Git pull error: unable to create file (Invalid argument)

I am trying to sync remote repo with local repo but getting following errors. Some files (which have not extention) are not getting sync with local repo on WINDOWS machine, but I could sync successfully on MAC machine.

Is there any configuration settings in WINDOWS to handle such case?

1. Using TortoiseGit
2. Windows 7 64 bit machine

3 Answers 3

If I read that log well, those files have names that end with «?ref=users»

Windows does not allow you to have a ‘?’ in a filename, just like it does not allow to have a «\» or «*». Under Linux it is possible, if you escape those characters. On Windows, I think it’s not possible at all. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa365247

You will have a hard time with such names.. I actually can’t come up with any idea that would allow you to sync that 1:1. You certainly can fetch them and save them under some safe names like _projects_1099992656_heavenly-sight-a-vision-out-of-blindness__ref=users but I don’t know how to do that automatically, or how to later inform Git about that mapping, sorry..

These filenames look like they have a HTML-query-parameters suffixed to them. Is it really required? maybe that’s just some artifact that could be removed? try talking to the mantainers of the project, maybe they will be able to simply remove that odd suffix?

Git clone unable to create file

Trying to clone a remote git repository (bare), I get several errors like the following, after which git stops.

It’s okay if I have to remove these files, but I can’t find a way to do that if I can’t clone.

Any idea what I can do?

3 Answers 3

I guess you’re probably trying to do the clone on a Windows machine. Windows doesn’t allow filenames to use the : character.

Use any character in the current code page for a name, including Unicode characters and characters in the extended character set (128–255), except for the following:

• The following reserved characters:
  • (greater than)
  • : (colon)
  • » (double quote)
  • / (forward slash)
  • \ (backslash)
  • | (vertical bar or pipe)
  • ? (question mark)
  • * (asterisk)
• Integer value zero, sometimes referred to as the ASCII NUL character.
• Characters whose integer representations are in the range from 1 through 31, except for alternate data streams where these characters are allowed. For more information about file streams, see File Streams.
• Any other character that the target file system does not allow.

To work around this problem, you will probably need to clone on a non-windows system and correct the offending filenames. Maybe some of the windows experts out there will have a better solution.

unable to create file … Permission denied

i am currently working on windows.

Sometimes i have problems when i try :

i have this error : error: unable to create file . : Permission denied

«git status» show me the file in error not staged so i have to commit

What do i have to check ?

i tried to do this command line on my computer :

We are severals people to work on a git repository and they have the problem too.

thanks for you help

13 Answers 13

In my case, my angular app was still running from ng serve , giving this:

So I just had to close it with ctrl+c .

I had the same issue and the problem was open files. Make sure you don’t have the files git is trying to create open anywhere; close your localhost browser tabs if any of the files are open there; close all references to the files you are working with. That’s what worked for me.

First make sure to run your cmd/terminal as an administrator (right click on cmd.exe icon -> «Run as Administrator»)

I had the same issue with a git pull (using cmder on windows). What worked for me is this:

This will delete your local changes:
hard reset your branch and try again.
$ git checkout origin develop — (failed)
$ git reset —hard HEAD
$ git checkout origin develop — (great success!)

If this doesn’t work try forcing the checkout:
This will also throw away your local changes
$ git checkout -f origin develop .

Filename too long in Git for Windows

I’m using Git-1.9.0-preview20140217 for Windows. As I know, this release should fix the issue with too long filenames. But not for me.

Surely I’m doing something wrong: I did git config core.longpaths true and git add . and then git commit . Everything went well. But when I now do a git status , I get a list of files with Filename too long , for example:

It is quite simple to reproduce for me: just create a Yeoman web application with the Angular generator («yo angular») and remove node_modules from the .gitignore file. Then repeat the aforementioned Git commands.

What am I missing here?

16 Answers 16

Git has a limit of 4096 characters for a filename, except on Windows when Git is compiled with msys. It uses an older version of the Windows API and there’s a limit of 260 characters for a filename.

So as far as I understand this, it’s a limitation of msys and not of Git. You can read the details here: https://github.com/msysgit/git/pull/110

You can circumvent this by using another Git client on Windows or set core.longpaths to true as explained in other answers.

Git is build as a combination of scripts and compiled code. With the above change some of the scripts might fail. That’s the reason for core.longpaths not to be enabled by default.

Starting in Windows 10, version 1607, MAX_PATH limitations have been removed from common Win32 file and directory functions. However, you must opt-in to the new behavior.

A registry key allows you to enable or disable the new long path behavior. To enable long path behavior set the registry key at HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem LongPathsEnabled (Type: REG_DWORD)

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Git checkouts fail on Windows with «Filename too long error: unable to create file» errors

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Platform Notice: Server and Data Center Only — This article only applies to Atlassian products on the server and data center platforms .

Problem

When Bamboo checks out changes from repositories using the Windows Git.exe executable, the task fails and the following appears in the job log

Cause

According to the msysgit wiki on GitHub and the related fix this error, Filename too long, comes from a Windows API limitation of file paths having 260 characters or fewer.

Resolution

To resolve this issue, please run the following command from GitBash or the Git CMD prompt:

This will allow file paths of 4096 characters.