git-svn clone fails "fatal: Not a valid object name"

Question

Whilst doing git svn clone -s https://svn.example.com/repo/ I received the following output:

r3073 = a6132f3a937b632015e66d694250da9f606b8333 (refs/remotes/trunk)
Found possible branch point: https://svn.example.com/repo/trunk => https://svn.example.com/repo/branches/v1.3, 3073
W: Refspec glob conflict (ref: refs/remotes/trunk):
expected path: repo/branches/trunk
    real path: repo/trunk
Continuing ahead with repo/trunk
W: Refspec glob conflict (ref: refs/remotes/trunk):
expected path: repo/branches/trunk
    real path: repo/trunk
Continuing ahead with repo/trunk
W: Refspec glob conflict (ref: refs/remotes/trunk):
expected path: repo/branches/trunk
    real path: repo/trunk
Continuing ahead with repo/trunk
W: Refspec glob conflict (ref: refs/remotes/trunk):
expected path: repo/branches/trunk
    real path: repo/trunk
Continuing ahead with repo/trunk
fatal: Not a valid object name refs/remotes/tags/Sync Controllers
cat-file commit refs/remotes/tags/Sync Controllers: command returned error: 128

Running git branch -a gives:

remotes/tags/Sync%20Controllers
remotes/tags/v1.1
remotes/trunk
remotes/v1.2

I think the problem is that "remotes/tags/Sync Controllers" != "remotes/tags/Sync%20Controllers".

See as well: bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/git/+bug/786942 — kenorb
– kenorb, Commented Jul 19, 2012 at 11:03
Related: stackoverflow.com/questions/7584605/… There is patch available there. — kenorb
– kenorb, Commented Oct 26, 2012 at 8:25

Red XIII · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-02 14:01:51Z

34

The tag on SVN has a space in it, but the tag in git had this space converted to %20 (URL encoded). To solve it just manually add a new tag with the verbatim name:

cd .git/refs/remotes/tags/
mv Sync%20Controllers Sync\ Controllers

Then run the git svn clone command again.

(Normally you'd do this with git tag OLDTAG NEWTAG but git was not allowing me to define a tag with a space in. The tag files are simply text files containing the hash of the relevant commit.)

edited Mar 2, 2017 at 14:01

Red XIII

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answered Jul 6, 2012 at 15:37

Benjie

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9 Comments

D.R. Over a year ago

I tried that solution however, I get the following error: fatal: Reference has invalid format: 'refs/remotes/tags/WITH SPACE'. How to solve that?

D.R. Over a year ago

(I'm using git version 1.8.3.msysgit.0)

Jonathan Hall Over a year ago

This worked for me with a tag with a ~ character in the file name as well. Thanks.

Benjie Over a year ago

Probably the same but cd .git/refs/heads/ or cd .git/logs/refs/heads/ instead

MSillence Over a year ago

upadating .git/packged-refs and replacing all the %20 with spaces fixed it for me... git 2.18.0

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Alexander Kitaev · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-19 14:31:42Z

5

You may use git-svn server-side alternative, SubGit in order to avoid many of git-svn translation problems.

I'm a SubGit developer and could say that we worked a lot to resolve character translation issues like the one above; in this particular case tag would be translated to a refs/tags/Sync+Controllers tag.

Note also, that git-svn has translated Subversion tag as a branch instead of a tag.

answered Jul 19, 2012 at 14:31

Alexander Kitaev

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2 Comments

kenorb Over a year ago

Do I have to install SubGit on the server or it's not necessary? What if I don't have admin access to my svn repo?

Alexander Kitaev Over a year ago

With SubGit 2.0 you do not have to have an admin access to your repository. You would need to enable pre-revprop-change hook to get a full featured authors mapping, but chances are that it is already enabled. Check subgit.com/eap for more details.

i.n.n.m · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-14 00:53:01Z

5

I ran into this issue today, and considered this branch which contains a pace in it is not important, i just run

git branch -r -d partialPayment%202.4

And re-run git svn fetch It skipped current branch and continue grabbing the next one.

edited Aug 14, 2017 at 0:53

i.n.n.m

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answered Aug 12, 2017 at 1:54

Jason.chen

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Comments

JRod · Accepted Answer · 2020-12-08 10:58:11Z

I'm using git 1.29.2 and getting the issue too. Additionlly it is running into a Windows Server 2016 and git is under cygwin.

Was checking into /GitMigration/.git/svn/refs/remotes/origin, and the folder is there with blank spaces not %20 so nothing to change on it.

However into the packed-refs the tag that is producing the problem does not appears, no name and no hash.

The problem should has another related issue with something else that produce the error, not just this.

Looking into the ./.git/config found a series of repetitions of the following lines:

branches = server/branches/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
tags = server/tags/*:refs/remotes/origin/tags/*

That are producing each time i did run the git-svn clone sentence. So i did remove those from the config file, save it and run again, but this time using git svn fetch, to prevent get again the lines duplicated, and voala !! Problem solved.

kenorb · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-16 15:43:13Z

0

I believe the problem with spaces is fixed in Git >= 1.8.0 (See: #786942).

So you should upgrade it.

I've tested it and it seems to work in the recent version of git.

See GitHub Home page: https://github.com/git/git

edited Nov 16, 2015 at 15:43

answered Oct 26, 2012 at 9:00

kenorb

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4 Comments

krinker Over a year ago

I am using 1.8.5.2 and ran into this problem

kenorb Over a year ago

And do you think it's related to the spaces or some special characters in your branch/tag names, etc.?

jplandrain Over a year ago

I have seen this problem too with git = 1.8.3.1, svn = 1.7.14 and svn2git = 2.3.2 Related to spaces in SVN branch names.

Asad Ali Over a year ago

i have git version 2.23.0 and just got this problem

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