowhere❓

Note

gh repo clone my-repo -- --branch 'main'

[ydimovprism]

If it is a call callable workflow add

secrets: inherit  

example:

jobs:  
  callable-workflow.:    
    name: Callable Workflow
    uses: ./.github/workflows/callable-workflow.yml
    with:
      input: production
    secrets: inherit  

this worked for me, thank you!

[fullstackzach]

I added the "contents: read" scope to permissions: and that did the trick for me.

jobs:
  deploy-prod:
    name: deploy-prod
    permissions:
      actions: write
      contents: read
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

[rsrini7]

Only works with permissions: write-all

[iamstarlee]

It looks like a permission issue. After adding the following snipppet of code, my code works well now.
permissions: id-token: write contents: read

[jukbot]

confirmed that after adding the following to action file is working fine.

permissions:
  id-token: write
  contents: read

[bidur0123]

maybe this can help

This worked for me! thanks!

[tomgwasira]

maybe this can help

This worked for me! thanks!

Worked for me as well, but what does it do and is there a way to do it in the yml file for the specific repository?

[mccabe-david]

Permissions error for me in the .yml file

[radvansky-tomas]

That just started happening to my self-hosted runner, everything worked fine even without PAT token present.
Now it happens, I've added PAT, added permissions, checked settings. Using 2 different machines. Latest OSX

Cleaning the repository
Disabling automatic garbage collection
Setting up auth
Fetching the repository
Determining the checkout info
/usr/bin/git sparse-checkout disable
/usr/bin/git config --local --unset-all extensions.worktreeConfig
Checking out the ref
  /usr/bin/git checkout --progress --force -B develop refs/remotes/origin/develop
  Switched to a new branch 'develop'
  branch 'develop' set up to track 'origin/develop'.
Error: The process '/usr/bin/git' failed with exit code 128

Same action works fine in cloud based runner

[radvansky-tomas]

Ok, mine is resolved. Issue related to new Xcode 16.2 cmd tools and that git version. I reinstalled git using brew and it works magically again